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“My parents will want to meet him.”
“I’ll tell her that when I talk to her.” At some point, me talking to her has become a matter of when, not if.
“Life’s a fucking bitch, isn’t it?”
“And then you die.”
We laugh again, and he grasps my hand. “Mike was a fool to cheat on you.”
“I quite agree. I’m awesome.”
“Yes, you are, and he was a lucky man to have you.”
“He certainly was.” I don’t tell him that I’m afraid there might’ve been more than one other woman. I’m still not sure whether I’m going to try to find that out. Like Gage said, what does it matter now?
Rob stands to leave and takes his mug to the sink to rinse it out. When he turns back to me, he says, “I’m sorry to just show up here unannounced. I won’t do that again.”
“You can come here any time you want.”
“Thank you, but I’ll text you first going forward.”
I go to him and hug him tightly. “Love you.”
“Love you, too.”
15
IRIS
After Rob leaves, I refill my coffee cup and take that and my phone to the sofa to curl up for a bit. I respond to all my Wild Widows, who’ve texted to check on me, letting them know I’m doing okay and looking forward to our dinner outing on Friday night. Our trip to the beach already feels like a lifetime ago, and it’s been only a few days.
I have a text from Joy.Hey, baby, so this is what I found out doing some digging about estates and stuff. Mike’s estate has been closed by the court. The only way they’d reopen it is if some significant asset was uncovered. I doubt the mother of his other child could convince a judge to reopen it when she never came forward right after his passing. The court would’ve advertised that his estate was in probate, and that would’ve been the time to come forward. Even if she didn’t know he’d died, I can’t see them reopening his estate. I consulted with my partners, and none of us believe that she could sue you for something that has nothing to do with you and that you didn’t even know about until this week. I hope this info has you breathing a little easier. Do let me know if she follows through on any of these threats, but no attorney with an ounce of sense would pursue a case like this with no chance of winning.
That’s a huge relief, which is what I tell her in my response.Thanks for taking the time to look into that for me. I feel much better.
You got it,Joy responds.Looking forward to Friday night. xo
I take extra time with my response to Roni.Thanks for checking on me. I’m okay. Shocked and sad and worried she’s going to sue, but Joy says she’d have no chance of prevailing. I was telling Gage last night that I feel oddly detached from Mike, our marriage, who I was when I was married to him. I’m a totally new version of myself, and I’m still getting to know this new woman. But she refuses to be devastated or set back to the early days of terrible grief by this new information. She’s tougher than she was then, and I’m thankful for her grit. I think I’m done speaking of myself in the third person now!
Roni writes back a short time later with laughter emojis.We’re all thankful for our tough-as-nails Iris, who gets us through whatever challenges come our way with the same grit that’s going to get her through this situation. And I’m done talking about you in the third person.
I think I’m going to reach out to her. I want to know…
Ugh, are you sure?
Hell no, but her son is my children’s half brother…
God, Iris… I hate that you have to deal with this.
I do, too, but I keep telling myself the child is an innocent party. It’s not his fault his father was a cheater.
Do you hate Mike for this? Is that even a fair question?
It’s a fair question, and it does change how I feel about him and our marriage. What I thought I had wasn’t what I actually had, and that’s a bitter pill to swallow.
I can’t even imagine.
I also worry she wasn’t the only one.
