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“You want the truth, Jack?” she finally asked, once she’d managed to pull herself together a little.
He eyed her suspiciously and handed her a tissue.
“The truth is that we can’t have sex because I’m bleeding. I lost the baby...”
Jack inhaled and paced the floor in front of them. “What?” He ran his fingers through his hair. “When?”
“Last week,” she replied, her expression blank.
“Are you sure? Because I read that sometimes bleeding is normal in early pregnancy.”
“Where? Where did you read that?”
Jack cocked his head to the side as a confused expression played across his face. “In the baby books I bought.”
“Oh, Jack. How very typical of you. That’s sweet. It really is… but yes, I’m sure. The doctor confirmed it.”
He felt the color drain from his face. “Well, why didn’t you tell me, then?”
“Oh… I don’t know. Probably for the same reason that you didn’t tell me about your little trip to Iceland. Or that your friend was coincidentally there at the same time. Do you think I’m stupid, Jack? All it takes is a tiny bit of research. And you really don’t cover your tracks very well, love.”
Jack sighed and sat down on the bed. He said nothing, which was his normal M.O. in times of trouble.
Elise crawled over to where he was sitting. “Look, Jacky…”
“Don’t call me that. Don’t you ever call me that!” he spat.
“Ok, JACK… You’re right. Let’s not do this tonight. I think it’s best that we put this all behind us. I didn’t want to ruin our wedding, so I didn’t say anything before. Same as you, really. The doc says we can try again… that there was no reason for it… he said sometimes these things just happen.”
“Is that why you threw the twenty-five percent shareholder bit in my face when I returned? Because you knew?”
“Oh, Jack. Don’t be so dramatic. I wasn’t exactly lying, was I?”
“Well, it sure makes a hell of a lot more sense now.”
“Jack. Stop it. I thought you said we were going to put this all behind us.”
“No. Actually, I didn’t say that. I wouldn’t even know where to start,” he scoffed.
“Well, how about this? You lied. And I didn’t exactly tell you the whole truth either… but what’s done is done. It’s time to think about our future now and let the past stay where it belongs, which is in the past. I promise to tell the whole truth from now on—so long as you promise to never see that girl again.”
Had Jack heeded his mother’s advice and taken his marriage day by day, he would’ve seen this for what it was. Instead, he’d been too busy thinking about what had taken place, and what it meant for his future. Unfortunately for Jack, like most people, he was too involved with his past and too concerned about his future to see what was happening right in front of him. If he had been paying attention to the present moment, he would’ve clearly seen that his marriage had been obtained under false pretenses and that by not consummating it, he could have quite easily obtained an annulment.
Jack dropped his towel and dove into the infinity edge pool as he did every evening at this time, rain or shine. He swam lap after lap until he was spent—until even one more lap became impossible. It helped clear his mind, he told himself. On this particular day, his mind drifted back to his wedding day and how he now realized that he was nothing more than just a stand in. It could’ve been any groom up there at the altar that day, and it probably wouldn’t have made any difference, he thought to himself. But that’s not to say that he didn’t try. By god, he had tried. What most people didn’t realize about Jack was that while he was a relentless businessman, he could also be forgiving—albeit he never forgot. That is exactly what he did when Elise confessed that she’d known about
both the miscarriage and his trip with Amelie prior to their wedding. He forgave her. If he remembered correctly, “Let’s just call it even” had been the exact words he’d used.
For the next five years, he’d tried so hard to make the marriage work. Jack didn’t consider himself to be a quitter, so how it was that he found himself banned from his own home—banished to the lake house, and going on day forty-eight of this—he had no idea. Elise had thrown him out—or more accurately, pushed him out—and for the first time in a long time, Jack found himself without answers as to what to do about it. He didn’t want to give up. He wanted to work at it. But working on a marriage takes two, and so far, he was minus one in that department. It baffled him. He’d given her everything she had ever wanted. With the exception of the one thing that obviously mattered most, and that happened to be one that even he couldn’t fix—carrying a pregnancy to term.
Exhausted, Jack climbed out of the pool, toweled off, and picked up his cell. For the ninth time that day, he dialed Elise. This time was no different—his call went straight to voicemail. He set the phone down and sank back in the lawn chair. As he watched the setting sun sink further and further into the sky, he did his best to recall their last conversation word for word. He racked his brain trying to figure out what he might be missing—what it was that could have been so different from any other time that would make her act this way.
“We should just call this what it is,” Elise said. She was sitting on their sofa resting her face in her hands. “It’ll never happen, Jack. Don’t you see? It isn’t happening. It just isn’t meant to be!”
“It’s ok, sweetheart. We’ll just do what the doc suggests and hire a surrogate,” Jack said, as he leaned into her and rubbed her back in circles.
“No. I’ve already told you! How many times have I told you this? I do not want to watch another woman carry my child and know everything I’m missing. I just won’t do it!”
Jack exhaled. “Ok, then. We’ll just revisit adoption. I’ll put a call into the attorney tomorrow.”
