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“What in the world has gotten into you, Cynthia and where is this unbecoming language coming from? This isn’t you,” Brian mutters with a perplexed shake of his head.
“Surprise, Brian! This is me. Unbecoming fucking language and all. For the first time in my life, I’m finally happy. Even though I hate you with every fiber of my being, you did me a favor. You made me wake up and realize I was living a lie. You made me realize that what we had was superficial and a joke. I finally have something real in my life. I finally have someone who cares about me for me and not for who he thinks I should be to make himself look better. You can’t just show up here out of the blue after serving me with divorce papers and skipping town and expect me to drop everything to help you out when you didn’t give a rat’s ass if your daughter and I lived or died or even had enough money to put food in our mouths. Get the hell off my porch and out of my sight, Brian.”
I make a move to go back into the house and his hand jerks out and wraps around my arm again, stopping me in place.
“What do you mean you have someone who cares about you? You’re actually dating someone? Who is he? Has our daughter met him? I cannot believe you already found someone else!”
The shock in his voice is evident, and if I weren’t so fired up or immune to his preposterous behavior at this point, I might take offense at the fact that he seems to think it’s so absurd I was able to find someone else.
He stares at me with wide eyes, and all I can do is shake my head at how pathetic he is.
“What I do with my personal life is no longer your concern,” I inform him, once again jerking my arm out of his hold and putting more distance between us.
It’s bad enough Anastasia will have one parent rotting away in prison. I don’t need to be arrested for assault and battery on top of it.
“In case you’re forgetting, you’re the one who found someone else first. You have some nerve getting pissed off at me that I did the same. Now, get. Off. My. Porch.”
“Cynthia, I’m sorry. How many times do I have to apologize before you forgive me? Brittany was a mistake. A huge mistake. She made me go to raves. RAVES, Cynthia. And she always has to document everything on that SnapGramInstaWeb thing. Always making me take selfies and make a ridiculous duck face with my mouth. Do you have any idea how unattractive making a duck face is?! She’s too young for me. She doesn’t even want to go out until midnight. It’s exhausting. I want my wife back. My calm, levelheaded, perfect wife, who is not embarrassing to take out in public,” he rambles. “We went to dinner with Skip Wolfman after we got back to the States the other evening. You remember Skip Wolfman, right? He’s the president of the country club. Anyway, she started telling him about something called Burning Man and how he should go with us. I Googled Burning Man, Cynthia. I’m scared. I’ll never survive. I ended things with her, something I should have done a long time ago. Please, I just want my wife back. I just want you to forgive me. I want to make things right with you and Anastasia. I miss my old life. I miss my daughter. If you don’t help me, I’ll never see her again.”
As much as I don’t want anything to do with this man ever again, his words give me pause. I don’t want to be the one responsible for taking Brian out of Anastasia’s life forever. It was one thing when it was his decision and his decision alone, and I hate him more than I ever thought possible for putting me in this position, but it’s a whole other issue when I have to think about what’s best for my child now that he’s back.
“We’re never, ever getting back together, Brian. I need you to understand that right now. As for our daughter, you need to give me time to think about this. You hurt her. You have no idea how much you hurt her, and I’m disgusted with myself for giving her a father who could throw her away so easily and think he could just come back here and everything would be fine. Go away. Go away and give me time to think.”
He quickly nods his head and smiles at me. I remember a time when his smile would make me happy, now it just makes me sad.
“I’ll give you all the time in the world,” he replies excitedly. “Well, at least a few days. I’m sure my parents will want to speak to you soon and I just really hope you make the right decision.”
