Page 5 of Crashing Without Justice

“Idon’t know what to say,” Heady whispered, her voice sounding a little bit like sandpaper on my nerves. “I never imagined that Harding would cheat on you. I mean, he adores you.”

While I was close to my father, my mother had passed away fifteen years ago from congestive heart failure. Statistically, she’d been too young to suffer such a fate, but family history didn’t care about such things, and so my father and I had lost her way too soon. She’d been a hotel receptionist while my father was still a security guard, something that he claimed kept him busy. He had also moved on from her about ten years ago, but at least he’d had the decency not to remarry. Instead, he and Charolette lived in sin, but that was something that I’d come to terms with a long time ago. She was also a health care advocate of some sort, but I could admit to not knowing her well. I’d never been interested in getting to know the woman that had taken my mother’s place.

At any rate, my father was the only real family that I had left, seeing as how I had no siblings. Sure, I had lots of cousins and some aunts and uncles, but I needed my friends more than I needed my relatives during a time like this. During these kinds of situations, a girl needed her best friends to rally around her. Plus, Heady had been there for my first divorce, so I knew that she was someone that I could count on. We’d met as nurses twenty years ago, and she had remained my friend all these years later.

My children were also not an option to lean on. Though Kalayla was twenty, and Wilner was twenty-two, both grown adults by society’s standards, they were still my children and didn’t need to see the evidence of this trainwreck firsthand. They’d already been through too much with my first divorce, so if I could spare them the agony of Harding betraying us all, then that’s what I was going to do. Now, while I couldn’t shelter them completely, I could still minimize the damage.

Of course, they lived with Patrick, but that hardly mattered. They were still my children, even if they looked like and lived with their father. Luckily for them, Patrick Cato was a hot-shot CEO of a children’s hospital, and his luxurious paycheck had allowed Lydia to be a stay-at-home mother all theseyears. At forty-six, Patrick was six-foot-one, had brown hair and brown eyes, and he still kept himself as physically fit as possible. Granted, that was easy to do when your wife had all the time in the world to prepare you healthy meals, so it wasn’t that much of a miracle.

At any rate, Kalayla and Wilner were both in college, so when they weren’t living in the dorms, they lived with Patrick, and they’d been living with him ever since our divorce. It was a regretful thing that I wasn’t as close to them as I wanted to be, but I still tried to be the best mother to them that I could.

As for Heady, she was forty-five, five-foot-six, and she was beautiful with her blonde hair, blue eyes, and talented plastic surgeon. Her husband, Butler Myers, was a successful capital investor, and they had three kids that lived comfortably off their father’s income. In fact, Heady had it made, and if Butler was unfaithful to her, he had the decency to be discreet about it.

“She obviously seduced him, and because things have been a bit…a bit unsettling lately, he succumbed to temptation like most men did,” I said, explaining what was plain as day.

“How did they meet?” she asked. “I mean, how does he even know her for her to seduce him?”

“You know the Ludwig job?” Heady nodded. “I guess she worked as a consultant during the construction.”

“So…so, he’s been seeing her all this time? I mean, didn’t that job finish like three months ago?”

“According to him, the physical part of their affair just happened,” I answered. “However, I guess they kept in touch after the job was finished, and their casual correspondences ended up blooming into a friendship and then more.” I rolled my eyes. “He actually used that word…blooming.”

“Do you believe him?” she asked hesitantly.

“No,” I answered honestly. “He’s probably been screwing her the entire time, and since it wasn’t enough to just borrow my husband, she probably gave him an ultimatum, forcing him to leave me.”

Heady’s brow furrowed a bit. “And you’re really willing to forgive him?”

“He’s my husband, Heady,” I replied evenly. “I can’t just let Harding walk away from everything that he promised me. I owe it to my vows.”

Heady’s brow furrowed even further. “But…but he’s admitted to caring about this woman, correct?”

I waved her comment away. “He just needs to find his way back onto the right path. I should have monitored his friends and associates a little closer. He needs to surround himself with the righteous members of our church family, not random hooligans.”

Heady leaned back in her seat as she stared at me from across the kitchen table. “You know, most women would be happy to rid themselves of a cheating husband.”

“And let the whores win?” I scoffed. “Seriously, Heady?”

“So, then…what are you planning on doing next?”

“Harding was very regretful, so I think that I can use that to work things out,” I answered. “He’s just momentarily distracted by something shiny.”

“What about the concerns that helped lead him astray?” she asked, and I didn’t appreciate how she kept pressing the issue.

“Every marriage goes through slumps,” I pointed out. “That’s all that it was…a slump.”

“Okay…okay, sure,” she relied quietly. “Just…just tell me what I can do to help. I’m your friend, and I’m not going to let you handle this all on your own.”

“Right now, I just need Harding to keep paying the bills,” I told her. “I mean, how would it look for me to lose this fabulous house and our cars?” I smoothed out the placemat on the table before reaching for my tea. “What would people think?”

“I’m sure Harding will do right by you,” she said supportively, but I didn’t need Harding to do right by me financially. I needed him to be the husband that he had vowed to be. “He’s not going to kick you out on the street or leave you high and dry.”

“Unfortunately, he has California on his side,” I pointed out a bit sorely. “It still infuriates me that no-fault states even exist. If a man is unfaithful, he should have to pay for that. He should have to pay for breaking his word and destroying a union of God.”

“Be that as it may, if he’s really trying to take responsibility for his error in judgement, I’m sure he’s going to grant you more than the courts might on their own,” she went on, and why did she sound like she was on his side?

“I don’t want to be granted more than I deserve,” I snapped. “I want my husband back. I want him to do the right thing and leave that whore alone.”

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