Chapter 4 - Why I Kept Her Secret
Nathan sat across from me in our hotel room while I told him everything.
He didn’t interrupt.
That made it harder.
When I finished, he asked:
“Why did you keep Paige in your life?”
Fair question.
“I barely did.”
“She was at our wedding.”
“Mom begged me.”
Nathan leaned back.
There it was.
The answer I hated admitting.
Mom.
Family.
Peace.
After my divorce, my mother had been devastated.
Not only because Grant cheated.
Because Paige was involved.
She kept saying the same thing.
“We cannot lose both my daughters.”
As if I were the one creating the possibility.
Paige apologized eventually.
Not properly.
She said:
“I was lonely.”
Then:
“Grant told me your marriage was basically over.”
Then:
“I never wanted Molly hurt.”
Then:
“You weren’t happy anyway.”
Every apology contained an exit door.
I accepted limited contact because family holidays became unbearable.
Then because Mom developed heart problems.
Then because Molly missed her cousins.
One reason became another.
Paige learned the lesson.
She could betray me and still remain in the room as long as everyone else became uncomfortable enough.
Nathan looked down.
“And you never told Molly?”
“No.”
“Does Grant see her?”
“Yes. Regularly.”
“And does she know he cheated?”
“She knows there were adult problems. Nothing more.”
Nathan nodded.
“That part I understand.”
I touched his hand.
“I wasn’t protecting Paige.”
“You kind of were.”
The sentence hurt.
Because it was true.
My silence protected Molly.
But it also protected Paige.
Both things could be true.
Nathan continued.
“I’m not mad that you didn’t tell me immediately. I’m hurt that you thought you still had to carry this alone.”
I looked at him.
“I didn’t want my first marriage inside my second.”
He squeezed my hand.
“Then don’t bring the marriage in.”
“What?”
“Bring the truth.”
That sentence stayed with me.
The next morning I called my divorce attorney, Angela Price.
“Do you still have the discovery archive from my case with Grant?”
“Yes.”
“All of it?”
“Yes.”
“Including his phone records?”
There was a pause.
“Yes.”
I stared out the hotel window.
During the divorce, I had read only enough to know the affair was real.
Then I stopped.
I wanted out more than I wanted every detail.
Now Paige had humiliated Molly publicly.
May you like
And something inside me wanted to know what I had been too exhausted to read three years earlier.
“Send me the archive.”
