Page 9 of The Homewrecker's Fate

A tissue was cast in my direction, and I took it gladly as the tears were becoming only a mild concern, second to the snot that was at play thanks to my uncontrollable blubbering.

“I’m so sorry that I didn’t tell you when we met. I honestly didn’t know until you said your name, and then it was only a guess on my part.”

“At some point you knew, though,” I argued despite my emotionally brutalized vocal cords making that difficult.

I turned in time to see her tear-blurred form nod. “When you told me your story. His birthday,” she choked back her own sob as she spoke. “I was the one who called. Cliff spoke to me on the phone. I had accused Rich of seeing someone else, and once again he smoothly lied away my concerns because he was able to put Cliff on to tell me they were out to dinner together.” She stumbled over the next words. “I told him I was pregnant and that he needed to come home because we had things to discuss.”

My eyes moved to meet hers. “I found out the next morning.”

She nodded, obviously remembering my story from the doctor’s office. “I’m so sorry, Aviva.”

“Why are you apologizing to me?” My voice broke at the end of that question and my legs wobbled, no longer able to hold me up. She grabbed a chair and helped me to sit. Obviously, she had more time to come to terms with our shared reality. The fact that she was helping me was unbelievable.

“You didn’t know he was married,” she told me simply. “To you – I’m the other woman he never told you about. To me – you’re the other woman, but you’re not that other woman. You know, the one who would purposely put us in this position. I knew that the moment I met you. When you told me your story, you even mentioned wondering if he was cheating on you.” She took my hands in her own and squeezed, the same gesture of reassurance she had offered in the doctor’s office a month ago. “How could I blame you when he’s the one who made this mess for both of us?”

I’m not afraid to admit that I became even more of a sobbing mess then. Knowing that the man I had been in love with – the father of my child – had been married and that his wife was the one attempting to offer me comfort. I didn’t know what to do with that.

“You’ve known she was pregnant since your appointment?” My head snapped around to find an angry Rich standing there, voice sounding as though he was accusing his wife of something. I glanced around to make sure his children wouldn't overhear what was said.

“Now is not the time,” I admonished. “Your children are across the hall.”

“They’re not. Bridgette and Cliff took them down to the lobby.” He threw an accusing glare at his wife. “Apparently, their Uncle Brax is coming to pick them up.” He glared at Mel again. “You knew she was pregnant?”

“No way!” I yelled at him, jumping up from my seat. “You don’t get to yell at her for not telling you.” I stood, so that I was between the married couple then. “You would have known had you returned any of my calls or messages. The letter I sent to the office with the ultrasound photo in it – since I never had your home address – was returned to me, too. You had plenty of opportunities to find out that I was pregnant, but you were too much of a coward to deal with the mess you left behind.” It dawned on me then, the reality that hadn’t quite settled in yet. Rich and his family were here. He was the new employee taking Tim’s spot.

I felt as though my heart had been run through with a physical blade then. “All those times you grew impatient with me because I wouldn’t transfer to the smaller office to be with you…” I blew out a shaky breath as his plan hit me full force. “It was because you knew you had to get rid of me before your family showed up, wasn’t it? Were you just going to wait until I moved and then ghost me?”

He winced, but it was clear that had been his plan all along.

“Did you ever even care about me at all?” I asked, voice nothing but a husky whimper.

“Avi, I fell in love with you,” he admitted. I turned to see Mel’s reaction to his admission, but it didn’t seem to be news to her. “I don’t know what I was thinking. Panic mode set in, and I thought maybe we could just reverse the order a bit and still see one another.”

“You thought you could have me move 600 miles away from my crippled, ill mother, so that you could change positions with me and still hide your family? And you thought I would still be interested in seeing you when I realized what an underhanded, conniving asshole you were?” I huffed. “You had to have known that someone in this office would inform me that you were married with children once you got here.”

“I told you, I panicked. I wasn’t thinking.”

“Obviously. You were never thinking about anyone but yourself in this whole shitshow. Even now – today – you completely humiliated not only me, but your family at your place of work. This is my job! How could you do this?”

Mel’s hand rubbed circles on my lower back, a gesture of comfort that I did not deserve from her.

“What’s going on?” Rich asked as he realized the two women in his life were standing shoulder to shoulder against him.

“I stayed long enough to see how this would play out, and if you would at least respect the woman you claimed to have fallen in love with,” his wife answered. “It’s obvious to me now that you don’t respect anyone. You don’t love anyone but yourself, and that will never change. So, you need to find a new place to stay. Legal papers will be sent to you here at work. Until that happens, I do not want to see you near the family home. Cliff can come pack stuff up for you, since he wanted to be your alibi.”

“You can’t assume that you get to keep the house. You cheated, too!” He yelled at her.

“I have proof, and I think maybe even a first-hand witness here, that will tell the courts that my one-night stand happened a month after I found out you were having an affair with a coworker whenever you traveled.”

“Whatever you need,” I told Mel. It was the least I could do.

“So, now suddenly the two of you are best buddies?” Rich scoffed.

“It seems we have a lying, cheating bastard of a man in common. That tends to bond some women,” I informed him.

“Avi, don’t do this,” he begged, changing tack as if I wouldn’t see through his bullshit.

“You’re really going to stand there and ask me for the compassion and care you never showed me? You ghosted me, after trying to get me to uproot my life, so that you wouldn’t get busted for cheating, and you expect me to fall for your shit again?” I asked, not bothering to hide the derision in my words. Rich’s shoulders slumped, finally showing defeat in this impossible situation he created.

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