Page 7 of Crashing Without Justice

“They’re probably feeling too embarrassed for me,” I grumbled, truly embarrassed.

“Probably,” he agreed, this conversation one that shouldn’t be happening. “Look, you’re not going to be fired, but I suggest that you get this shit under control, Harding. While Henry Carter appreciates your talents and experience, I seriously doubt that he’s down for being harassed by a jilted wife.”

“No, no…yeah,” I rushed out. “I’ll take care of it.”

“Good.” After a moment of silence, he added. “I’m really sorry, Harding.”

“Yeah, so am I,” I muttered before hanging up.

I shook my head, trying to wrap my mind around the fact that Paige would do something so…sounreal.What would getting me fired accomplish? As of right now, we still needed to split the household bills since there was no plan in place yet, so why would she want to jeopardize my income? What would such a thing accomplish?

Before I could even begin to figure it out, my phone chimed with an incoming text, and when I swiped the screen, my stomach dipped again.

Frances:Dude…not sure what’s going on, but ur wife called 2 tell me that ur cheating on her

My fingers shook slightly as I fired off a quick text.

Me:Sorry about that. Just ignore it. I’ll take care of it.

Frances:No problem

Frances was my goddamn barber, and while his number wasn’t exactly a private one, there was only one way that Paige could have gotten all these phone numbers. Her name was on our cellphone account as an authorized user, so it’d be easy enough for her to call and get a list of my contacts with any number of lies that she could concoct. That being said, I was going to have to get a new phone number, but I wasn’t sure if that would limit the damage that she could do in the meantime.

Thinking back on my first marriage, I couldn’t believe how grateful I felt that our divorce had been a fairly civil one. I’d met Leslie in high school, and we’d both been all in as only teenagers could be. We had vowed to be each other’s forever, but life quickly swooped in, stealing that dream away from the both of us. At thirty-two, with twelve years of marriage and one child under our belts, we had pulled the plug on our dreams of forever, but it’d been mutual. Our respect for one another and our love for our children had kept things civil. Yeah, I’d been heartbroken, and it’d been hard to see Leslie move on with Carlson, but things hadn’t become ugly, and I’d been proud of that.

However, now was a different story.

Just then, my phone rang, and as soon as I saw Jeremy’s name pop up, I answered it. “Hey.”

“Fuck waiting for dinner,” he said in lieu of a greeting. “Paige just sent out a massive family group text.”

“You’re kidding?”

“Nope,” he bit out. “I’ll send it to you now.”

Two seconds later, I was staring at my phone in complete awe.

Bro:Paige: Harding is cheating on me with sum whore from work. Just thought that u all should know what kind of man you raised.

I put the phone back up to my ear, this Pandora’s Box busted wide open. “Jesus Christ.”

“What the fuck, Harding?” Jeremy hissed. “What is wrong with that fucking woman?”

As my big brother, I knew where this was coming from, but I also needed to remind him that Paige hadn’t done anything wrong. Yeah, she was crossing some lines right now, but she wouldn’t be doing any of this if it hadn’t been for what I’d done to her.

“She’s hurt,” I reminded him. “Now, while she shouldn’t be lashing out at everyone else, she’s hurt and trying to deal with her pain in whichever way can help her, Jer.”

“By turning this thing into a fucking circus?” he squawked. “Whether right or wrong, your family doesn’t want to hear someone talking shit about you, Harding.”

“She’s not talking shit about me,” I pointed out. “She’s telling you guys what I did to her.”

My brother let out a heavy sigh. “Look, I get that you’re trying to take responsibility for what you got yourself into, but that doesn’t give her free reign to begin harassing everyone.”

“No, I know,” I assured him. “I’ll talk to her. I’ll…I’ll try to calm her down.”

Another beat of silence before he said, “The only reason I’m standing down is because she didn’t include any of the kids in the text, but you’re going to need to speak with Brendan and Leslie now.”

“Yeah, I know,” I sighed, still wondering how it’d gotten to this stage so quickly.

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