Chapter 3
CHAPTER THREE
Lucy snorted. “His what?”
“Mom!” Brendan said, quickly talking over Lucy before she could say anything else. “I didn’t want you to cut your trip short! I told the nurse to call you back and leave you a message.”
“Oh, I got the message. I ignored it.” She grinned.
“Did you really think I wouldn’t come back to the City when my only child is lying in a hospital bed?
Don’t be insane.” She winked at Lucy. “But I knew you’d be here to hold down the fort while I was traveling, which is the only reason I didn’t have a full-blown panic attack on the plane. ”
“Well, I also just got here,” Lucy said. “I was?—”
“Lucy’s been working long hours. I had them wait to call her until it was a little late in the morning because I knew she had been at the office late last night.”
Mrs. Mably shook her head. “That’s my boy, always thinking of others, even when he is hauled into the emergency room.”
He shrugged, clearly avoiding meeting Lucy’s gaze.
She, on the other hand, was trying to catch up on everything happening at the moment while also shooting daggers at him because the more she thought about it, the angrier she got. He hadn’t told his mother that they had divorced.
Somehow, he had maintained the pretense that they had been happily married for the past twelve months, and now Lucy was forced to play along or risk causing a scene in this hospital room.
Neither option sounded very appealing to her.
But at least one would prevent her from being present during the fallout.
So, she kept her mouth shut and decided she would just look for a good excuse to get out of there as soon as possible.
Julie nudged her son forward to fluff his pillows. “Okay, so tell me what happened. The nurse who left the other message said something about you being hit by a taxi?”
“Sort of,” he said. “But that makes it sound worse than it actually is. I have some bruised ribs, but nothing’s broken.”
“Why are you up here?” she asked. “The man I spoke to in the lobby wouldn’t tell me why you had been brought to the third floor.”
Lucy noticed the hitch in the woman’s voice when she said “third floor” and knew she wasn’t sure whether she should mention the ward they were in out loud.
“It’s just a misunderstanding,” Brendan said. “Nothing you need to worry about. I think they just ran out of rooms downstairs or something.”
Lucy raised a brow but didn’t rat him out. If he wanted to go on lying to his mom, she wouldn’t stop him. That was between Brendan and Julie. She just wanted to leave.
“They want me to stay overnight just to make sure I don’t have any signs of a head injury,” he said. “But really, I feel fine. They gave me something for the pain. The IV and a long nap really sobered me up.”
Julie gave him a look. “You were drinking?”
He waved a hand in the air. “Just a little.”
Another lie.
Lucy wondered if he had always been this quick with a lie. Was this how easily he used to lie to her? When he told her he didn’t drink too much the night before or that he was staying late at the office on a Friday night, was that the truth?
She was beginning to doubt everything, including her own intelligence. If she truly missed these red flags, it could only mean she was either completely unaware, in deep denial, or a total idiot.
“Why do I get the feeling that one of your friends is to blame?” Julie looked pleadingly at Lucy. “I’ve been trying to get him to stop hanging out with those immature fools for years, but he won’t listen. Will you please tell him to make new friends?”
Lucy put her hands in the air. “I’ve tried.”
“You won’t listen to your wife or to me?” Julie said, as Lucy tried to hide her wince at being called Brendan’s wife once again. “Come on, Brendan. Don’t you think it’s time to grow up?”
He smiled up at his mom, but Lucy noticed something a little strained beneath the expression. Julie didn’t realize how close to home her words were hitting at that moment. “You’re right,” he said eventually. “You and Lucy are both right, which comes as no surprise to me.”
Julie laughed. “No, it shouldn’t. Now, that’s enough admonishment for now. Is there anything I can get you? Do you want some coffee?”
“I’m not sure if I’m allowed to have coffee, but I would love more orange juice.”
“You got it.” She headed for the door. “Lucy, do you need anything?”
“Uh, no. That’s okay. Thanks.”
