Chapter 16 Melanie
For the first time, I was grateful that Ben had wanted such a flashy car because I knew he was coming as soon as he hit our street.
“Alright, he’s here… thank you.” I said quickly and ended the brief call.
I had just finished my shower and thrown on some clean but comfortable leggings and a baggy hoodie when his tires hit the driveway.
I looked around the room that I had shared with my husband and took in the small details that showed that proved he had been here too.
His slippers poking out from under the bed, his robe hanging from the back of the door, his golf hat sitting on top of his dresser, and the photos of us together scattered around the room.
“Melanie…” Griffin called from the bottom of the stairs just as the pounding started on the front door.
“Showtime,” I mumbled to myself as I stepped out of my room and prepared myself for what was waiting just outside my home.
“Melanie!” Ben yelled and pounded the door again.
I looked at Griffin, and he reached out for my hand.
“Follow me. I’ll open the door and step out with you right behind me and then you will close the door behind you. You don’t have to let him in if you don’t want to.” Griffin mumbled and pulled me along behind him as we approached the door.
Ben was mid-knock when Griffin yanked the door open and quickly stepped into Ben’s space, forcing him to take a step back. I followed just as quickly, and the loud click of the door's lock engaging could be heard over Ben’s flustered “What the hell, man!”
“What do you want?” My exhaustion was evident in my voice. While I hadn’t uncovered everything that my darling husband had been doing behind my back, I had seen more than enough today that even without my morning sickness, I would’ve been feeling ill.
“Why is my code to the front door not working?” Ben ignored my question and glared at Griffin as if he were the one who had done something wrong.
“I changed it. Your key will still work.” I replied, but didn’t offer an explanation.
“You know I don’t carry my key!” Ben snapped.
“That sounds like a you problem.” I snapped back. He looked alarmed and swallowed down whatever he’d been about to say next.
“Is there something that we can do for you?” Griffin asked with a condescending smile. He knew that the word we and the implication that Griffin had more rights to the home than Ben did was going to infuriate him.
“This has nothing to do with you.” Ben growled, “Out of respect for Kyle I’m going to ask you politely to butt out.”
“Respect for Kyle, hmm?” Griffin’s tone shift was subtle, but the anger in that small sentence hinted that Griffin knew just how little respect Ben had been showing his best friend.
Panic flashed across Ben’s face, and his eyes darted to look at my face. I said nothing and kept my face blank.
“Should we ask Kyle what his thoughts are?” Griffin pushed and leaned against the closed door with his arms crossed. He was the picture of “unbothered,” but I knew inside he was steaming with rage.
“This is between my wife and me.” Ben tried to sound assertive instead of panicked.
“What do you want?” I repeated. I was still standing to the side of Griffin, although our poses were very different. My arms were crossed, but as if I was holding myself together with a hug, and I could feel that my shoulders had started to slump forward. I was going to need to sit soon.
I glanced around the porch and internally screamed at the bland entrance, void of all seating that my husband had insisted was “aesthetically pleasing”.
“Front steps are for making an impression, not for entertaining guests… the back porch can have all the seating you’d like but a front porch should only have two well placed planters for packages to be hidden behind.” Ben informed me as I eyed a stunning porch swing.
“But imagine coming home everyday to me waiting on the porch on this?” I teased.
“I enter through the garage.” He said and rolled his eyes, “I’d have to walk out our front door to find you.”
The man had never been anything more than appearances, I realized as I brushed past him and lowered myself down on the first step.
“Mel?” Griffin started and sounded worried.
“I’m fine, I’m just not going to have this conversation while standing.” I waved a hand and leaned back against the supporting pillar.
Not that this is all that comfortable either.
I looked up at Ben and waited for him to start speaking. He looked back and forth between Griffin, who stayed between him and the door, and me before he finally lowered himself down on the step beside me and angled his body to face me.
“Mel, I love you…” He started and reached for my hands.
“No.” I monotoned. He winced but nodded, and his hands slowly retreated while he quickly recalibrated how he wanted to handle the conversation.
“I want to come home. I know I can fix this.” I tried.
“No.” I rolled my eyes.
“What do you mean no?”
“You’re not coming back home and you can’t fix this. I watched you have sex with another woman in the hot tub you bought me.” His face fell, and his eyes filled with tears. “You were busy destroying our marriage while I was burying my grandmother,” I added.
I desperately wanted to elaborate on just how many of his sins I was aware of but my lawyer had reminded me, again, this morning, to keep what I knew to myself so that Ben wouldn’t know what evidence to start destroying.
“I’m sorry to be calling on a weekend like this but my husband is on his way home right now and I uncovered a lot of new information.”
“Send it over right away,” Penelope said. Even on a Sunday morning, this woman was all business.
“I need some guidance on how to handle this encounter,” I admitted, and the familiar feeling of nausea washed over me again.
“Why is he there?”
“I’m pretty sure he figured out that I gained access to his phone and laptop.”
After I assured her that he had never verbally revoked my access to either, she told me I hadn’t done anything wrong legally and had no obligation to admit or deny my actions.
