Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
A my held the laptop over her head and wandered around her room. “Can you hear me now?”
Squinting, she tilted her head to the side and listened, but the sound was still garbled and distorted, like she was talking underwater. With a frown, Amy spun and stared at the closed bedroom door. Then, she twisted the knob and poked her head outside. An hour earlier, she’d heard Jude take off for the day to run his usual errands in town.
Ashley, on the other hand, had been unusually quiet since then.
But Amy didn’t want to disturb the silence by having her consultation in the living room. Unfortunately, since she’d spent the past twenty minutes running from one end of the room to the next, she wasn’t sure she had a choice in the matter. Reluctantly, she ducked back into the room to retrieve her charger. When she stepped back out into the hall, she heard music spilling out from the other end of the hallway. A heartbeat later, Ashley’s voice filled the cottage.
Smiling, Amy took the laptop to the living room and set it down on the coffee table. She drummed her fingers against the table and held her breath. Then she tapped her fingers against the sides of her thighs. With an exhale, Amy was about to call the lawyer back when the screen in front of her blinked to life, and an unfamiliar face filled it.
Liam’s friend was a woman who looked to be in her thirties, wearing a white button-down shirt with her blond hair pulled back into a low bun, two wisps of hair artfully framing her face. She stepped away from the laptop, and Amy saw she was on a desk, overlooking a mint green wall with rows of shelves filled with an assortment of books. Then, she realized Liam’s friend was tucking her shirt into her skirt and typing something onto her phone.
Amy sat down and linked her fingers together. “Do you want me to call you back? This seems like a bad time.”
Kate shook her head and tossed her phone away.
In the background, it landed with a clatter on a flatter surface.
“Sorry, work is never-ending. Okay, so first of all, it’s nice to meet you. Liam has told us all a lot about you.”
Amy blinked. “Us?”
“We have a group of friends who hang out regularly,” Kate replied with a small smile. “Anyway, he’s brought me up to speed about everything, and don’t worry, I think you’ve got a good chance at winning.”
Amy leaned back against the couch and frowned. “Winning?”
Kate leaned forward and picked up a cream-colored file. She paused and flipped it open. “Yes, it says here that your ex has filed for divorce, and, no surprise there, he wants to keep everything. In his motion, he argues he should keep everything since he was the primary breadwinner.”
Amy ran a hand over her face, a low pounding beginning in the back of her skull. “Yes, but that’s only because we both agreed I needed to be there for the kids since he has a busy career.”
Kate picked up a pen and jotted something down. “So, you’re the one who tidied up the house and took care of the kids?”
“In the beginning, I did everything,” Amy replied with a slight shake of her head. “But after the kids got older and moved out, Eric started to criticize everything I did all the time until I couldn’t take it anymore.”
Kate frowned. “What did you do?”
Amy ignored the pounding in her ears. “I told him he should hire someone to take care of the cleaning or do it himself. Obviously, he hired someone.”
Kate lowered the file and looked directly at the screen, her dark eyes tightening around the edges. “Mrs. Taylor—”
“I never took my husband’s last name,” Amy interrupted with a grimace. She paused and had to swallow several times before her tongue no longer felt heavy and awkward. “My last name is Gruntle, but please call me Amy.”
Kate exhaled and set down the clipboard. “Amy, look, I get the feeling that you’re the kind of woman who doesn’t like to beat around the bush.”
Unease crept up Amy’s spine and settled in the center of her stomach. “I’m not.”
“Eric isn’t going to hesitate to reveal every secret you told him; every last piece of dirty laundry is going to be aired out for the court to see. I’ve dealt with men like him before, the kind who believe they own the world… He’s not going to let up easily.”
Amy’s throat turned dry, and her stomach dipped. “I am not going to stoop to his level. I don’t even want anything.”
Kate gave a quick nod. “I understand that, but we do have to fight back, or you might end up owing him money.”
Amy’s mouth fell open, her heart hammering louder now. A flush rose up her neck and crawled across her cheeks. “Owe him money? But everything I have right now is my savings from before we got married and a little bit of money from the odd job here and there. Eric doesn’t know anything about that.”
He couldn’t. Not with how careful she’d been to only take on online consulting jobs at the behest of Lily. Even though the amount of money she’d made wasn’t much, it was still better than having to rely on Eric for the rest of her life.
“His lawyer probably did some digging,” Kate replied, pausing to pull out a swivel chair. She sat down and inched closer to the screen. “The next step is filing to dismiss his motion and filing our own.”
Amy studied the screen, a small kernel of hope taking root inside of her. “And I can say whatever I want? Just like he did.”
“You get a platform too, yes. Do you have anything in particular you want?”
Amy cleared her throat and let her hands fall to her sides. She dug her nails into her palms, hard enough to leave marks. “I just want to be free to move on with my life; that’s all.”
Kate glanced at something offscreen and then looked back at Amy. “I understand. I’ll draft up a motion, and I’ll be in touch to go over it with you. None of this is going to be easy, but I promise you’re in good hands.”
Some of the knots around Amy’s stomach loosened. “Okay, good.”
Kate straightened her back. “I’ll talk to you soon, Amy. Take care.”
Amy cleared her throat and uncurled her hands. “You too.”
As soon as the screen turned blank, Amy’s phone rang. She fished it out of her pocket and held it up to her face. “Lucas, hi. I was just going to call you.”
“Sylvie’s on the other line, Mom,” Lucas said in a strange voice. “We both wanted to talk to you. Is this a bad time?”
