Page 27 of The Regrettable Mistake

“No, dimwit! Everything is not paid for. I have a car payment, vehicle insurance, my phone bill, the utilities, and food. Then I have my doctor bills because insurance doesn’t cover everything. Who knows how long I will even have the insurance? Not to mention the fact that I will need maternity clothes and baby stuff soon.”

“Okay, we need to unpack a few things. First, your husband is supposed to cover the house maintenance fees.”

“Yeah, that means taxes and home owner’s insurance. Not utilities, or other stuff.”

“Okay. Why do you have a car payment?”

“When my old Toyota died two years ago, I told Ollie that I needed a new car, in the hopes that he would go with me to help pick one out. He told me to go get one and ran out the door to work. So, I went and got a car, but I never needed credit before and didn’t have a lot of money to put down, so I have a $542 a month payment.”

“What the fuck, Sis? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I was embarrassed that he couldn’t be bothered and you already had a bad opinion of him.” I shrugged.

“Your husband and your lawyer are both under the impression that he owns that car you’ve been driving.”

“I’m not sure why they would think that, considering I don’t even own it yet since I’m still making payments.”

“Okay, and finally, why isn’t he paying child support for his son who is living with you? Not only the full parenting burden, but the financial aspects of raising Den, are on your shoulders right now.”

“I haven’t asked.”

“You shouldn’t have to.” Steve pulled his ringing cell phone out of his pocket and answered it. Then he started filling in whoever was on the other end of the line about my financial and career crisis.

I slapped at my brother to get him to shut up until he finally growled at me to stop. “It’s Hutch and he needs to know this shit as your lawyer.”

I huffed and plopped down on my couch. It was good that Den was in school. Those assholes couldn’t deny him an education. Instead, they put me on unpaid leave and banned me from drop off and pick up. Ollie’s mom or Steve handled it for us. Honestly, I wasn’t even sure Ollie knew about any of it.

For all his bluster about fixing things between us, he had dropped the ball and I hadn’t heard from him in days. Despite everyone’s assurances, Ollie’s TV appearance, and Jia’s videotaped statement retracting her claims that I was a homewrecker, it did not make everything go away. In fact, Jia’s statement made it all worse, especially when it came to light that Jia’s lawyer had quit and left her alone with Ollie and Caleb.

“I honestly hate my life,” I sighed out loud. Everyone was back on a “poor Jia” kick.

They thought she had been forced to retract her original statement. No one seemed to care about all the evidence that contradicted her statement, especially where I was concerned. The reporters were relentless in trying to reach me for my side of the story. Since I refused to cooperate with them, they made me their target to vilify. As if I owed the world an explanation when I’d been the victim of two horrible people’s actions.

My phone dinged with an incoming text.

Hutch: Meeting tonight with Ollie and his lawyer. It will be at your place at 6pm because all parties will be hounded by press anywhere else.

Steph: Fine.

I called Monica about keeping Denmark for a while longer and she quickly agreed to keep him overnight instead. I knew, even though she didn’t say anything, her hope was that her son and I were meeting about a reconciliation and putting the whole ugly mess behind us. My mother-in-law would be disappointed later when she realized that would never happen.

“Thanks for making the rest of my day a complete stress fest.” I rubbed my eyes tiredly as my words found their mark with my twin.

“Sorry, Steph. You need help, and being stubborn won’t fix the problems that keep piling up for you.”

“It’s my mess to fix,” I argued.

“No, it really fucking isn’t. This is all on Ollie to fix. He is directly responsible for your current lack of employment, pregnancy, and your inability to leave the damn house, let alone any possibility to find a job elsewhere.”

That did it. My stupid brother summoned my stupid tears and once they started, I couldn’t get them to stop.

“Shit,” Stevie hissed after the first couple minutes of my sob fest. “Fuck!” My brother growled when it continued for more than ten. “I’m sorry. Dammit, Steph. I’m no good with all the crying stuff. Please, stop!” He begged which only made me cry harder.

Then, to my complete horror, my brother started to sob right along with me. “Knew I should have killed that fucker before you could marry him.”

“S-s-stop.” I stutter-sniffled my way through that one word. Steve simply continued to blubber next to me. I rolled my tear-swollen eyes and then blew out a watery half-laugh, half-sob that made me form a very undignified snot bubble from my left nostril. That sent us both into a giggle fit to end all giggle fits, which in turn led to a startled yelp from me.

“Shoot. I just peed on myself a little, you jackass.” That only made Stevie laugh even harder. “You’re a psycho,” I called back to him as I ran to the bathroom while trying to clutch my thighs together to stop the pee from coming out.

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