7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

"You should come for dinner this weekend,” Mel offered as she got ready to leave my condo about an hour after Rich finally disappeared.

“Won’t your children be there?”

Mel sighed and appeared far more pained than I had ever seen her. “If I could shelter them from their father’s infidelity, I would. Eventually, that beautiful baby girl you are carrying is going to come into this world, and no matter what, she will already have a brother and sister waiting to meet her.”

How was it possible for this woman to be so gracious beyond measure? I wasn’t sure that I could be if our roles were reversed.

“Once again, I’m forced to realize that I am having the baby of a man who should have been too stupid to breed.”

Mel threw her head back in laughter. “Not that I disagree, but what brought that on?”

“You are entirely too good of a person, and he threw you away.”

“He did the same with you,” she reminded.

“Yeah, and that makes him an idiot twice over.” The wink I tossed her way was met with more laughter.

“At least we know he has one thing going for him – good taste in women.” After walking out my door, Mel turned back to me. “I think once the hurt has died down, for both of us, we will be grateful for all the vile things Richard did to us. In return for what he put us through, we have been given a unique gift. Our children will be siblings, and I can already tell that I will end up loving you like a sister. He gave us each more family, and with your mother in poor health, I think you could use a little more of that in your life, too.”

Tears blurred my vision and left me speechless as Mel simply nodded her head and walked away. We had exchanged numbers earlier in our conversation and I supposed the merging of our families would begin this weekend when I met the children of Richard Thomlinson, siblings to the child I carried in my belly. I closed the door and locked up while wondering how in the world my life managed to become so awful, beautiful, complicated, and full all at the same time.

When I woke the next morning, I knew exactly the type of day I would face. There was no calling in sick or taking a day or two off. Those days were being saved for when I needed to go out on maternity leave. Plus, I needed to be mindful just in case anything happened to prolong that leave of absence from work – like bedrest or something before going into labor.

The adversity I would face as a single mother already reared its ugly head in this situation. When Tuesday rolled around after the longest, most emotionally exhausting Monday in the history of Mondays, I found myself walking back into the building where I worked while dreading every step I took toward my office. It didn’t take a genius to know how everyone would see me. I was the homewrecker in their eyes. The blame always fell on the other woman in these situations because the men couldn’t be bothered to be ashamed of their actions.

“Don’t forget you’re needed in HR first thing,” Mrs. Gardner, the floor’s receptionist informed me the moment I stepped off the elevator. I also didn’t miss her mumbled, “Homewrecker,” comment.

Sighing, I stepped right back on before the doors could close and pushed the button to go up one more level. The moment I stepped off the elevator, he was there.

“Avi!” His tone was almost relieved, like he expected I wouldn’t show up. “Thank God you’re here.”

I laughed in his face and continued walking toward the offices that housed our human resources division.

“Avi! Please, stop! We need to…”

“Are you trying to talk to me about work?” Rich stopped abruptly and shook his head, though his eyes held confusion. “Then do not speak to me. We have nothing to say here that doesn’t involve work. This is my job. Keeping it is necessary, as it is the only money I will have, not to mention the only health insurance, to pay for my pregnancy and for my daughter when she gets here.”

“You act as though I won’t support you.”

“You are not someone who is reliable and can be counted on. Now, we are done here, unless you need to speak to me specifically about work.”

I turned on my heel and continued to the HR office where Phillip Herring, Director of HR along with our CEO, Mr. Higgins sat waiting for us.

I was too old to feel as though I’d been summoned to the principal’s office for being a naughty girl, but there I was feeling that special kind of shame burning up my face and reddening the tips of my ears.

“Both of you have a seat.” Mr. Higgins ordered while indicating the chairs opposite where he and Mr. Herring sat. “Everyone knew what was going on between the two of you,” he started and quickly turned his sole focus to Rich. “Mr. Thomlinson, we were unaware, at the time, that you had a family.”

Rich attempted to speak up for himself but was immediately silenced.

“Now, listen, I’m not here to cast aspersions at you – either of you.” His judgmental gaze landed on me and then my belly, as if to insinuate he thought I knew exactly what I had been doing.

“I was just as shocked yesterday as the rest of you.” My interruption startled the CEO as well as Herring who both turned their gazes on Rich, whose face reddened with embarrassment.

