Page 32 of From Our First

“I knew what I was doing and thinking, Mother. I loved him.”

“And now you sound like a Disney princess flailing about,” her father said, pacing the room.

“You showed my husband doctored photographs?”

“And he easily believed them,” her mother added. “What does that tell you?”

I opened my mouth to say something, but Myra held up a hand. “That’s something the two of us will deal with later.”

“Oh, yes, I’m sure you will,” the other man in the room remarked.

“Stay out of this, Roland. I don’t even know why you’re here,” Myra snapped.

“I’m a neutral party.”

“Did you know about this?” Myra said. “Did you know what my parents did?”

“Honestly, I didn’t even know you had gotten married. So you’re a divorcee and not a spinster? Interesting. It only makes sense why you’d move out to the boonies. Surprised you don’t have a dozen cats and haven’t taken up knitting. Still working on your little paintings, cuz?”

I reached out and touched the small of Myra’s back. She jolted and looked over her shoulder at me. I was afraid she might reach out and punch the smug little prick. Since I wanted to do exactly that, I wouldn’t have blamed her, but it wouldn’t get us anywhere.

“Let me get this straight…” Myra began, taking a deep breath. I lowered my hand.

I felt the loss immediately, and yet I didn’t know what I was supposed to think or feel.

She hadn’t cheated on me. And I hadn’t believed her. I had pushed her out and hurt her. I’d hurt her so much, I couldn’t understand why I had let myself believe the horrible things her parents led me to believe.

The evidence had been right there, yes, and yet…I should have questioned it. But I hadn’t.

“You believed that you could change my life. That you could make my decisions for me,” Myra continued.

“We were paying for your college. We let you come out here for a year to see what it was like seeing as my mother talked about it so often. And yet, you were doing nothing with your life. You weren’t maintaining the GPA that we required of you.”

“You paid a small percentage. I got scholarships for the rest. I’d have paid for it all myself if I had to. If I’d known. And I had a 4.0,” she said.

“Yes, but in the easy classes. The harder ones were coming up, and you were not striving to do your best. You were getting distracted by this boy.” Her father sighed, waving his hand in my direction.

“I was not distracted.” Myra put her hands over her face and let out a deep breath. I wanted to reach out and touch her, tell her that everything was okay. But I didn’t believe that. I didn’t know what the hell was going on. I could barely keep up with my feelings, let alone know how to help her.

“We did what was best for you,” her father snapped.

“So, you what? Hired someone to manipulate a photo? I know you’re not that good with Photoshop.”

Her father snorted. “We did what we had to do. You looked a lot like the woman your ex was seeing at the time, and he was all too happy to take photos for a little monetary enticement. He added the bracelet that you wore to ensure that your so-called husband believed what he saw.”

Her dad went on about her ex and how they would have been perfect for each other, and yet I couldn’t quite believe what I was hearing.

“If her ex was so perfect for her, then why did he take the money? Sounds like a weak ass loser to me,” I said, sounding like I had when I first met Myra, not like the man I was now. I felt so lost.

“Weak?” Her mother laughed. “You’re the one who believed a simple photo. You were so easy to convince that our daughter was cheating on you. You let us take her away without a fight. What kind of man are you?”

“You need to go,” Myra said after a moment, her voice calm.Toocalm.

“Yes, Nathan, you should go.” Her mother raised her chin.

“No, he can stay.”

“You’re going back to him?” her father asked incredulously.

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