“It’s just clothes,” Vincent says. “I have enough at your house.”
“Yeah,” Westley adds, coming to me. “Bye, Dad,” he says, and I squat down in front of him and hold out my hands to hug him. “I’m going to miss you.”
“You call me tonight,” I tell him, “and I’ll be at your hockey practice tomorrow.” He nods and then Vincent comes to kiss me. “Be good, buddy,” I whisper to him. “Call me tonight, yeah?” He nods and then turns to walk away, when Nora holds out an arm for me to go to her at the same time she is holding onto Josephine, something she’s done countless times. “Come over here,” I tell her. “I want my own hug.”
She squirms away from Josephine and then hops to me, and I take her mid-hop, making her laugh out loud. “Daddy,” she says breathlessly after I kiss her neck, “that tickles.”
“Okay, baby, see you guys tomorrow.” I put her down and watch them walk toward the SUV I paid for. I hold up my hand as they drive away and only then do I let my shoulders fall.
Out of everything that happened, the worst thing is having to lose time with the kids. Especially since I wasn’t even the one who created any of this situation. I wasn’t the one who cheated on her, who threw away our family and blew up our whole world. Now instead of seeing my kids every single day, it’s every other week and I hate it.
My phone rings from my bedroom and I take the stairs two at a time to get it. I see it’s my father calling. “Hey,” I say, “you just missed the kids.”
“That’s okay,” he replies. “I was calling to talk to you, actually.” I sit on my unmade bed and look down at my feet.
“What’s up?” I ask worriedly. “Is everything okay?”
“Yeah,” he says softly. “Listen, what I have to tell you, I’m going to need for you to take it in and process it, and then you can do what you want with it.”
“This doesn’t sound good.” I fall onto the bed and look up at the ceiling.
“Your sister came over to talk to me,” he starts nervously. After I found Jeremy in bed with Josephine, I left the both of them and went straight to my sister’s house. She had just had their son three weeks before and they also share a two-year-old. I sat her down and told her what I found, and she was beside herself. I had just finished telling her what I just walked into when he came running into the house, probably shocked that my first stop was my sister and not my parents. She then turned it on me and blamed me for this, since I asked him to watch out for her and the kids. It was my fault for asking him to check on things at my house when I was out of town. Needless to say, my sister and I are currently not on speaking terms.
“Yeah,” I say, thinking he’s going to guilt me into calling her and apologizing. The strain this has put on my parents is also starting to show. My father lost weight, my mother looks like she spends all day crying. “What is it?”
I’m waiting for him to tell me to call her and waiting to interrupt him. I don’t know what he’s going to say but I can tell you, it’s not what I hope he’s going to say. “She and Jeremy are going to stay together.” I shoot back up to a sitting position. “She has been in counseling with him and has decided she is going to give him another chance.”
“The fuck?” That’s the only thing I can say.
“We’re going to respect her and her decision.”
“So you are going to be okay with that cocksucker, who cheated on your daughter with your son’s wife, sitting at your table.”
“If your sister is going to forgive him and move past it, I think we should also.” I don’t even think he believes the words that are coming out of his mouth.
“Yeah. No.” I shake my head. “It’s safe to say if he’s at the table, I’m not going to be at said table,” I make it clear, “and neither are my kids.”
The last part shocks him and he gasps, “You would take your kids away from us?”
“No,” I quickly say, “I didn’t say that. What I said is if he is there, my children and I will not be. You can see them when they are here. You can see them when they have their sports events. You can see them when he’s not in the house.”
“Knox,” he says my name, “it’s like you are asking us to choose. What is going to happen for Christmas or the holidays?”
“I guess it means I’ll see you when they aren’t there. Listen, Dad, she’s your daughter so I know that you are torn. But I was the one who walked in and saw them fucking in my bed with my own two eyes,” I hiss the last words, “no one else. Me. I had to move out of my house. I had to buy another one. My children now live in two homes because of her husband.”
“She shouldn’t be blamed for his actions,” he replies softly, and I laugh.
“Dad, she blamed me for it,” I remind him. “She called you on the phone while I was there and blamed me for it.”
“Your mother is going to make herself sick over this,” he snaps at me.
“That again is not my fault. I did nothing wrong but show up to my”—my house goes louder—“house and catch them, again, fucking in my bed. How would you handle that, Dad, if the roles were reversed, and it was you who caught Mom in bed with someone else?”
“Okay,” he finally gives in, “I get it.”
“No, you don’t,” I say, frustrated. “I don’t think anyone gets it.” I take a deep breath in. “Listen, I have to go. I have a meeting with my lawyer this morning and then we have to go to mediation.”
“Think about what I said,” he urges, and I close my eyes.
