Page 7 of The Homewrecker's Fate

“My husband.” There was a sort of coldness to the way she said the word, as if she wished it weren’t true. “He’s…” she started, then sighed before shaking her head. After she got control of whatever emotion was out of whack, she looked me in the eye to tell me the rest. “He’s a lying bastard, who I believe cheated on me, and I don’t want him here for this.”

“I’m so sorry,” I comforted her by patting the hand that held on to my other hand. “Why must men be complete and total shits?” I asked.

She chuckled at that, but then asked the pressing question of my baby’s paternity. “The father?”

My shoulders slumped forward. “Also, a bastard.” I don’t know what possessed me to open up to a complete stranger. I sat there and poured my heart out to her as one of the loving couples was called back to see their own bundle of joy.

“I was dating a man from work. He became my everything without me even realizing that he managed to sneak so deeply into my heart. You know what I mean? The romance between us was effortless. He travels for work, so at first, I only saw him one week a month, then every other week.”

“So, what happened?” She asked, and I could hear the hitch in her voice as she did so, as if she could truly feel my pain.

“We were supposed to go to dinner with friends from work for his birthday. I had everything planned, including the perfect gift. When we pulled up to the restaurant, he got a call and sent me in ahead of him because it wasn’t something he could ignore. When he didn’t come back in right away, our friend Cliff went to check on him. When they came back into the restaurant, he said we had to go, that he was needed back home.”

“I stayed behind with Cliff and Bridgette instead. They drove me to their home, and I realized that it was so he could clean out his things from my condo. When I got back, everything was gone. The few things that remained behind in the bathroom – I got rid of. The bastard didn’t even do me the courtesy of leaving my keys behind, so I had to get the locks changed. He never said one word to me. The asshole left with some sort of emergent situation going on, and then I found out I was pregnant the very next day.”

“So, you’re hiding it from him?” She asked.

I shook my head. “I tried to call. I even broke down and called the office several times. His secretary is quite good at dodging my calls for him and telling me he’s out of the office. He has the right to know that he’s going to be a father. It’s something we talked about because I can’t use birth control. We weren’t very careful, and he said if it happened, it would make him the happiest man on the Earth to have a baby with me.” The sniffles started then. I glanced up to see they weren’t just mine, but hers, too.

“I don’t know what to say,” she whispered while giving a reassuring squeeze to my hand.

“What can anyone say? I’ve resigned myself to being a single mom, and doing it with a broken heart, and no clue why this happened. He wanted me to move where he lived, so we could be together. I guess that’s why. I told him that it couldn’t happen because my mother is here, she won’t move, and she needs me. We’re all the family we have, and after her stroke, she can’t be alone much.”

“You poor thing. You’ll be caring for your mother and a brand-new baby by yourself?”

“Well, we have a home health nurse who splits time with me when I have to work and go to appointments. Mom just had a fall a few days ago, so I haven’t even been able to go back home to my place since then.”

“Aviva, do you think your baby’s father was cheating on you, too?”

A tear fell from my eyes. “Why else does a man ghost you when you think you’re living your happily ever after?”

She tsked and then released my hand only to pull me into an awkward side-hug. Awkward only because both of our bellies smooshed into the arms of the chairs we occupied, which thankfully changed our tears to giggles.

“I think you’re better off, since he’s obviously a coward.”

“That’s what I keep telling myself,” I said and nodded my head in the direction of the last couple who was getting up to go back to their own appointment. “Seeing their happiness reminds me of what I’ll never have, though. It makes it difficult to remind myself that he broke my heart.”

“I know.”

The nurse called out then. “Melanie Thomlinson.”

My new friend, Mel, stood and offered a wan smile before following the nurse through the door to her own appointment. My heart skipped a beat at her last name. That had to be a coincidence, right? I knew for a fact that Rich didn’t live here. He lived 600 miles away. If he’d been hiding a wife – another family since she said they had two children already – then they would be there. In his town, not here. It was a coincidence.

The first happy couple left the office, and I was called back for my appointment. I never saw Mel again and laughed at myself when the thought of asking who her husband was struck me. And what if the odds weren’t in my favor? Would her kindness die away as she realized I would have been the other woman? Her husband had been cheating on her – or so she thought. Sickness startled me and I launched for a nearby trash can only to have a nurse toss a bedpan under my face instead.

“Good reflexes,” I commended as the heaving stopped.

She grinned. “Occupational hazard. You learn to catch things quickly or enjoy cleaning up the mess.” Then the nurse pointed at my belly. “You’ll see soon enough. Some days, being a mom isn’t so far off from being a nurse.”

“I think you’re underselling your job there just a bit.”

“Hmm, wait until you’re an expert in how much medicine to give for fevers while cleaning up vomit and hosing down a baby who has pooped all the way up their back into their hair,” she warned.

“Aren’t you supposed to be encouraging new moms-to-be?” I asked with a laugh.

“I encourage through tough love and a whole lot of reality. You’ll do fine. Now, let’s get your weight and get you settled in the room, so you can say hello to your little one.”

An hour later, I left the office with five black and white photos of my little girl. My daughter would never know a day without love. She might not have a daddy – unless I could somehow get in touch with the bastard – but she would have me and I vowed to be everything she needed.

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