Chapter 10 - Naya leaves Mike
Naya stayed at Mom’s house for six days.
Then moved into a short-term rental.
She did not go back to Mike.
He begged.
Called.
Texted.
Arrived at Mom’s once.
Mom did not let him in.
Progress arrived late.
Naya asked me to meet.
I almost said no.
Then remembered she was seven months pregnant and had just learned her fiancé had a five-year-old he concealed.
Not because pregnancy erased what she had done to me.
Because different injuries can exist simultaneously.
We met in a park.
Naya sat carefully on a bench.
“I’m sorry about the shower.”
“Which part?”
Her eyes closed.
Fair.
“The father comment.”
“Yes.”
“And Mom joining in.”
“That was Mom’s.”
“I knew she would.”
Good.
“And?”
Naya rubbed her thumb along her water bottle.
“I wanted you embarrassed.”
There.
“Why?”
“Because I hated the way you looked at me.”
“How did I look at you?”
“Like you knew what I was.”
I stared.
“What were you?”
Her face tightened.
“The person who slept with your husband.”
Accuracy.
No:
fell in love.
No:
things happened.
“Did it begin before I found the messages?”
“Yes.”
“How long?”
“About five months.”
I had suspected three.
“Did Mike tell you he and I were basically separated?”
“Yes.”
“We weren’t.”
“I know.”
“Did you know then?”
She hesitated.
“Yes.”
Good.
Painful.
Useful.
“Why mock me about not having a husband when you took mine?”
She flinched.
“Because I wanted to believe you lost him.”
There.
Not:
I took him.
“You wanted the divorce to prove something about me.”
“Yes.”
“And now?”
She started crying.
“Now I know I wasn’t special either.”
I did not comfort her immediately.
That was not cruelty.
Her lesson did not need me to soften it.
Eventually I handed her a tissue.
She laughed through tears.
“That’s all I get?”
May you like
“For today.”
Fair.
