Chapter Forty-Six Dottie
Chapter Forty-Six
Dottie
Everything is different now, without the babies. It’s like a film has lifted from my eyes and I can see clearly.
If there are no babies, there’s nothing tying me to Dickie.
And if I’m not married, I can get a job as a secretary again or go to college and become a nurse or a teacher.
A divorce will cause a scandal of course, and Daddy will be mortified, but I have my whole life ahead of me, and I can’t bear the idea of spending it barefoot and trapped inside this house with Dickie.
And honestly, I don’t think he wants to be married to me either. In fact, I have this terrible feeling he only married me because he wanted Daddy’s money and Daddy’s connections. There. I said it. Out loud. On paper.
August 23, 1965
I sat down with Dickie last night and told him I want a divorce. I tried to appeal to his enormous ego.
“It isn’t fair to you, Dickie, now that I can’t have children,” I said. “If you stay with me, you’ll never have the family you’ve always wanted. The family you deserve. You’d be such a wonderful father.”
He raised an eyebrow. I might have laid it on a little thick.
“You can have the cars, the house, the money in our joint accounts, everything,” I added, trying and failing to keep my desperation from leaching into my voice.
His eyes narrowed. Then he reached across the table and took my hand. It took all my self-control not to flinch and pull it back.
“Unfortunately, Dottie, there’s no future in politics for a man who’s divorced. People want a family man with a loving wife and beautiful children. And your father is unlikely to keep his ex-son-in-law employed as his general manager.”
He released my hand, and I broke down. He patted me on the back. “I’m afraid you’re stuck with me, babies or no babies. But don’t worry. I have a plan to make everything so much easier for you.”
Even though the air was sticky and the night unbearably hot, I shivered.