Page 4 of Crashing Without Justice

“Well, if it’s any consolation, I’m giving her everything,” I told him. “I have no plans on dragging this out or putting her through any more heartache than necessary.”

“While that sounds noble, it’s the least that you can do, Harding,” he pointed out a bit heartlessly. “You were the one that chose wrong.”

“Trista isn’t wrong,” I immediately replied, automatically defending her.

“That’s not what I meant, Harding,” he corrected. “The way that you chose to handle this was wrong. You should have left Paige months ago. Either that, or you should have gotten some counseling to help put your marriage back on track.”

“There was no getting my marriage back on track, Dad,” I admitted. “Paige is not the same person that I married five years ago. Now, whether she turned into this new person, or she’d always been this new person, I don’t know. I just know that she is not the person that I’d said my vows to.”

“That still doesn’t excuse what you did to her, Harding.”

“I know, Dad.”

I heard him let out another deep sigh over the phone, and I hated how this was affecting more than just me and Paige. Even if she hadn’t chosen to post her feelings on social media, there was no way that our close family and friends weren’t going to be affected by our divorce. I had placed everyone in a very uncomfortable situation, and we were all going to be feeling it for a while.

“Well, you’re going to have to call Jeremy and your mother soon,” he said, the family patriarch in him coming out. “Jeremy deserves the details since he’s already in your corner, and your mother has been fielding calls from Paige all night and morning. She didn’t want to speak to Paige until she’d spoken to you first. She doesn’t want to chance making anything worse.”

“No, I appreciate that,” I replied gratefully. “I’ll call Mom and Jeremy as soon as I get off the phone with you. In fact, maybe we can all meet at your house later this evening. It’ll feel nice to be surrounded by family right now.”

“You also need to talk with Leslie and Brendan,” he pointed out. “Brendan also deserves to know, and Leslie should know in the event that this unpleasantness touches her, Carlson, or Raylee. The internet is toxic for situations like this one.”

“I’ve got a lot of apologizing to do,” I said, stating the obvious again. “I feel like such crap, Dad.”

“Harding-”

“But I’m still very aware that I deserve to feel this way, and that’s making this so damn hard,” I went on, cutting off whatever he’d been about to say. “I feel fucking horrible about how this is affecting everyone, but at the same time, I can’t do anything about it because Ishouldn’tdo anything about it. I deserve to feel this way.”

“Look, just focus your energy on Paige,” he advised. “Help get her through this if you’re really serious about your regret in all this.”

“Dad, I want to,” I replied truthfully. “However, I can’t see this ending well. Especially, if she’s already posting things on social media.”

“Yeah, that certainly isn’t going to help the situation,” he agreed. “Still, her feelings are her own, and we can hardly judge her for acting irrationally last night. I imagine that these next few days are going to be rough ones, son.”

Knowing that there wasn’t anything left to say, I said, “Look, let’s have dinner tonight, and then we can discuss this some more. With Jeremy and Mom there, maybe we can come up with some easier solutions to all this.”

“Have you heard from Paige?”

“She texted me last night about the snow,” I answered. “Not sure if it was a test or not, but I assured her that it’d be shoveled this morning, so that she didn’t have to do it herself.”

“Christ,” he sighed, the weight of my choices in his voice. “Well, at least this isn’t your first divorce, so that’s something.”

“Really, Dad?”

“While you might not like hearing the truth, having already been through a divorce should help you navigate this thing easier, Harding,” he pointed out. “The same goes for her, truth be told.”

“I don’t consider being divorced more than once a good thing, Dad,” I remarked seriously.

“Then make better choices in the future, son,” he replied sternly. “Do not keep repeating the same mistake of letting love blind you to what is real and what is just wishful thinking.”

I knew what he was getting at.

“My feelings for Trista are real, Dad,” I assured him.

“Yeah…well, so were your feelings for Paige,” he returned ruthlessly, and he wasn’t wrong.

Chapter 4

Paige~

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