She paled when she saw my expression. I must look like… my worst nightmare just walked in the door. Because she had. “Uh, yeah, we—”
“Were going to have a baby together.” Kaitlyn smiled sweetly at my wife. “You mean he didn’t tell you?”
Gia shook her head slowly as she hugged the iPad she’d been holding against her chest. “What the hell is she talking about?” she whispered to me.
“Tell her, Joel,” Kaitlyn coaxed. “Come on, tell her about the baby you never wanted. The miscarriage. The fact you bailed on me while I was still in the hospital.”
And just like that I watched the woman of my dreams fall out of love with the man she thought she knew.
Gia looked desperate as tears filled her eyes. “Joel, she’s lying, isn’t she?”
I closed my eyes, looking for the words to right this ship, but none came. So, I had to start at the beginning, with the cold, ugly truth, which I should have told her long before we said our ‘I do’s’.
“Kaitlyn and I were dating in L.A.”
“Practically living together, you mean.”
I glared at her, wanting to correct her, but I knew it was pointless to get into a fight with my on-again, off-again, ex in front of my wife.
“You told me you weren’t seriously involved with anyone when you were living in L.A.,” Gia cried. “Why would you lie to me?”
“It wasn’t serious.” I knew how stupid that sounded, in light of the circumstances, but when Gia asked me if I’d been seriously involved with anyone, I assumed she meant in love and I hadn’t been in love with Kaitlyn or anyone else. “At least not to me.”
“Nice,” Kaitlyn said, shaking her head in disgust. “Real nice.”
“Don’t bullshit her!” I shouted at Kaitlyn. I was watching the one person who still mattered to me slipping away and I was getting desperate. I didn’t want to stoop to Kaitlyn’s level and start slinging mud, but she wasn’t giving me a choice. “You act like I was the only guy you were seeing and we both know I wasn’t!”
“Oh, and how many women were you sleeping with, Joel?”
Gia stared at me in stunned silence, waiting for me to answer, but I couldn’t. I’d already dug my own grave, any deeper and I’d fall right in.
“He made me have a paternity test,” Kaitlyn said to Gia. “Even though he knew there was a risk to our unborn baby, he still made me take the damn test. That’s the reason I had the miscarriage—”
“You’re delusional!” I shouted. “The doctor told us a non-invasive test like a paternity test, posed no risk to the baby. I don’t know why the hell you had the miscarriage and neither do you.” I softened my voice, knowing it was probably still a sore subject for her, as it was for me. “The doctor said it could have been stress… or just one of those things that happens to first-time mothers. It wasn’t your fault or mine, Kaitlyn.”
“What kind of man walks out of the hospital and leaves the mother of his child sobbing in a hospital bed?” she asked, glaring at me before turning her attention to Gia. “A monster. That’s the kind of man you’re married to.” She tried to reach for Gia’s hand, but Gia stepped back before she could. “I’m sorry to have to tell you all this. You must hate me. But I thought you should know what kind of man you married.”
“Why?” Gia asked me, the hurt and confusion etched all over her beautiful face. “Why would you walk out on her when she needed you? That’s not you… at least it’s not the man I thought I knew.”
I couldn’t blame her for questioning my honesty or my integrity. I would have felt the same way in her position. “Why? Because my father was dying, that’s why. I got a call from the hospital telling me I needed to get there right away if I wanted to say good-bye.”
Kaitlyn rolled her eyes. “Convenient story.”
“You think I’d lie about my father dying?” I asked her, shocked and outraged, but not surprised she thought so little of me. I didn’t think very highly of her either.
“No, I believe your father died.” She crossed her arms, looking defiant. “I just think the timing was a little too convenient. For all I know he died days later and you were just looking for a reason to bail after we lost our baby.”
“Think what you want, I don’t care.” My father died within hours of me making it to the hospital for one last visit, but I didn’t feel the need to defend myself to this woman. Gia could ask me any questions she wanted and I’d gladly bare my soul to her, when we were alone. Assuming she’d be willing to listen.
Seeing Kaitlyn and Gia standing side-by-side, brought my past, present and future into sharp focus. Gia was the sweet and beautiful home-town girl I’d left behind and couldn’t wait to get back to. Kaitlyn was beautiful, made-up, big city. There was nothing real about her, including the tears now sliding down her cheeks, for effect. She’d clearly come here with an axe to grind and wouldn’t be satisfied until she’d ruined my marriage.
“I know this wasn’t a coincidence,” I said to Kaitlyn. “So, how the hell did you end up here, in my house, trying to ruin my life?”
I could tell she was trying not to smile when she pinched her puffy lips together and tucked a strand of long bleached blonde hair behind her ear. “Gia tagged you in some of the photos she’d posted of you two together on social media.” She shrugged. “You can’t blame me for being curious about what an ex-boyfriend was up to. I wouldn’t be the only woman, especially given the way you left me.”
I knew it was a shitty thing to do, leaving her in the hospital after she’d had complications from the miscarriage. But I had called her sister and mother to come and be with her, so she wouldn’t be alone. And I never would have forgiven myself if I’d let my father slip away without one last chance to thank him for everything he’d done for me and tell him I loved him.
“I called you the next morning to tell you I was sorry, and to make sure you were alright.”
