Chapter Thirty-Two
Rosie
After a sleepless night, Rosie still did not know what she would do about Pam. She had to face the woman. She couldn’t escape
it. She foolishly wanted to call into the office and say she would be working at jobsites all day so she could avoid any difficult
conversation.
She finally rose at dawn and went out to gather eggs, finding peace in talking to her girls. After the chickens were fed,
she saw a few weeds coming up again in the flower bed she had cleared with Zara and Finn, what felt a lifetime ago.
She began ripping them out with more enthusiasm than strictly necessary, enjoying the chickens scratching around her and Dottie
sniffing at the weeds she pulled.
After the rain of the night before, the storm clouds had blown away, leaving a glorious morning. She could see miles out to
sea, where a couple of fishing boats were heading out for the day.
Rosie wished she could stand and watch the waves all day.
This all still felt like a nightmare that she couldn’t awaken from. Had her entire marriage been a lie? Had Pam been the only
one or had there been a long line of women that Gary had flirted with, kissed, possibly more?
She couldn’t believe it. Her husband had loved her. She was certain of it.
She was dumping her load of weeds into the green waste container when a car pulled into her driveway. Rosie glanced at her
watch. It wasn’t yet 8:00 a.m. Who would be here this early?
She walked around the house and felt her breath catch when she recognized Pam’s luxury convertible.
Her employee walked out looking years older than she had the night before. Her hair wasn’t fixed in her usual sleek style
and her makeup appeared to have been applied with a shaky hand.
Rosie did not want to do this right now, not after she had spent the past hour trying to attain some measure of calm. Apparently,
she wasn’t going to have a choice, though. Pam moved toward her with a determined set to her jaw.
“I wanted to talk about everything this morning before work. The office is not the place,” the other woman said bluntly.
Rosie gripped her trowel more tightly. “Where is the best place to have a discussion about one of your closest friends betraying
you with your husband?”
Pam’s jaw tightened. “Don’t be that way, Rosie. We are two adult women, well past being silly girls fighting over a guy.”
“Excuse me, but the guy in question is not some quarterback of the football team. He was my husband of sixteen years. I can’t
believe that you would do this to me.”
Pam straightened and glared at Rosie. “I’ll remind you that I did not make vows with you. The one you should be mad at is
Gary.”
“I am. Believe me, I am. But I’m also furious with you. I don’t want to look at you right now. Why don’t you take the rest
of the week off?”
Rosie wasn’t at all certain she could fire Pam for whatever might have happened between her and Gary a decade ago. She would
have to talk to the company attorney. Pam was exactly the sort to sue for breach of contract and drag Lucas Construction through
an ugly court battle.
But at least a few days might give her breathing room to process everything and come up with a plan.
“That won’t be necessary,” Pam said stiffly. “I came over this morning to hand in my notice. I’ve been thinking about it for
a long time, if you want the truth. You are not easy to work for, Rosie.”
“Ouch.” She thought she had been an excellent boss. Her other employees seemed to have no complaints.
“It doesn’t have to come to that,” she said, though she wasn’t sure her words were true.
“It’s already come to that. I’m not going to work in a place where you are going to sit in judgment of me every single day
when I come into the office. I’ve had many other great offers over the years and turned them down out of loyalty to you.”
Rosie almost laughed outright at that but managed somehow to swallow it down.
She remembered what Andrew had suggested and decided to take his advice. “You have accrued plenty of personal leave. Spend
today tying up any loose ends from home and you can start your leave tomorrow.”
“I’m the backbone of your whole operation. You know that as well as I do. The whole company is going to fall apart without
me.”
Rosie very much feared Pam was right, though she intended to fight like hell to make sure that didn’t happen, as she had after
Gary’s death.
“You have been an invaluable part of the company,” she said.
Pam looked as if she had more to say but she finally turned to go. Before she returned to her vehicle, she threw out one more
conversational grenade.
“I did care for Gary, just so you know. I loved him. And he loved me.”
She didn’t want to hear this. Rosie fought the urge to clap her hands over her ears.
“How long had your affair been going on?” she finally asked, through lips that felt stiff and unnatural. She didn’t want to
ask, but the words came out anyway. She needed to know how clueless she had been.
Pam looked away. “Not long. A few weeks.”
A few weeks too long. Rosie felt queasy again.
“We never slept together, for what it’s worth. Though it would have happened sooner or later, I’m sure. I don’t know if you
could even call it an affair.”
He had kissed this woman, though. Shared things with her he hadn’t with Rosie.
“I think in those last few weeks Gary was a man tormented, trying to figure out how to have what he truly wanted—me—without
hurting you in the process.”
Rosie assumed Pam told her that as some kind of consolation prize but the words actually made her feel worse. She might have
found her late husband’s betrayal easier to handle if it had strictly been a physical relationship, with no emotions involved.
Knowing he might have truly cared for Pam and might indeed have been planning to leave Rosie felt so much worse.
The weight of this revelation, ten years in the making, threatened to crush her. She wanted to scream, to lash out, to demand
more answers, but found herself paralyzed by the enormity of it all.
With one more hard look, Pam climbed into her vehicle and drove away, leaving Rosie standing by her flower bed, trowel still
in hand.
Rosie returned her supplies to her gardening shed and walked slowly up the stairs to the house she and Gary had renovated together, feeling as if the carefully tended narrative of her marriage had burned to the ground overnight.
Had their love been a lie? Or worse, had it been real, only to be discarded so easily for someone else?
She fought tears as she grappled with this new reality. But beneath the pain and betrayal, a small spark of something else
began to ignite.
Determination.
She had rebuilt her life once after Gary’s death, learning to run the company alone. She would do it again without Pam.
This time, she would rebuild on a foundation of truth, no matter how difficult it might be. Rosie took a deep breath and headed
into her bedroom to shower and change for the day.
She had a company to run, a daughter and granddaughter to love, and a life to reclaim—one that was entirely her own.