During the first two years of our marriage, I watched Judy bloom. She grew stronger. More confident. Opening her own practice made her feel totally fulfilled.
Watching her thrive filled me with both awe and resentment. My wife didn’t need me anymore.
I guess subconsciously, I started looking for someone else to fix.
When Scarlett walked into my office needing help with her divorce, I never imagined where it would lead. I gave her legal advice. When she cried, I comforted her.
And I found that I enjoyed it a lot more than I should.
Soon I was thinking about her long after our meetings ended. Even lying beside my sleeping wife, I thought about how Scarlett fit into my arms. How she leaned into me, trusting me to hold her together.
I began scheduling unnecessary meetings just to see her more often. Seeing her occasionally at our house wasn’t enough.
Then it happened. The night Judy went away on that business trip. Sadie was sick. Scarlett showed up with chicken soup and games to cheer her up.
After Sadie went to bed, I shared with Scarlett a piece of good news about her divorce settlement. I didn’t plan what happened next, didn’t expect it.
One moment we were talking. The next, we were in each other’s arms.
A line was crossed, and I couldn’t uncross it. Even when I wanted to. Worst of all, I couldn’t stop. In the weeks and monthsthat followed, I gave Scarlett more of myself than I gave my wife, emotionally and physically.
I thought I’d end it before Judy ever found out.
I never imagined it would be Sadie who discovered our secret.
Now she’s running. Trying to hide her pain. My daughter will never look at me the same way.
Every time she sees me, she’ll see a cheating father who hurt her mother in the worst way possible. If this ends in divorce, she’ll know I’m to blame. Judy will never stay with me after this.
Once, four months after I proposed, Judy told me something that faded from my mind afterwards, but the words are now coming back to haunt me.
“I can handle anything, Gabriel. But I will never handle infidelity.”
I promised her I’d never hurt her that way. Now here we are.
I need to find Sadie, to stop her from going straight to Judy. If it comes down to it, I want to be the one to tell my wife what I did.
As I run after my daughter, I think of Judy asleep in our bed, unaware that I slipped out to see another woman. Her best friend, of all people.
I thought I’d be back before she found out I wasn’t in the apartment. Maybe I can still make it. I just have to talk to Sadie first. I can’t leave her like this.
But she’s faster than I am, her feet kicking up sand as she runs along the shoreline now. I don’t stop, even when my legs and lungs burn with exertion.
Ahead, a bonfire glows. The other kids are still celebrating.
Sadie slips past unnoticed, staying close to the water. I do the same.
We’re on camp property now. I know I’m not supposed to be here, but I can’t find it in me to care.
At one point, Sadie looks back at me and stumbles, catching herself just in time. She keeps going. Then we reach a wooden structure that juts out over the water. She runs onto it and I follow, my heart pounding.
She stops and turns to face me, fists clenched at her sides, her anger burning me even from a distance.
“How could you do this to Mom?” she cries out. “And with Aunty Scarlett?”
I notice movement at the edge of my vision, someone approaching. I don’t look away from my daughter.
“I’m so sorry, sweetheart. It was a mistake. It will never?—”