Amy snapped the laptop screen shut and stepped out of the living room. In the kitchen, she opened and closed several cupboards, not looking for anything in particular. Since arriving, this was the first phone call either of them had initiated, and Amy couldn’t help feeling like something was wrong.
“Are the girls okay?”
Sylvie sighed. “June, Judy, and Beth are fine. We want to talk about you, Mom. Listen, we know things have been tough lately—”
“But you and Dad have been married for decades,” Lucas interrupted, his voice rising toward the end. “What’s changed that made you want to leave out of the blue?”
Amy pushed herself up to the tips of her toes and reached for the glass bowl in the back. “Nothing’s changed. I’m the one who just couldn’t do it anymore.”
“We were supposed to ease her into it, Lucas,” Sylvie scolded, her voice trailing off. “We’re just trying to understand, Mom. What’s so bad that you left the city and the only life you’ve ever known?”
Lucas blew out a breath. “Is this some kind of midlife crisis?”
Amy went to the refrigerator and returned with an armful of ingredients, including a container of butter, eggs, and flour. “It is not a midlife crisis. Not anymore, at least. Your dad already filed for divorce.”
“I’m sure he’d be willing to drop the case if you come back,” Lucas argued, conversation rising and falling around him. “Mom, please. We’re just worried about you. This all feels very sudden and unlike you.”
“I’m on the phone, Stu!” Sylvie yelled. “Yeah, look, Lucas is right. This can’t be good for you. At your age, you’re supposed to be settling into a routine, not turning your whole world upside down.”
Amy frowned as she measured out a spoonful of baking soda. “At my age? I’m not that old, you know.”
Except, she knew they were right.
And in their own way, they were trying to help her.
It wasn’t their fault the two of them were so busy hustling and grinding with their own lives that they couldn’t see what was happening right under their own noses. Since they were born, Amy made a promise to herself to shield them from her own problems and to make sure they never carried around her burdens, and she’d honored it every day since then.
Nothing had changed, not to her.
Unlike Eric, Amy had no intention of going into the nitty-gritty details of her marriage. The last thing she wanted was to tarnish their father’s reputation.
After all of the years they shared together, she owed him at least that much.
“Sylvie didn’t mean anything bad by that,” Lucas added with a sigh. “She just means that things don’t have to change. Not if you don’t want them to. You can still come home.”
Amy cracked open the eggs and began to whisk. “I’m not going back. Not anytime soon, at least. I still have some things I need to figure out.”
A long and tense moment settled between them.
Amy wanted to reach into the phone and pull them both out for a hug, but she knew it wasn’t possible. Neither of them was going to understand unless she explained it to them, and she wasn’t ready to burst their bubble just yet. Before she could say anything else to dispel the awkwardness, Lucas’s phone beeped, and someone called out his name in the background.
Then, Sylvie’s voice turned distorted, and the line went dead.
Amy finished preparing the buttermilk pancake batter, covered the bowl, and shoved it into the fridge. When Ashley came out of her room, dressed as if she was about to go on a walk, Amy impulsively decided to join her. In silence, the two women set off at a leisurely pace, with Amy struggling not to overtake Ashley’s smaller and daintier steps.
“You really stay in shape.” Ashley placed both hands on her thighs, hidden underneath the pink tracksuit. She blew out a breath. “You’ve got to teach me how to do that.”
Amy’s lips twitched. “I just like to walk, but I wouldn’t say I’m in shape.”
“Oh, you definitely are.” Ashley straightened her back and tilted her head to enjoy the warmth of the sun on her face.
On either side of them, people on the walking path raced past, illuminated by the soft glow of the midmorning sun. Blue clouds rolled by, and a flock of birds took to the sky.
But Amy couldn’t shake off the feeling the phone call could’ve gone better. She’d been working up the courage to tell her kids about the divorce all through her phone call with Liam’s lawyer friend.
Now, like a lot of other things, Eric had taken that away from her.
Was he really going to punish her by taking everything away, including her relationship with her children?
Amy prayed their bond was strong enough to withstand whatever lay ahead.
“So, when are your kids coming down to visit?”
Amy and Ashley had been as thick as thieves since meeting at Lily’s house a few weeks ago, but even though they’d both dedicated their lives to their kids and their houses, Amy felt like they couldn’t have been more different.
Ashley was generous and giving, and she had a husband who adored her.
Amy, on the other hand, was left to fend for every scrap she wanted to take, and Eric wasn’t going to stop until he’d taken everything from her.
How could Ashley possibly understand what that was like for her?
Still, Amy felt the urge to talk to her, as if it would somehow change her reality into something better.
Amy needed someone her age to understand that she hadn’t lost her mind and it wasn’t some kind of crisis.
It had been building up for years.
Amy lifted a hand to her face. “After today’s phone call? I doubt they’re eager to be anywhere near here. They just found out about the divorce.”
Ashley frowned. “I’m sorry to hear that, but from what you’ve told me, you guys have a pretty good relationship. I’m sure they can find a way to make their peace with it. Nothing stays the same forever, right?”
Amy placed both hands on her hips. “It definitely doesn’t. Things change all the time.”
Ashley nodded and dropped her hands to her side. “Exactly. I never thought Jude would retire, for example, so yeah. Life has a weird way of working out though. Just give them some time, and I’m sure they’ll come around.”
Only Amy wasn’t sure time was what her kids needed.
She wasn’t even sure if time was going to make anything better, least of all for her.
But she clung to the notion anyway, knowing she needed something to hold on to to keep her tethered.