Page 45 of The Space He Left
"Yes."
"Good! This is so much better than I planned. You can pack up whatever you want from that house, and I can pack my bags here. I'll be there by tonight, and we can get a place together. Maybe that cute house by the lake we always talked about? You can divorce Harper – she'll probably make it easy since you chose me over her and the baby. Finally, Jackie, we can have the life we were meant to have."
The enthusiasm in her voice, the casual way she dismissed my wife and daughter, the complete lack of remorse for what she'd done – it was like talking to a stranger wearing Madison's face.
"No," I said.
"What do you mean, no?"
"I mean no, Madison. We're not getting a place together. We're not having any kind of life together. This is over."
"Jackie, don't be silly. You left Harper for me. You missed your daughter's birth to be with me. You chose me."
"You're right," I said, and the admission felt like swallowing poison. "I did choose you. Every single time, I chose you over my family. But not because I wanted to be with you. Because I felt sorry for you. Because I thought you were dying and I couldn't live with myself if I didn't help."
"You felt sorry for me?" Her voice turned dangerous.
"Yes. That's all it was, Madison. Pity. And guilt about how things ended between us in high school. I never wanted to leave Harper. I never wanted to be with you. I just couldn't watch someone I used to care about die alone."
"You're lying."
"I'm not. You know I always want to be the hero, because I have this stupid complex about rescuing people. That's on me, not you. But I'm done being that person."
"Jackie, you don't mean this. You're upset because you found out about the cancer thing, but we can work through this. We're meant to be together."
"Never contact me again," I said, my voice getting louder. "Don't call, don't text, don't show up in Willowbrook. If you ever see me somewhere, turn around and walk away. We are done, Madison. Done."
"You'll change your mind. When you realize what a mistake you made—"
"Yeah, I made a mistake - you." I hung up and immediately blocked her number. My hands were shaking with rage and adrenaline.
A knock at my hotel room door made me jump. I opened it to find Sam standing in the hallway, his expression unreadable.
"The whole inn heard that conversation," he said. "Hell, half the town probably heard it."
"What are you doing here?" I asked, suddenly exhausted. "If you came to tell me what a fuck-up I am, I already know."
Sam studied my face for a moment. "Actually, I came to tell you exactly that. But listening to you just now..." He shook his head. "Can I come in?"
I stepped aside, and Sam entered the small room. He looked around at the generic furniture, the unmade bed, the suitcase in the corner that represented my entire life now.
"So that was the viper," he said.
"That was Madison. And yes, I've been a complete fuck-up. I fell for every lie, abandoned my family, missed my daughter's birth. I know exactly how stupid I've been."
"Yeah, you have been stupid. Monumentally stupid." Sam sat in the room's single chair, his gaze hard. "I'm angry as hell at you, Jack. For what you did to Harper. For what you put me through - watching my best friend’s wife go through hell while her husband acted like a fool. I almost walked away from our friendship a dozen times."
The words hit me harder than I'd expected. "Why didn't you?"
"Because the man I saw for the last few months wasn't the friend I've known for twenty years. That guy was a stranger. An idiot. But just now, on that phone call? I heard a glimmer of the old Jack." He leaned forward, his expression serious. "I heard you choosing your family over her. I heard you taking full responsibility instead of making a single excuse. That's the reason I'm sitting here."
He held up a hand, cutting off any thanks I might have offered. "But let's be crystal clear about something. My loyalty right now? It's to Harper and Emma. Not you. They come first. If you want me to be your friend again, you're going to have to earn it, same as you have to earn them back."
I just nodded, my throat too tight to speak.
"So here's the deal," Sam continued, laying out the terms like a general giving orders. "You're going to do the work. The real, ugly, painful work. You're going to respect every single boundary Harper sets, no matter how much it hurts. And you are never, ever going to put me in the middle of your mess again. My support is conditional, Jack. The moment you start making excuses, the moment you put your own ego ahead of Harper's healing, I'm out. Are we clear?"
"Crystal clear," I managed to say.
