Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
Caleb cuts Jeremy out of his life publicly.
There is no dramatic confrontation this time. No fists, no livestream, no shouting on a porch.
He writes one message in the wedding group.
Jeremy used Dahlia's name to engineer sexual contact I did not consent to. He hired Sable, lied to me, filmed it, and released edited footage intended to damage my marriage. I have ended our friendship. He is not welcome in my home or my life.
Then he adds:
Jeremy did not make me continue kissing Sable after I recognized her. Those seconds belong to me. Dahlia has not asked me to post this. She has asked me for a divorce.
The message spreads beyond the group within an hour.
Jeremy responds from a new account. It’s clear to me that Dahlia wrote that bitch ass statement, bro.
She’s controlling, vindictive and desperate enough to own your balls that she’s turning this stupid bachelor-party prank into emotional blackmail.
Say goodbye to your nutsack, my dude, you might as well put them right in her purse.
For once, Caleb does not defend himself by defending me.
Dahlia is not speaking to me. Every decision I am making is mine. Leave her alone.
I read that line more times than I read the rest.
Jeremy sends me a private message that night.
He will come back to me when you are gone. He always does.
I assume he means the friendship, but the phrasing makes my skin crawl. Could Jeremy have feelings for Caleb? Or is he just so lonely that he’s clinging to him and unable to let him go?
I forward it to Caleb.
His reply comes a minute later.
I have blocked every account I know. Please do the same. I will not respond to him through you.
"He is right," Ivy says when I show her.
"I didn't ask."
"No, you wanted Caleb to answer so you could watch him choose you again."
"That is not what I wanted."
"It is exactly what you wanted. I understand why. It is still a bad way to heal."
I block Jeremy.
The absence of his messages creates a silence I do not trust. For days, I expect another post, another account, another angle. Nothing comes.
Without Jeremy making fresh damage, I am left alone with the part Caleb made.
"He finally learned how to say your name without using you as a shield," Ivy says.
"Do not make this romantic."
"I'm not. I am acknowledging basic sentence structure."
Caleb removes Jeremy from the fantasy-football league they have run for twelve years. He withdraws from a fishing trip they planned. He leaves the group chat containing the six men he has called brothers since college after they insist Jeremy only made a bad joke.
The men do not let him leave cleanly.
One sends screenshots to Ivy after Caleb blocks me from seeing nothing and himself from seeing everything. They accuse him of choosing a woman who abandoned him over friends who stood beside him for decades.
Caleb responds once.
You did not stand beside me. You stood around me while I became someone I hate, then helped me hide it from my wife.
Owen leaves the group too.
Another friend arrives at Caleb's hotel and tells him Jeremy is willing to apologize if Caleb drops the "assault language" and admits the video was a joke that got out of hand.
Caleb refuses to see him.
I hear these details from Ivy, who hears them from Owen. The information travels through so many people I no longer know what remains private or how much of it is real.
I still haven’t processed what happened. I wonder if I’m over the first time he cheated and decide I’m probably not if this kiss and hint of something more has caused me to break down like this.
I can’t help myself, being publicly humiliated by my husband days after our wedding is too much to bear.
"You can tell them to stop updating you," I tell Ivy.
"Do you want me to?"
I look at the empty wedding ring box on my counter.
"No."
The answer shames me.
"You are allowed to care whether your husband is okay," Ivy says.
"I asked for a divorce."
"That is a legal decision, not a lobotomy."
"I don't want his pain to manipulate me."
"Then don't let it. But pretending you feel nothing will not make you stronger. It will make you a liar."
I throw a dish towel at her.
She catches it. "Violence. Very Ashby of you."
Owen calls me to apologize.
"We should have told you," he says. "Caleb made us swear it was finished, and I told myself it wasn't my relationship."
"You stood beside him while I said my vows."
"I know."
"Did you feel sorry for me?"
He takes too long to answer.
I hang up.
That evening, Caleb sends me a photograph of my wedding ring in his palm.
I brought it home. Tell me where you want it sent.
I type three different answers.
Sell it.
Keep it as a souvenir.
Put it back on me.
I delete all three.
Give it to Ivy.
He responds immediately.
Okay.
No heart. No plea. No attempt to turn the ring into an excuse to see me.
The following morning, Ivy arrives carrying a small velvet box.
"He looked terrible," she says.
"Good."
"Dahlia."
"I don't want reports on his suffering."
"Then I won't give them."
She puts the box on my counter.
"He asked me for something else."
"What?"
"He wants me to witness a conversation with Sable. In public. Recorded. He says he will not contact her privately and give her another chance to lie about it."
I stare at the ring box.
"Are you going?"
"Only if you want me to."
"I don't know what I want."
"Then I will go because I want to know what else she is hiding."
I nod.
Ivy reaches for the box, but I put my hand over it.
"Leave the ring."
She does.