Page 54 of The Foul Out

“I just want to help when you need it. When you could use another set of hands. Because it doesn’t seem like you have that.”

“Their dad has them for a night every other weekend.” The response was lame, but it was the truth. That was all the help I had these days.

“Can I overstep and ask what happened with you two?” The question was delivered with the charming smirk I was getting used to.

A year ago, the story had embarrassed me. It had made me feel somehow lacking. But I didn’t have the energy to be upset by it anymore.

“We struggled with Piper’s diagnosis.” I tried to keep my thoughts on Jace neutral for my kids’ sake, but also because he was only part of the issue. “It’s hard accepting a diagnosis that is going to make your child’s life different from what you expected. More challenging too. He and I handled things differently. I dove in full force, researching all I could to help her. He wanted the diagnosis to be wrong.”

“That’s not uncommon.”

“I was hyper-focused on her, and Sam too. He was only a few months old. And I was still working. He felt ignored. Insignificant.” He never helped, and I was exhausted, which only exacerbated our issues. But I could admit that I was overwhelmed and didn’t make the time for us the way I should have. “I thought if we could make it through a year or two, things would get better. But he got more distant and more obstinate. He became dead set on reducing the number of therapies she was doing. Then he got furious about the diet I had the kids on. It was so strange how uptight he became about money.”

Kyle rested his forearms on the table, his eyes narrowing.

The things I missed or ignored should have been glaring red flags. “When he filed for an extension rather than submitting our income taxes, I should have been concerned. But I had too many other things on my mind.” I shook my head. “I was juggling so much, and the one thing he handled without needing my input or guidance was our finances. God.” My stomach knotted at the memories. “I was dumb. Because it took fifteen months for me to discover that he’d lost his job and had been lying to me about going to work.”

“What?” Kyle’s jaw ticked, and a vein pulsed in his temple.

I had been so furious when I found out. Not only about the lies, but because, for more than a year, I had been juggling work and almost every one of our kids’ needs, and he had been spending his days sitting at a bar. Or going for walks in the park. The jealousy I’d felt about his free time was almost overwhelming.

I cleared my throat. “By the time I found out, we’d chewed through most of our savings, and…” I shook my head. That time had been awful. The betrayal and lies were bad enough, but then there was the lingering doubt I hadn’t been able to shake. And his audacity, to tell me I was being unreasonable when I questioned his actions and his motives. “He wasn’t as sorry asI thought he should have been. And I couldn’t bring myself to trust him. So we separated. He found out pretty quickly that he couldn’t handle Piper on his own, so he decided he didn’t want them for more than one night at a time. That part, I was okay with, because she would come back all out of sorts. It was easier to just keep her with me. But that meant his child support payments were higher, and he couldn’t afford them.”

Eyes closed, I blew out a hard breath, willing myself to keep the emotions where they belonged—in the past. Because getting upset didn’t help anyone.

“So,” I said, forcing my shoulders back, “after an expensive divorce, I ended up with a three-year alimony obligation.”

“Youpayhim?” Kyle asked through gritted teeth.

I nodded. “I had always made more money than he did, and for the last two years of our marriage, he was unemployed.”

He balled his hands into fists on top of the table. “That’s fucking ridiculous.”

“At first I was upset about it too, but I didn’t want my kids to see me as this bitter, angry person.” I shrugged. “So it is what it is.”

“What does your family say?”

I swallowed. “My mom and grandmother raised me, and they’re both gone now.” I took a bite of a nugget, giving myself time to put my thoughts in order. “My family stuff is…” I took a breath. “It’s a bunch of soap opera drama that no one wants to hear about.”

He reached out and put his hand over mine. “I do.” His warmth soaked into me and radiated up my arm, soothing me. At the same time, the intensity of his stare threatened to make me shiver. There was anger simmering in his eyes, but also an emotion that I swore looked like genuine care. It wasn’t a look directed my way often.

I took another breath and let it all spill out. “For most of my life, I thought my father was dead. He wasn’t. Another one of the many times in my life that someone lied to me.”

His hand tightened over mine, and his eyes flared with anger.

“As an adult, I discovered that I was the product of an affair. My mom worked for Southwest’s corporate office. She traveled a lot for work, and she fell in love with a married man in a position much higher up the ladder. She got pregnant, and he didn’t want to leave his family. That broke her heart, and she never got over it. So she spent the rest of her life drinking away the pain. Or trying to, I guess.”

He rolled his lips in on themselves and huffed out a breath through his nose before he spoke. “Which is why you don’t want your kids to view you as a bitter, angry person.”

I dipped my chin and nodded.

He straightened in his seat, wearing a concerned frown. “How did you find out about your dad?”

I wanted to laugh. The story was that ridiculous. “When she died, she left behind a letter. She spelled it all out for me. But I never contacted him. Figured that if he didn’t want to leave his family, then he probably wouldn’t appreciate his illegitimate child showing up, looking for a relationship. But four years later, his estate attorney called. I guess he had a lot of money, and he left some to me.”

He cocked his head, one brow lifted.

“But it doesn’t matter. His wife is contesting the will.”

---