AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Don’t be sorry. It’s not your problem. Though you were the one that married him. I guess the bigger question is how you stayed with him as long as you did. Even Jasmine was shocked at the way Dad talked to Brenda and made a comment about not believing you would tolerate it.”
His mother laughed. “What did you tell her?”
“That you didn’t tolerate it. And that you filed for divorce.”
His mother got comfortable in the chair across from him. “Do you know why we divorced?”
“Because he’s an asshole that wanted to live off of you?” he asked.
His mother smiled. “Oh, that is part of it. But not the final straw. You know as well as I do that your father didn’t talk to me like that.”
“No,” he said. “I told Jasmine that.”
He figured his father knew better. He’d never insult the money tree that much. Or he’d try to see how far he could push and then step back when he hit a wall.
“I like to be in control, Wesley. I like to call the shots. I like to be looked at as one of the guys.”
“Hardly that,” he said, laughing.
“Holding it down like one of the guys,” she clarified. “A woman in my field back then, I had to work twice as hard to be heard let alone to win. But I was good and I won. Your father was right. I wasn’t there for him. I wasn’t there for you when I should have been.”
“It didn’t bother me,” he said.
“I think it did,” his mother said. “I think there were times you wanted me there and I wasn’t around or came in late when you were in bed.”
“And you’d come in and give me a kiss,” he said.
He remembered that. He never woke up the next morning without remembering that he’d seen his mother at some point the night before.
“I did. Your father wanted me to be someone I wasn’t. I’m not meant to wait on someone hand and foot. I’m not maternal enough to stay home and color and do arts and crafts for hours on end with kids and then have dinner on the table.”
He smirked. “I couldn’t see you doing any of those things. So he decided to find a woman like that. It seems he got exactly what he wanted. You can’t have it both ways.”
“He thought he was getting both,” his mother said, crossing her arms.
Wesley frowned. “Did he cheat on you? Is that why the divorce was so fast?”
“He did,” she said. “I’ve never wanted you to know. Or at least when you were a child. It wasn’t your business and I didn’t want anything to jade your opinion of your father.”
Which made her more maternal and protective than most parents in a divorce situation. “It can’t get much more jaded than it is.”
“I know that now. He was having an affair with Brenda. She worked with him.”
“Oh,” he said. “I hadn’t realized that. I guess I didn’t know that she worked at all.”
“Because they kept their relationship private for a while. I wasn’t around to even know and that was my fault. But I’m not an idiot and your father was. He was spending more money than normal and I started to look into it. I had him followed too.”
He grinned. “Good for you.”
“I didn’t think it back then. I knew what was going on and told myself I was an idiot. But I had no one to blame but myself for the situation of my marriage.”
“It takes two to have a good or bad marriage, Mom. I know that.”
“I know you do, Wesley. I envied your marriage to Noelle, but I also knew you had your ups and downs too.”
“As every relationship does,” he said.
He’d never talked to anyone about those things though.
