Chapter 20 #2
"You don't seem shocked that it's become this public."
"Dad's not as smart as he thinks he is," Kimberly said, wiping her hands on a dish towel.
"Did he really think he could have an affair with someone he works with and nobody would notice? Especially someone as visible as Alison?"
"Speaking of Alison," I said, settling at the kitchen island with a glass of water. "What have you heard about her situation?"
Kimberly's expression shifted to something that looked like vindictive pleasure. "Funny you should ask. Emma Grace’s roommate dates a guy who works with Alison's fiancé. Apparently, he called off their engagement last week."
Of course he did. Who wouldn't call off their engagement after discovering their fiancé was having an affair with someone else's husband? The only surprising thing was that it had taken this long for the news to reach him.
"So now she's lost her job and her fiancé," I said, trying to feel sorry for Alison Crawford and failing completely. "Wonder what happens between her and your father now that their fairy tale romance has destroyed both their lives."
"Maybe they'll realize they're suited for each other," Kimberly said with bitter humor she'd inherited from me. "Two people who are willing to destroy other people's lives for their own happiness. Sounds like a match made in heaven."
We were still talking about the comprehensive destruction of Brett's professional and personal life when Devin arrived home from practice, sweaty and tired but radiating the satisfaction that came from three hours of doing something he loved with people who appreciated his talent.
"Smells amazing in here," he said, kissing both of us before heading upstairs to shower off the evidence of his athletic achievement. "What's the occasion?"
"Your sister decided to surprise us with a weekend visit," I called after him. "And I had a very good day at your father's office."
"Tell me at dinner," he called back. "I want to hear everything."
Forty-five minutes later, we sat around the dining room table like a normal family having a normal meal, except that normal families probably didn't spend dinner conversation celebrating one parent's professional humiliation caused by adultery.
"So they suspended him?" Devin asked, adding exactly the right amount of parmesan cheese on his plate. "Like, he can't go to work at all?"
"Administrative leave pending investigation," I said, still savoring the phrase that meant Brett's professionally constructed life was falling apart in real time. "Six to eight weeks minimum. Barred from company premises, can't contact clients or colleagues, the full scandal treatment."
"That's got to be killing him," Devin said with something that looked like satisfaction rather than sympathy. "Dad's whole identity is wrapped up in being successful at work. If he can't go to the office and be important, what's left?"
"Exactly," Kimberly said, raising her water glass in a toast to their father's comprehensive downfall. "Maybe now he'll understand what it feels like when the thing you've built your life around gets taken away because of someone else's choices."
I looked at my children celebrating their father's professional destruction with vindictive pleasure, and felt something I hadn't expected.
Pride. Not in their cruelty, exactly, but in their ability to see clearly what Brett had done to our family and feel appropriately angry about it.
They weren't making excuses for him or suggesting I should try to work things out or pretending that affairs were just something that happened to marriages instead of choices people made every single day.
"I know this is hard," I said, reaching across the table to squeeze both their hands. "Having a father who's capable of this level of betrayal. I don't want you to lose faith in marriage or love or the possibility that people can be trusted to keep their promises."
"We won't," Devin said firmly. "But we also won't pretend Dad deserves sympathy for destroying his own life. He made his choices. Now he gets to live with the consequences."
After dinner, Kimberly insisted on doing the dishes while Devin finished homework that was probably more complex than anything I'd studied in college.
I sat in the family room with my phone, reading news articles about pharmaceutical companies and wondering if Brett's scandal would be interesting enough to make local business coverage.
My brother Gary called at eight-thirty, right on schedule for his weekly check-in that had become more frequent since the divorce proceedings began.
"How are you holding up?" he asked, his tone carrying the concerned affection of someone who'd been watching his sister's marriage implode from a safe distance. "Cheryl mentioned you seemed really good at Mom's birthday, but that was before everything exploded."
"I'm fine," I said. "Better than fine, really. Today Brett got suspended from his job because of the affair. Full corporate investigation, company-wide scandal, the works."
"Jesus," Gary said, and I could hear him processing the information that his former brother-in-law's professional life was falling apart as dramatically as his personal life. "That's got to feel good. Like finally seeing some justice."
"It does. I thought the worst consequence would be awkward office dynamics. I had no idea his affair violated company policies this severely."
We talked for twenty minutes about divorce proceedings and asset division and whether I was really okay with rebuilding my entire life as a single woman approaching fifty-three.
Gary had always been protective in the way older brothers were, but he'd also been smart enough to let me make my own mistakes without too much interference.
"You sound different," he said as our conversation wound down. "Stronger. Like you're finally fighting back instead of just surviving whatever Brett was putting you through."
"I am fighting back," I said, surprised by how certain I sounded. "In recent months, I'm making decisions based on what I want instead of what other people expect from me."
"Good," Gary said fiercely. "You deserve to be happy. Really happy, not just okay with whatever scraps of attention someone else feels like giving you."
After we hung up, I listened to Kimberly and Devin talking upstairs about college applications and baseball recruitment, and all the normal concerns of people whose biggest worry was whether they'd get into their first-choice schools.
They chatted so normally that I knew my children were stronger than I'd given them credit for.
My phone buzzed with a text from an unknown number:
"I work at your husband's company. There are things you need to know about Brett and Alison. Meet me?"
I stared at the message for a long moment, trying to figure out who might have my personal number and why they'd want to share information about Brett's affair that I probably already knew.
An Eastmark Pharmaceutical employee with inside knowledge about the investigation?
Someone who'd witnessed their relationship firsthand?
A colleague with additional evidence of policy violations?
The smart thing would be to ignore it. I already had enough proof of Brett's betrayal to secure a favorable divorce settlement. Whatever else this person knew probably wouldn't change anything about my legal position or financial interests.
But curiosity won out over caution.
I typed back:
"Who is this? What sort of things?"
The response came immediately:
"I can't say over text.
Coffee tomorrow? 10 AM at Brew and Bloomy cafe. I'll be wearing a red scarf."
I looked at the mysterious invitation and felt something I'd been missing for months. The possibility that there were still surprises ahead, still discoveries to be made about the man I'd been married to for twenty-three years. Still pieces of the puzzle I hadn't found yet.
I typed back.
"Fine. See you at ten."