Grant did not call again that day, but Marjorie called seventeen times. Her messages moved from anger to outrage, then wounded disbelief. She accused me of humiliating Grant during the most important moment of his life and insisted decent women sacrificed for their husbands’ children. Not once did she acknowledge that her son had conceived that child while married to me.
On her eighteenth call, I answered. Marjorie ordered me home because Aubrey and the baby would be discharged the next day, and the condominium had “enough room for everyone.” Aubrey would recover in my bed while I stayed in the guest suite until emotions settled. She called that arrangement dignified.
Then I asked what she had known. Marjorie admitted she had known about Aubrey’s pregnancy since February, the same month she blamed me for failing to give Grant a child. Grant had also told her I was not interested in motherhood. He had turned my private grief into another lie.
I ended the call, blocked her number, and Naomi filed the divorce petition two days later. Grant called from an unfamiliar number, demanding to know what I had done. He asked me to withdraw the petition, attend counseling, and come home. I told him the petition was the resolution.
But Aubrey was already there, sleeping in our bedroom because Grant claimed she could not manage the stairs to the guest rooms. The condominium had one level. He had lied so often that he no longer bothered making the lies believable. Still, he insisted he was protecting everyone.
