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I don’t know how my numb legs carry me up the front steps. I feel disassociated from the rest of my body.
And I’m so damn angry.
Cam helps me unlock the door when my fingers tremble, and I miss the keyhole, then waits while we—Heather and I—walk into the living room and sit in opposite chairs.
I saw her the other night at the pub, but I didn’t really take her in. She’s pretty, with red hair and blue eyes, and she’s petite. Much shorter than I am. And curvy. I can see why Joey was attracted to her.
“I don’t want to hurt you or bother you,” Heather begins. “I just need some answers, that’s all. I didn’t know that Joey was married.”
I roll my eyes, and Heather shakes her head.
“I didn’t. I met him…oh, God, eight years ago? And I’ll spare you the details, but I ended up pregnant fairly quickly. Joey was thrilled. He even proposed to me. For three years, we lived together as a family, completely normal.”
My hands fist in my lap, but she keeps talking. When the plumber knocks on the door, Cam excuses himself to take care of it.
What would I do without him?
“After I had the baby, my Constance, things got…weird. He was gone more. He was always gone a lot because he had a job that took him all over the place. He traveled a lot, right?”
I nod but don’t say anything.
“It got to where he’d come home for one day a week, and then even less. And he became abusive. He didn’t want to have much of anything to do with the baby, and he said he’d come around more if I dropped some weight and didn’t look like a cow.”
I close my eyes and take a long, deep breath. God, he was a piece of shit. I mean, he was cheating on me with this woman, but still a piece of shit to speak to her that way.
“He ended up calling off the engagement, and Constance didn’t see him often. He promised to come around but always broke those promises. He missed birthdays and holidays. Of course, now I realize that he was spending the holidays with you.”
“Sometimes,” I whisper as Cam sits next to me once more and holds my hand. I turn to him. “Is the plumber doing his thing?”
“He’s already gone. Turned out to be an easy fix.”
“Oh. Okay. Sorry, go ahead.”
“A few months ago, Constance asked if she could call her daddy. I called his number, and it had been disconnected. I don’t know why, but I had a bad feeling and decided to do some digging.” Heather rubs a hand over her face. “I found his obituary. And my God, it was all about a man I didn’t know. The name fit, but the details? Everything was wrong. I couldn’t imagine how he could have a life in Washington. A wife. I was just…stunned.”
“It took you months to try to find him? You have a child. Are you saying that it never occurred to you that you hadn’t heard from him or received any money?”
“No, it didn’t. He didn’t pay child support, and like I said, we would go months without a word. I moved on with my life, and Connie and I are doing well. I even met someone. But when I found the obituary, I just couldn’t stop thinking about it. I slept with a married man. I had a child with him. And all the while, he was lying to me.”
I take a long, deep breath and glance over at Cam and then back at Heather.
“What do you want to know?”
Heather blinks at me and then laughs a little. “You know, you’d think I would have made a list by now. I’ve had so many questions pop into my head over the past few months, and now that I’m sitting here with you, not even one of them comes to mind. Any except how. How did he do this for so long?”
“Okay. First of all, I’m just going to tell you what I know, which is both a lot and not enough all at the same time. I know that doesn’t make any sense, but it’s true.”
“Well, I know nothing, so I’m all ears.”
“I married him just out of high school. You probably met him that summer.”
“So, he wasn’t twenty-two when I met him.”
I blink at her and then laugh. “No. No, he would have been eighteen. He must have had a fake ID. How old were you?”
“Twenty-five,” she says.
“From what I can tell, Joey had girlfriends all over the country. He did travel for work, although given everything, I don’t know what that work was. Maybe it wasn’t work at all, who knows. He traveled, and he fucked around. After he died, I found roughly twenty-five women for sure that I know he was with during our marriage, and there may be more. Hell, one of them even showed up to the funeral and accosted me after it.”