She also told me that legally he could have access to the house and while changing the code was legal, I couldn’t change the locks without some sort of court order.
She suggested continuing to ask him for space, but allowing him to get his belongings if he was cooperative.
If he was hostile, then she told me to call the cops and then call her so she could request to be in front of a judge in the morning.
I admitted I had mentioned the NDA’s to him, and she told me to avoid saying anything else about them and act confused if he mentioned them.
Gaslighting at its finest.
“It was a mistake…” his voice yanked me back to the present conversation, and I felt my jaw clench.
“Was it the first time?”
He gulped, and his eyes flitted to Griffin before they landed back on me.
Does he think Griffin is going to help him get out of this? I was amused by the thought and struggled to keep my facial expression neutral.
“I won’t lie to you. I’ve made mistakes before,” he finally conceded.
“With Angela or with others?” I pushed, curious to see just how much information he was willing to volunteer. The porch camera was recording everything, and the more I had, the faster I would be out of this marriage.
“Angela was relentless. I didn’t invite her here and I didn’t ask for her advances.” He started to whine.
His ability to tell partial truths and spin them in his favor was impressive. He would’ve made an excellent lawyer… his personality was well-suited for it, too.
“Were there others?” I repeated. I knew my tone was so icy it bordered on hostile, but I didn’t have any patience left to listen to his lies after watching the footage of my husband fuck one woman’s ass while she had her face between a second woman’s legs.
“I- I, uh in college…” he mumbled and didn’t look me in the eye, “I made a mistake at a party in college.”
“Hmm.” I hummed and pretended to think about his bullshit story. I didn’t know the full extent yet of his infidelities, but if I had to guess… he’d never been loyal to me.
“Why did you marry me?” I couldn’t stop myself from asking. He looked up at me, confused and then alarmed when he saw that my eyes were filling with tears.
“I love you!” he reached for my hands again, and this time, I didn’t pull away fast enough. I heard Griffin grumble something that sounded like “watch it” from behind us. “You have to know that I’ve always loved you.”
“I don’t know that…” I whispered, and my voice cracked with emotion. As much as I wanted to stay strong and unaffected, I had given my entire heart to this man, and he had destroyed it.
“Melanie…” Ben chastised and gave me a condescending, sympathetic smile, “of course I love you, look at the life I’ve built for us.
” His tone became sickly sweet, and I had to force myself not to gag.
When I didn’t reply, his smile grew, and he nodded as if giving himself permission to continue spewing his lies, “I’m human and I’ve messed up, but if I didn’t love you, if I didn’t want the life we have together, I would’ve left a long time ago. ”
No, you wanted your cake and to eat it too.
Griffin cleared his throat to remind me to wrap this up.
“I need some space…” I tried to keep my voice sounding broken instead of enraged. “This has all been too much, my grandmother just died and now I feel like I don’t even know my own husband…” I choked out.
“Baby…” He scooched closer to me, “I want to come home!” he raised a hand and cupped my face, and I flinched away. He scowled and let his hand drop back into my lap. I chewed the inside of my cheek and sat still. He stared at my face for a few seconds before sighing loudly.
“I love you enough to give you a little more space… but I need to grab some more things…” he looked over his shoulder at the front door and scowled at Griffin. “How long is your brother’s partner staying in my house?”
“Our house.” I corrected, “I don’t know yet.”
“It’s fucked up that he’s here, but I’m not allowed in my own home.” Ben grumbled. Unable to maintain his sympathetic, contrite husband act for more than a few minutes.
“He didn’t fuck anyone in my hot tub.” I shot back and shoved his hand off my lap.
“To be honest I would rather you didn’t go inside today…
I’m still trying to find a way to be comfortable in our home after what you did and I don’t think having you in the space when all I can see every time I look at you is another woman moaning on MY husband’s dick. ”
His face paled at my words. I knew that in all the years we had been together, I’d never been vulgar in one of our disagreements. I was always calm, level headed… my moto had always been that you don’t fight with your loved ones when you disagree, you fight FOR your relationship.
Well, I was all done fighting FOR my relationship, and if I was honest, I really wanted to fight WITH my husband.
“Could you come back Monday? Just give me a little bit of space?” I pleaded.
He grimaced and glanced again at the house longingly. Most likely devastated that he couldn't get to his precious laptop.
“Fine.” He relented, “Can you call the phone company and try to figure out why my cell phone is off?” He asked and rose to his feet.
“Sure.” I bit back the urge to tell him that there wasn't a chance in hell I'd be doing that as I stood up.
“I’ll be by before work.” He grumbled and stomped down the steps.
I guess he’s done with the charade if it won’t get him in the house…
I nodded and stepped closer to Griffin. We watched in silence while Ben pulled out of the driveway and drove away without so much as a glance back at the wife he claimed to love.
“Can we be on a plane before he gets here Monday?” I asked.
“Let’s call your lawyer and find out what we need to do to make that happen.” Griffin rumbled and pulled me into a hug. "And Melanie..."
"Hmm?"
“I’m proud of you for not punching him in the junk.”