"You saw some of it out on our lawn. I thought about what I was going to do for two days. And then when he got home one day, I got out before he could get into the house and told him I was filing for divorce," Janie said. "He wanted to know why and I showed him the pictures."
"Was he shocked?"
Janie snorted. "More like relieved. He said he would sign the divorce papers and also sign a document saying he wanted nothing to do with Eleanor."
That had broken her heart. She didn't realize how much he hated children until he said that.
"He didn't even pack his things or go into the house. Donald did come by a couple days later and got the majority of his stuff," Janie said. "There wasn't much anyways. He apparently had kept a lot of his stuff at an apartment I didn't know about. Yeah, that was a shocker. The days he said he had to travel for work, most of them were spent in that apartment."
She finally turned her head and looked at Mac. His facial expression was one of an angry person.
"I let my attorney handle all of the divorce papers. I signed it and didn't think anything of it and Donald didn't say anything," she said. "He was relieved to be out of the marriage and I was too. Now it's been Eleanor and I ever since."
Mac didn't say anything, just continued to stare at her. What was he thinking? Had she overshared?
"Sorry, I probably shouldn't have gone into that much detail. You didn't ask for everything, just how we met," Janie said.
Once she got started talking about her ex-husband, she just kept going. It was like a weight was slowly being lifted off of her as she continued to talk. It was nice. The only person she had talked to about this in depth was her sister. The other Littles at the club knew she wasn't in love with Donald and was divorced, but they didn't know the details.
"It's perfectly fine. Whatever you are comfortable sharing, I'll listen," Mac said. "I'm a good listener."
She cracked a smile. He was a good listener. Asked questions when he thought was appropriate and didn't push her to say anything she didn't want to.
"You never caught him cheating, right?" Mac asked.
"He never brought anyone over to the house. I was normally there since I had Eleanor but before that, I was home because of work. I don't like working in coffee shops because there are too many people. Now I can't because I have Eleanor and I don't want to hire a nanny when I could be home with her," Janie said.
She took a deep breath in. "Most of it happened at the apartment he was renting or at hotels. That was from what my sister told me. I never asked because I didn't really want to know."
"He didn't deserve you," Mac said. "You were too good for him."
"Well, yes. You're right. But if I hadn’t met and married him, then I wouldn't have had Eleanor. I love her and she's the one good thing that came out of my marriage."
"I never liked him," Mac said.
"Why? Did you even talk to him?"
"A couple of times when I was getting mail and he was leaving. He didn't like that I worked at the club. Thought it was unethical and that I should leave and work for him. I politely told him no and that I was never going to leave. I am one of the owners and love the club."
"He probably didn't like it because I went. It was weird, Donald didn't like me, but me going to the club really bothered him. I don't flaunt that I go to the club and not many people know."
Mac started to rub her back again.
"It was probably because he was worried it would come around in the office," Mac said. "That would be my guess. But Springfield knows about our club and we asked before if it was okay. The mayor said it was fine and he had even come a couple of times. Some people don't like it, and your husband just happened to be one of them."
Janie sighed, that was the truth.
"Did you ever suspect anything about him cheating? You said you only talked to him a couple of times, but sometimes people can know with how people act," Janie said.
It was a long shot, but she wanted to know. She wanted to know if she was the only one that didn't see how he was acting towards her.
"No, I didn't suspect a thing. Granted, at that time, I wasn't home a lot," he replied. "The couple of times I did interact, I was exhausted from working."
"What changed?" she asked. Before Mac could answer, Maria came holding two plates.
"Here's your food guys!" Maria smiled brightly at them. "I hope you enjoy it. If you need anything, let me know."
"Thank you," both of them said.