Total pages in book: 52
Estimated words: 47419 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 237(@200wpm)___ 190(@250wpm)___ 158(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 47419 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 237(@200wpm)___ 190(@250wpm)___ 158(@300wpm)
She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and then uttered the words that left me feeling confused and bereft. “Okay, if that is what would make you happy.” Even then, she had to be perfect.
Wendy was going on about the future and all the things she had planned. “Pull over.”
“What?”
“Pull over!” She found a spot and pulled over just in time for me to exit the car and throw up on the side of the road. I felt hot and cold all over, and the world spun.
Wendy got out to join me. “What’s the matter? Did you catch something do you think? Is one of the kids sick?” I just shook my head and got back in the car. I closed my eyes as she continued driving and talking.
The divorce was relatively amicable. I had a lot of guilt, so though Rachel didn’t push for much, I gave her the house because I didn’t want to uproot my kids’ lives any more than I already was. She didn’t fight me on anything; in fact, the few times I saw her since the confession, she looked as if she didn’t have any fight left.
And the guilt just kept coming. She didn’t fight me on custody arrangements. I got to see my son one night a week and two days on the weekends. My daughter was too young so I got to see her at the house for a few hours whenever I chose.
Rachel didn’t fight me on any of it. She was very accommodating, in fact. Wendy was having fun playing mom to my son Kevin and griping about seeing my daughter. She’d started calling them our kids.
She’d started making harsh comments about Rachel, which I thought were unwarranted, but the one time I mentioned that, she got very irate. She seemed to think that there was something wrong with my soon-to-be ex-wife because she wasn’t putting up more of a fight. It was almost as if she wanted her to make things more difficult for us.
She’d even started claiming that Rachel was a manipulative bitch, because she never said a bad word about Wendy or the affair. She never tried to keep me from the kids, and she never interfered when our son was with us.
It seemed like the more forgiving and peaceful Rachel was, the more incensed Wendy became until I dreaded coming home to her. All of her conversations now surrounded Rachel and her life. She seemed way more interested in my ex than I was.
Then, the divorce became final, and I thought things would get better, but they only seemed to get worse. I still saw Kevin, now two days and one night during the week and Saturdays.
Wendy kept pushing the envelope, wanting more. It’s like she wanted to erase Rachel completely, dropping hints here and there that we should go for full custody, which I didn’t understand because she never wanted kids before, as far as I knew.
I put my foot down there, though, because I knew it would break Rachel. It’s when Wendy inferred that that is exactly what she was after that I started second-guessing everything.
My family was part of the problem, along with my best friend since childhood. They refused to accept my new relationship and forbade me from bringing Wendy around, even though Rachel was still welcomed with open arms.
My family always loved my ex, and that didn’t change after the divorce. She was still invited to my family home, where I was welcome to come as long as Wendy was not with me. As you can imagine, that did not go over well, and every time I went anywhere without her, it caused problems in our relationship.
Yesterday was Sarah’s first birthday, and my parents held the party at their place on the water because it’s always been the go-to place for family get-togethers. Wendy was livid and even tried to get me to keep Kevin home with us since it was our day with him.
I told her I couldn’t do that, which set her off again. I was finally able to convince her that I would only be gone for a couple of hours at most, but I couldn’t miss my daughter’s first birthday. I was already skating on thin ice with my whole family and didn’t want to rock the boat any more than we already had.
I convinced her that if we did this, it would kill any chance of my family accepting her, and that was the only thing that made her see reason. But now I wish I hadn’t gone. It was the first time we had all been together since the split.
My whole family was there to celebrate, along with some old friends, including my best friend Jacob. I hadn’t realized how close he and Rachel had become or that my son was so well acquainted with him.