Chapter 6 - Melanie
I stood in the doorway of my bedroom for a long time and just stared at the messy bed.
My bed.
Is it still MY bed?
It didn't look like two people had slept in it. Only Ben's side was messy; my pillows and side table looked untouched.
Are you sure?
I stood there long after the front door quietly closed, after the rumble of Ben’s sports car disappeared down the street, and after the fourth time my phone rang. My body was frozen in the doorway. Unable to move forward; unable to turn away.
He said he didn’t bring her into our room, but the room didn’t feel right anymore.
Hell, the house didn’t feel right…
Maybe it’s just that I don’t belong here…
It wasn’t until there was a knock on my front door that I finally snapped out of my trance.
I wasn’t expecting anyone, and honestly couldn’t imagine putting on a fake smile and entertaining anyone tonight.
If it's Ben, I'll kill him.
He wouldn't ring the doorbell.
I argued with myself.
What about all those 'sweet' deliveries he was arranging for you before you left?
Maybe I’ll puke again, and they’ll leave.
I moved down the stairs apprehensively and slowly headed to the door.
I was thankful that my brother had talked us into installing one of the top-of-the-line security systems his firm designed because it had a little monitor on the wall by the door that showed who was at the door.
I was surprised to see my friend Lily standing there with an angry expression.
I opened the door, and she barreled in before I could even speak.
“Where is he?” she snarled.
“Who?” I blinked and looked around the entryway as if it would provide answers.
“Your husband.” She said it like she was describing something foul on the bottom of her shoe.
What did Ben do to piss her off?
I paused and debated how much I wanted to tell her.
“I kicked him out.” I finally settled on just getting it out of the way. “While I was burying my grandmother, he was here having an affair.”
“WHAT?!” she shrieked.
Well, at least I know she didn't know about it.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” She wasn’t yelling anymore; her voice had dropped into a low growl.
“Yeah… also, do you know how one would go about lighting a hot tub on fire?” I tapped my chin, “I’d have to drain it first, but it’s electrical, so I’d need to disconnect it from the power source too, right?”
Lily stared at me like I was speaking another language.
“Why?”
“I caught him fucking her in it.” I gently reached out and closed her jaw when it dropped.
“I- I- I’m…” she sputtered and took a deep breath, “I had no idea. I came straight here to yell at him for allowing you to go to North Dakota all alone because I could tell by the way you took off so fast after the wake that you were devastated. You left so suddenly, I couldn’t even get the same flight as you back! ”
“I never got to thank you for taking the time to come up for the funeral.” I gave her an appreciative smile. “Did Killian and Hailey fly back with you?”
I’d forgotten all about how my three friends had flown out to North Dakota late last night so they could be by my side this morning. I had meant to thank them after the wake, but…
“No, they said they’d take the flight in the morning like they originally planned. I think last night, and tonight were the first kid free nights they’d had since the twins were born.”
“Yuck… North Dakota for a funeral is a terrible vacation…” I muttered and wandered into the living room.
“It wasn’t a vacation!” She looked so horrified that I couldn’t help but snort.
“They have twin toddlers, going to the grocery store alone is a vacation.”
“You are a strange woman…” Lily muttered and sat down on the couch with a huff.
“So, what are you going to do?” She asked after a few seconds of silence.
I shrugged. I hadn’t had time to come up with a plan yet. All I knew for sure was that Ben and I were over.
“I guess I need to get a lawyer…” I mused, and Lily nodded. Another wave of nausea rolled over me, and I grimaced, “and a pregnancy test.”
Her eyes went wide, and her mouth did the fish thing as she tried to form words.
“I’ve been puking all week…” I admitted, “hopefully it’s something viral and I can just wipe my hands of this whole chapter, but I need to know sooner rather than later.”
“Let’s go to the pharmacy,” Lily suggested. She stood up and looked expectantly at me.
Lily had always been a sensible creature.
A few years ago, I signed up for a couple of basic computer courses at the community college to learn how to use some of the programs that would make organizing the pharmacy's data easier and how to redesign the website.
Lily was in one of the classes with me, and we bonded through our shared struggles with HTML.
She had been redesigning her website, as she owned a wedding dress boutique, and at the time was starting to become very popular from foot traffic and word of mouth alone.
Ben had thought the classes were a waste of money, but had begrudgingly admitted that my parents' website was archaic and desperately needed updating. As soon as I finished the courses and showed him the new website, he started demanding that I quit.
“Can I just point out the irony of being a silent co-owner of an entire chain of pharmacies and still needing to leave the house for supplies from one.” I chuckled dryly, but Lily scowled.
“It would be strange if you got so hoity toity you wouldn’t drive to a pharmacy.”
“I’ll definitely never be one of those mega wealthy women who can’t do anything on their own.” I assured her.
Growing up, my family was very comfortable but not wealthy by any means.
Now, after a few smart investments, my parents had left the middle-class bracket and were comfortably in the wealthy zone.
It had been a while since I had checked to see what my brother and I were making off of our shares of the company, but I was pretty sure it was becoming substantial.
Ben still had no idea that his wife had made investments worth over a million dollars without him.
That thought made me smirk to myself as I put on my shoes. As long as I didn’t cash any of it in before our divorce, he’d never get a penny of it because it was technically in a trust.
“We should hit the liquor store too just incase you’re not preggers.” Lily suggested and led me to her car. “And junk food incase you are.”
· · ─ ·?· ─ · ·
“It’s going to be fine. You are going to be a great mom.” Lily rubbed my back and tried to calm me down as I puked and sobbed into the toilet.
“Why now?” I moaned. Lily didn’t supply a magical explanation for all my woes; she just hummed quietly and rubbed my back.
