His brows skyrocket. “Not at all?”
“No. But I was disappointed.” Despite how bad of a husband I was, I’ve attended enough therapy sessions and spoken to Rita enough over the years that I feel my truth has as much validationas hers. I’ve owned up to my mistakes and she’s taken ownership for hers. “I wish she’d come to me first. That she’d looked me in the eye and said ‘This isn’t working. I need more.’ Instead, we both made a mockery of our vows.”
Mitch nods slowly. “You would’ve listened.”
“Yes,” I say. “Because despite how it might have appeared, I did care for your aunt, Mitch.”
“That’s…disturbingly comforting.”
“Aptly put.”
“So why stay after her first affair?” he asks. “Why not walk then?”
“What’s the SEAL motto?”
“The only easy day was yesterday.”
“Exactly. If it’s broke, you don’t walk. I didn’t bail when things FUBARed. Because a woman I lost taught me taking vows meant you tried. And when I lost her, I realized that meant if I tried again, I’d give it my all—even if it cost me.”
I pause, then try to make a joke, “Also, my divorce lawyer threatened to force me to sign a retainer that made the national debt look like chump change.”
Mitch snorts. “I don’t doubt it.”
“When I found out, I confronted Rita before it spread too far in New York social circles. We talked. Like adults. No screaming. No plates thrown.”
“She didn’t beg?” Mitch asks.
“No,” I say. “She was relieved to have the guilt lifted. Sadly, it didn’t stop her from doing it again.”
That says everything.
“Eventually, we made a mutual decision to end it before resentment turned us into people we didn’t want to become. That, of course, didn’t stop her brother from being a complete douchebag and firing me,” I add.
Caleb drawls, “His stupidity was my immense gain,” for which a round of applause goes around the room.
Mitch cocks his head to the side. “You both seem… okay now?”
“We’re cordial. She’s not the villain of my story.” I scan the room. “But I don’t excuse the choice.”
That distinction matters.
“So,” I conclude, “that was wife number four. The longest. But I have one thing to say. If you think I regret one minute of that marriage, you all need to have your heads checked. My marrying Rita Laskey gave me the best gift I could ever ask for.”
“What’s that, Uncle Charlie?” Kalie asks from the back where she’s standing with her cousins.
“All of you. I was working for Laskey when your parents came in to ensure their identities couldn’t be traced from who they used to be to who they are now. Six young adults who had world-weary eyes and souls that were as bruised as mine.” I find Phil’s eyes first. Then Cassidy’s. Emily’s. Ali’s. Corinna’s. And then I meet the lens of Holly’s camera knowing she’s staring directly at me.
The room hums—not with shock, but understanding. It’s this family’s credo—we all bleed a little for love.
I straighten, rolling my shoulders again. “That brings us to wife number five.”
The air shifts instantly. I tilt my head, the corner of my mouth curling. “Now that one? That’s where everyone knows things got… criminal.”
Rhoswen growls deep in her throat and the fierceness of it—like a lioness protecting her pack—grounds me. My focus turns to Cassidy, who I note reaches for Rhoswen’s hand and squeezes it, not for her comfort, but to calm my woman down.
That gesture alone makes what I’m about to remind them of no less brutal, but still necessary to explain. For the first time all night, I allow myself a smile that isn’t hollow—because surviving my previous marriages taught me one thing.
If you can still love, you’re worth someone loving you.
