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“What?Honey, in North Carolina you have to live separate for a year before you can even fi— Oh, my.That’swhy you haven’t been around?”
Hadley sniffled and pulled away from Mary Elizabeth, unable to look at her.“I thought maybe Adam had told you.”
“Adam knows about this?”
Hadley nodded.“He… Nan left a letter and said he found out when he was doing the paperwork for her will.”
Hadley watched as Mary Elizabeth sat back on her heels next to her.
“He didn’t tell me,” she said softly.“Attorney-client privilege, I’m sure.But Georgia… Oh, Hadley, why have you kept this from us?”
“Because… Because I just kepthoping.MeMe, I prayed so hard.I didn’t want the divorce.I tried everything.IbeggedKyle to go to counseling.He wouldn’t hear of it.He just wanted… He just wantedher.”
“You mean he’s with some— Oh, that low-downsnake.There aresomany words for a man who cheats but none of them suffice.He did that to you?You?”
Hadley laughed softly, wondering how Mary Elizabeth thought a forty-five-year-old mother of two adult children could compare to a twenty-six-year-old who told Kyle he walked on water.
Kyle’s mistress was the shiny new toy he’d left the old wife behind to play with.After putting him through school, after having his children, building a life and a home together—and for what?“What am I going to do?I can’t tell Mama and Daddy now.Ican’t.But they expect Kyle to come visit.”
“Oh, Haddie, your parents might be a bit uptight, but if you sit down with them…I’m sure they’ll understand.”
“No, they won’t.Momwon’t.You know I’m right,” Hadley said, completely dejected by the thought of having to put herself in that scenario, even though she knew it would eventually come to pass.
“I know no such thing.Now you listen to me,” Mary Elizabeth said, gripping Hadley’s hands.“Your parents love you and it’s obvious that you did your best to make things work.”
“I did.I swear Idid,” Hadley said tearfully.
“Then you have to accept that and move on.”
“Mary Elizabeth, I’m almost fifty yearsold.How do I start over now?Kyle didn’t want me to work.He said there was no need and that it reflected badly on him, like he couldn’t provide for us.And I… I know I’m to blame, too, because I loved being home with the kids, but now I have no training, and even though I worked while he was in medical school, I’m not qualified to work anywhere now.”
“Honey, you are a smart, capable woman.You can do whatever you set out to accomplish.”
“But you don’t get it.A minimum-wage job isn’t going to pay the taxes on this place once the money Nan left me runs out.And I can’t… Ican’tsell Nan’s house.It will kill me if I have to do that, and it will be one more failure in what’s turning out to be a long list.”
Hadley stood and paced across the room, unable to sit still.Unable to face Mary Elizabeth and see the disappointment on her face.
“Sweetheart, you need to calm down.Why are you worrying about selling the house?You’re putting the cart in front of the horse.We’ll figure this out.The money Georgia left you will tide you over for a while, right?”
“Yes.But it won’t last forever.And all this morning I’ve been looking around and this place… There’s so much that needs done.There’s a water leak upstairs in one of the spare bedrooms, and the end of the porch looks like it’s rotting.All of the outside fixtures need replaced due to corrosion, the whole house needs painted inside and out, and even the window latches and doorknobs are ruined because of the salt air.And that’s just the start.”
“Baby, take a breath.Maybe it needs tended to but it doesn’t all have to be done today,” Mary Elizabeth said.
“Nan let it slide for too long.The sooner things are fixed, the better.”
“Then we’ll get it done.One step at a time.But for now, you have to stop worrying about something that isn’t going to happen.That we will notallowto happen,” Mary Elizabeth stressed.
The older woman walked across the room to where Haddie now stood.Mary Elizabeth wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled Hadley to the kitchen, gently shoving her down into a chair.“You’re letting worry and fear get the best of you when you know good and well God’s got this.”
“Does He?Because I could’ve used a little more help in saving my marriage instead of having to end it.”
“Honey, like it or not, sometimes God ends things to protect us from worse things further on down the line.He sees and hears all the conversations and goings-on that we don’t.”
“That’s what Nan always said.”
“Because it’s true.Trust me, He’s protected you from something we may never know about, but you should consider it a blessing.”
Hadley buried her face in her hands, wondering how anyone could view divorce and failure as a blessing.“If you say so.”