“I’m not going to be able to get rid of him… no judge would even award a divorce in the middle of a pregnancy.” I continued.
“You don’t need to tell him right away. You can get properly separated before you tell him.” Lily said quietly. “Definitely not before you’ve even seen a doctor, met with a lawyer, or decided your next steps... and you do have choices if this really isn’t what you want.”
“I can’t…” I mumbled and finally pulled away from the toilet fully. I closed the lid, flushed, and brushed my teeth quickly before trudging back to the living room.
“If I had a financial or health reason, maybe, but truthfully, if I’d taken this test last week, I would have been ecstatic.
" I flopped down on the couch, "I won't end a pregnancy just because my husband turned out to be a cheating asshole.” I took a deep, shuddering breath. “Grams would’ve been so excited.”
Lily wrapped her arms around me again and squeezed, “I'm sure she is excited.”
I swallowed hard and nodded as I tried to blink away more tears.
“I don’t understand why he chose her over saying goodbye to Grams… What kind of man would do something like that? I feel like I don't know the man I married." I pulled back from her embrace. “How can I trust that he’d even be here for a child?”
“I don’t know. I never thought Ben was..
. right for you." Lily said with caution.
This had been a heated topic several times over the years.
I had tried to explain that Ben just needed to be the provider because his father had abandoned his mother and him, but Lily couldn't stand when Ben tried to control or limit my career choices, and she had never been shy with her thoughts.
Even going so far as to confront him on more than one occasion.
The memory of her telling him to get over his daddy issues came to mind.
"I do know that with or without him, your child will have plenty of love,” Lily assured me.
I nodded and let my mind wander again. I tried to reimagine my future-my dreams-with my new reality.
Instead of a future with Ben I pictured my life with a tiny human by my side.
I smiled a sincere smile, for the first time in a week, as I pictured a birthday party with my friends and family all singing as a little faceless child blew out candles on a cake.
“You’re right…” I leaned my head on her shoulder. “Now, how about that junk food?”
“I’ll grab that… and my wine.”
“Bitch.” I grumbled with a playful smile.
Lily came back with the snacks, a bottle of wine, and a bottle of sparkling juice. We put on some trash reality TV and spent the next two hours laughing and joking about other people’s lives.
· · ─ ·?· ─ · ·
The next morning, I woke up on the couch and was temporarily confused about how I had gotten there. The sudden reemergence of morning sickness brought me back to reality, and Lily woke with a start when I flung myself from the couch and ran for the bathroom.
“Melanie?” She called after me. She didn’t follow me into the bathroom this time, and when I shuffled into the kitchen a few minutes later, I found her standing by the counter bickering with my coffee machine.
“What the hell is wrong with this thing?” she grumbled.
“I don’t know. Ben said it was the fanciest on the market.” I rolled my eyes. “I’m not sure he even knows how to use it.”
I started messing with the settings. I didn’t know how to use all of them, but I had figured out how to make a normal pot of coffee.
When Ben insisted on buying the contraption, he swore he was going to learn how to make fancy drinks, like lattes and espresso…
instead, I was the one who made our plain coffee every morning.
How did he have coffee while I was gone?
Probably Angel-la
My inner voice was the worst mean-girl version of myself before coffee.
“Are you allowed to have coffee?” Lily asked as I pulled two mugs from the cabinet. I scowled and set the mugs down with more force than necessary.
“Until a doctor explicitly tells me I can’t, I’m going to assume that one cup in the morning is perfectly safe. Who knows if it’ll even stay down.” I grumbled.
We moved to the back deck and sat in silence for a few minutes. Lily watched me with a concerned expression as I glared at the hot tub.
“I really want to light that on fire.”
“We can call someone, and have it removed?” Ever sensible Lily suggested.
“I guess.” I rolled my eyes, “You could let me live a little… it’s just a tiny bit of arson.”
Lily snorted into her cup.
“Your honor… it was just a tiny bit of arson.” Lily mocked in a high-pitched voice.
“Fine. We will call a removal company.”
“I was thinking, does your security system have camera’s or just the doorbell viewer?”
“Both. The doorbell camera records constantly, and we have motion activated property camera’s.”
“Good, that’s good. Where do the recordings go and for how long are they saved?” Lily attempted to appear nonchalant with her line of questioning, but wasn’t great at being subtle.
“They go to my brother’s company… are you going to get to the real question soon?” I teased.
She scowled and muttered “rude”.
“Fine, my real question was, is there a way to get the house footage from when you were gone? If there’s evidence of his affair,” she said it with a disgusted expression, “then the lawyers will want it before he has the chance to get rid of it.”
I knew she was right, but I also knew that we only had access to footage from the past 24 hours. Anything further, and I would need to submit a request to the security company, which meant my brother would be notified.
I cringed.
“I can get the footage from yesterday but anything earlier I’ll need to make an official request and then my brother will find out. I really don’t want my brother to watch my husband fucking some girl in the hot tub.”
“Is there anyone else in his company that you could talk to that would keep it a secret for you?” Lily bit her lip. “Or should you just warn your brother?”
“His partner is probably running things while he’s home dealing with the funeral. It’s not like he lives in North Dakota, so…” I often talked to myself when I went into problem-solving mode. “I don’t know if Griffin will lie to Kyle though…”
“You don’t really need him to lie; you just need him to not bother your brother. Kyle won’t even know to ask as long as he doesn’t get a notification about your request.”
“True.” I nodded. It felt good to have a plan. “Alright, first we call someone to come get the tub.”
“On it.” Lily said and pulled out her phone.
“I’ll call Griffin instead of submitting a request. And then we pick a lawyer.” I finished my coffee and smiled. “I’ve got this.”
“Yes, you do.”