Julie nodded and left.
Brendan pushed himself up in bed and cleared his throat. “Okay, so I can explain.”
“She doesn’t know we’re divorced!” Lucy snapped. “Why didn’t you tell her?”
“I was going to! I am going to. I just haven’t gotten around to it yet.”
“Joan said that Dane hadn’t mentioned anything about the divorce, but we both just assumed it slipped his mind or that he hadn’t told her for some reason. Now I’m beginning to think you haven’t told anyone.”
“I just needed time.”
“Brendan! Why are you dragging your feet? How much time do you need?”
He made a face. “I don’t know…”
“Then let me answer the question for you,” she said. “I don’t care what you tell the guys you work with, but you need to tell your mom today. Now. If you want me to tell her on my way out, I will, but?—”
He held out his hands. “No, please don’t. It has to come from me.”
“All right then. But you’d better start figuring out how you’re going to break the news to her because I’m leaving, and I’m not okay with you suggesting to your mom that I left because I’m overworked or whatever.
You can’t make me out to be a bad wife just to avoid having a serious conversation.
That’s not only very childish but also very unfair to me. ”
“I know. I know.”
“Good. So you’re going to tell her?”
He hesitated.
“Brendan!”
“I am! I am. I will.” He took a deep breath and exhaled with a heavy sigh. “I will tell her today, I swear.”
After a few seconds, she observed him closely for any sign of doubt, but he maintained her gaze, and she knew he was telling the truth. He would come clean. This year-long lie would finally come to an end that day.
“Thank you,” she said.
“No, thank you.”
She frowned. “For what?”
“For coming all this way to check on me,” he said. “I know it wasn’t right to scare you like I did, and I hate that I prioritized my own needs over yours this morning after doing it so many times while we were married. But still, thank you for coming. It was really good to see you.”
This moment of honesty and gratitude caught her off guard, and she found herself smiling. “It was good to see you, too. Hopefully next time, you won’t be detoxing in a psych ward.”
He smirked. “It won’t be. I’ve learned my lesson.”
“Yeah?” She really hoped that was true, because if this wasn’t Brendan’s rock-bottom moment, she didn’t want to be around to see what would be.
“Yeah.”
She bent down and hugged him. “Let me know when you hear back from your lawyer, okay?”
“Will do.”
She pulled away but left one hand on his shoulder. “And take care of yourself. Please. Our marriage may be over, but I still care about you. I still want you to be happy.”
He covered her hand with his. “I want you to be happy, too. More than anything.”
She smiled. “Good. Then you’ll be glad to hear that I actually am pretty happy.”
Happier than I’ve been in a long time.
Seeing Brendan and learning that he hadn’t been honest with his mother about their divorce was, in one word, tough.
That said, Lucy felt much lighter as she left the hospital and got into her car.
She trusted that Brendan would do the right thing and be honest with his mother, but even if he didn’t, it wasn’t her concern.
She was ready to leave that part of her life behind for good, to the point that she didn’t even fear talking to her lawyer about the divorce papers.
She would sign new ones, file them, and everything would be fine.
There was nothing emotionally connecting her to Brendan or even to New York City at that point, and she hadn’t realized how badly she needed that closure until she had it. The only thing left to do was cut the last logistical tie to her old life—her job.
Perhaps it was a bit overzealous of her to want to cut that thread right away, but when she thought about returning to Northampton with no strings attached, it was too tempting.
She knew she had to do this sooner rather than later, or she would give herself too much time to think it over and ultimately back out.
She loved her new life in Northampton; she still had plenty of savings to live on while she sorted out the details of moving to a new town, so what was she waiting for?
She had known for a long time that she didn’t want to go back to working with Graham, and she owed it to her old boss to let him know while he was still onboarding her temporary replacement.
After merging onto the freeway and double-checking that she was headed in the right direction, Lucy focused on Northampton and her new future, calling Graham before her fears took over.