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“Her life revolves around you and the baby,” the friend had replied. “She doesn’t have time for us any longer. I don’t even bother calling her because she doesn’t even answer the phone.”
So that was that, until Devon Lyon screwed up and got injured. Bob and Elizabeth thought Lila was Devon’s beard and often admonished her for wasting her time with him. It would be in Devon’s hospital room that their only child would meet Charlie Saint, opening a Pandora’s box.
But slowly after Lila’s phone-call reveal, Bob regained the feeling in his soul and his body. First his face lost that terrible numbness that had overcome him right after Elizabeth told him she’d had an affair with Mike Saint, and he could actually smile a real smile for the first time in thirty-five years. The poker face, the resting-bitch face as his daughter called it, was gone.
The truth had the opposite effect on Elizabeth. She had to find something else to fill the void losing the façade Big Mike Saint’s imaginary baby had given her. Only the baby was real. It was the father who didn’t exist.
“I’m pretty sure I know what the next step is going to be,” Bob replied. “I want a divorce. We’ll sell the mountain house and this place and divide the money.”
“I don’t want to move from here,” she whined.
“Too bad, liar. This place would pay for two beachfront condos in Oceanside.”
“I don’t want to move to Oceanside.”
“Ha! You don’t get it, do you, Liz? This is your fault. Now we have to get a life. I’m not sure we can ever make up for the loss of the other life. I’ll never get all those years back. But I’m not kidding you when I tell you that I never want to see your face again. I plan on developing a life with Lila if she’ll have me.”
“You’re so full of shit, Bob. You sat on your ass waiting for something to happen. If it meant so much to you, why didn’t you do something about it thirty years ago?”
“I didn’t want to fight with the Saints,” he admitted. “But it’s not too late to make amends to Lila.”
“It might be for me.”
“Well, that’s your problem. I’m going to go to a hotel. I’ll get in touch with Lila and let her know about the house. Charlie has a place in the Ranch that I’m sure will appraise for at least four million dollars, so they can sell that and find another house.”
The call about her parents’ split came as a complete shock to Lila. “Dad, why now? Why not when she told you she was pregnant with another man’s baby?”
“I loved her, Lila. I realize now that she didn’t love me. She stayed with me because I supported her, and it allowed her to live her fantasy. And thank God I stayed, because I watched you grow up. You were always my daughter.
“Now that the truth is out, your mother finally admitted that she has always loved Big Mike or, as I like to call him, Fat Mike.”
Lila couldn’t help herself, she sputtered laughing. “Dad, that’s so mean. He doesn’t know. I thought he might, but I don’t think he’d be as kind to me as he was when Charlie was in the hospital. Mike and Roberta brought dinner to the hospital every night. They’ve accepted me as Charlie’s new girlfriend. I thought that maybe Mom had told him, but if she did, he didn’t believe it.
“And knowing him as well as I do now, if he had a child with another woman, he would have insisted that he was involved in its life. I think Mom conjured up a fantasy world, and you facilitated it by staying quiet.”
“I have some bad news, too, I’m sorry to say.”
“Oh no, what more could there be?”
“I’m afraid we’re going to have to sell the mountain house, Lila. I know Charlie said he wanted to live there, but I need the money from the sale so I can get a place. I’m sorry.”
“Dad, it’s your house! It’s perfectly okay.”
“We’ll split the proceeds so you can buy yourself a little place if you decide to kick Charlie to the curb. I told your mother that we were going to have to sell the condo in La Jolla just to get her in a tizzy. But I’ll let her keep that place even though it’s worth twice as much as the house you’re living in.”
“Dad, don’t do that! Why are you so self-deprecating? You deserve a beautiful home, too. Now I know where I get it.”
“We’ll see. I’m too tired to make an issue of it right now. I need to see my friend who does divorce in a day.”
“Oh god, that’s awful,” Lila replied, but she laughed.
So although her day started out wonderfully with breakfast in bed, the happiness was tempered by news that is upsetting even to adult children: her parents were going to get a divorce.
“Can we do something today?” she asked, taking the mail from Charlie. “I’m going to go nuts sitting around here.”
“Sure. Do you want to hike?”
“Get real, Saint. No, I don’t want to go for a hike. But I would like to go to the zoo. It’s decorated for Christmas, so maybe I’ll get some Christmas spirit.”
