Chapter 4
Odette
My plan was ultimately reliant on what the lawyer would say, though I knew I was at a disadvantage because Murphy was a lawyer himself.
Although he didn't dabble in family law, there were others at his firm who did.
I didn't sleep a wink that night as Wynn and I planned a very new future for Lux and me.
It was around five-thirty in the morning when Wynn’s phone rang with an unknown number. Knowing it was whoever Dan was able to contact, I answered the phone for her on the second ring. "Hello?"
"Is this Mrs. Lake?" a female voice inquired.
"It is, but I'd prefer you called me by my maiden name from here on out, which is James. Odette James."
"Very well, Mrs. James." I thought about correcting her that I was no longer a missus anything, but at this moment, by the eyes of the law, I was still indeed a missus.
"My name is Bethany O'Rourke; I work with O'Rourke And Company. My lovely colleague Dan woke me up at an ungodly hour, explained the situation to me, and now I would like to hear it from you. From the beginning."
For what felt like the hundredth time in the last twelve hours, I relayed what had happened, what I walked into—only this time there wasn't a tear in sight. My heart felt desolate, incomplete, destroyed, unfeeling.
"That rat bastard. I'll take him for everything he's worth, I promise," Bethany said with such vengeance that I believed her.
"Actually, we've spent the majority of the night planning, and that's not what Odette wants," Wynn said from beside me.
"Who's that?" Bethany demanded. I must have neglected to tell her that she was on speaker, and Wynn was privileged to the conversation we were having.
"Sorry, that's Wynn, my sister." I smacked her arm for possibly getting me in trouble with what seemed to be my only lifeline. She just shrugged and kept talking.
"Listen, I'm going to give Odette and Lux my cottage, and I've currently transferred a good portion of money into an account I had opened for her years ago, so she doesn't need anything from him."
I looked at her with wide eyes. "What are you talking about?" I asked, completely forgetting we had a third party on the phone.
"I make a lot of money, Odette; I wanted to make sure you and Lux would always be taken care of."
I spluttered, "No, absolutely not, Wynn. That isn't part of the plan."
My plan had been to stay here for a few weeks while I started a new job, save up a few paychecks, get an apartment somewhere for Lux and me, and ask Murphy for as little as humanly possible. The only large hitch to my plan was that I didn't want to see him.
I couldn't see him.
Wynn knew that if I spent any extended time in his presence there was a good chance I would take him back.
I didn't consider myself a weak woman by any means, but I was a woman who had been desperately in love with my husband.
I would end up breaking if he came at me full force for reconciliation.
I knew that right now, while my heart lay in ruins at the bottom of my chest, it was salvageable.
It was like it had been shredded into large pieces of ribbon and, given enough hard work, time, and care, it could be stitched and sewed back together—not in the same way, never the same way again, but it could be almost whole.
But it wouldn't survive something like this again, and my daughter deserved a mother who had a whole heart of love to give, not a broken one.
"Listen, Odette, I let you sit here and come up with this half-cocked plan that Murphy and his lawyer will shred.
You have no money, no place to call your own, and you haven't even started your new job yet.
Heck, your idiot husband doesn't even know you passed your boards, and while I'm so proud that you did and you'll be starting your job in a week, you still have no money of your own.
" She looked at me grimly. "I might not be a lawyer, but I know they'll use that against you, not to mention then Murphy can seem like a good guy and drag this process out while you battle over money and custody.
It would be the perfect opening for him. "
"She's right. Showing you can provide for your child will be the judge's number one concern."
I hated that she was right, but I was out of options. I had put my faith in the wrong person. Maybe he did this without thinking of me at all because he knew I was completely reliant on him to an extent, and that thought only made my disdain for him grow.
"What's your plan then, Wynn?"
"While you were coming up with yours, I was coming up with mine.
I'm barely here one week out of the month, so the cottage is yours.
I only ask that you let me use one of the spare rooms when I'm in town.
Don't say a damn word about renting or buying this place from me; you never once let me help you or pay for college, even though I begged.
I opened an account for you years ago and put what I would have given you in there.
I figured if you never used it, eventually it would be a fund for Lux—for college, her wedding, whatever.
There's around $75,000 in it, and it's separate from Murphy and only in your name. "
I sat staring at her, my jaw on the floor. “Wynn, you can't... You can't do that. That's too much."
"Odette, you and that girl are my family. I’m doing this. If it makes you feel better, you can say I'm doing it for Lux."
Still unable to speak because tears were threatening to fall again, Bethany took the reins.
"Do you want anything from him? Alimony, child support?"
"No," Wynn and I answered at the same time.
"Do you want half of his savings or 401Ks?"
"No, I want absolutely nothing other than a divorce," I said, albeit a little shaky.
"Will you return to the family home at any point in time?"
"Not if I don't have to."
This set her off on a long tangent about the paperwork she was going to file and what to get set in place.
Even though it was barely seven on a Saturday morning, she assured me she would get the paperwork together to start the legal proceedings by this afternoon, and Murphy would be served, not quite with the divorce paperwork yet, but with something about intent paperwork.
The paperwork clearly outlined that all communication from here on out would go through her or a third party, that I would not be returning, and we would schedule a time for me to pick up my belongings when he was not in the house.
It also stated that Lux would be available to him whenever he liked, and his mother or Wynn would be the third party for those handoffs.
I should have felt relieved that everything I needed seemed to be falling into place; I had a place to stay, money in an account, and it seemed I would never have to really see or talk to Murphy without the presence or mediation of others.
I was relieved but also profoundly sad; it was the end of my marriage, and the end of the life I had always dreamed of.