“It’s true,” Rich admitted. “I never once told Aviva or hinted toward having a family. She did not know. I even tried to convince her to swap positions with me, so that neither she nor my wife would ever find out when I moved here.” Both men gave him a look that said he was a complete idiot. And he was. It had been a terrible plan. Even if I had gone along with it, everyone in the office knew that we were together. It would only be a matter of time before that got back to me, if not his wife.

“Aviva didn’t know. No one knew. This is all on me. If you would like me to step down,” he offered, but Mr. Higgins shook his head.

“That won’t be necessary. You have a family to care for.” He then slid his eyes to my stomach again before adding, “A growing family.”

I scoffed at that, but wisely kept my mouth shut about the fact that Richard Thomlinson couldn’t be counted on for anything.

“We will do what we can to mitigate your interactions. However, you both know that there are accounts you will need to work on together.” He left his statement hanging there between all parties present.

“It won’t be a problem for me.”

Every man in the room looked at me skeptically and I had to laugh. They gave me a moment to collect myself and then I laid it out for everyone present.

“I always looked to my parents’ relationship for what I wanted in a life partner. My father has been gone for years and my mom still wears his ring and won’t hear of stepping out on her man. She has no hope to ever see him, touch him, be with him again, unless the afterlife is real and then I have no doubt that he’s there waiting patiently on the other side until they can be together again.

“As much as I don’t want to see my mother sad and lonely, I envy that type of dedication and loyalty to another person. It is something I strive for. To have been so thoroughly deceived by someone as to be made the catalyst coming between a bond two other people made – it tears me up inside. I never, in a million years, thought I would be that woman. The other woman. The homewrecker,” as I was called earlier. I threw a scathing glance at Rich then, because he was the one who turned me into that person.

“The person I was involved with no longer exists to me. He is nothing but a memory of a man who betrayed me and is never going to be in my life again.” I stood and stared at Rich for a moment before turning my attention back to the other two. “It won’t be a problem for me to work with Richard Thomlinson, because that man is a complete stranger to me.”

When all three men sat speechless for too many minutes, I moved toward the door. “If that’s all, I have work to get to since I missed yesterday for no good reason.”

“Y-yes, of course. Thank you for being a consummate professional, Ms. Acker.”

“My pleasure,” I told him as I left Rich to sit there in that office with the other two men. I closed the door gently behind me and walked confidently to the elevator where I then took it down one level to the floor where my office was. I held my head high as I passed the judgmental eyes of my coworkers. People who I had once thought of as friends, or at the very least friendly work acquaintances, either turned their backs on me or narrowed their gazes. I heard the murmured whispers.

“Homewrecker.”

“Whore.”

Unbelievable.

I was labeled these things even though I never knew about Rich’s family, and he would probably be able to walk around here like the top cock in the hen house. I wanted to rage on every single person here, but I knew that my job would be in jeopardy if it happened. That made me determined to start searching for a new job as soon as I was able. Being a mom-to-be didn’t exactly endear me to prospective employers and there was no way I could go without medical benefits and insurance while pregnant, so it looked like I would have to suck it up for a while.

The universe was a cruel bitch. I didn’t deserve this. I was positive that Mel and her children also didn’t deserve the fallout that Rich had caused. Yet here we were – all of us weighed down by his selfishness. Love like what my mom and dad shared once upon a time was starting to seem like something that no longer existed.

Maybe, we made it too easy for people to be unfaithful, to give up on what was important to them, to lie, cheat, and hide their dirty little secrets 600 miles away. That’s what Rich had done after all. His only downfall had been that I was a loyal person to my family, not blindly loyal to him, otherwise I might have moved across the state to my own detriment. All the while, he would enjoy being crowned King of his new territory without the old mistress there to show he wasn’t worthy of the adoration.

As it turned out, there weren’t awful words spewed at him in the hallways. They were all saved up for me, as if I had purposely set out to trap a married man. He lied and attempted to set me up, yet I was the one to suffer the fallout and the name calling.

It was not easy to keep the bitterness toward my situation at bay. I had to, though. I had a job to do, and now there was no option other than to give it even more effort than I ever had before. I was the one under scrutiny and also the one with the most to lose considering I had a baby on the way to provide for.

The end of the day was closing in when I got a text from the last person who should ever be talking to me.

Mel: You’re still coming for dinner on Friday, right?

Aviva: Are you sure about that?

Mel: I’ve already explained things to the kids.

Aviva: Won’t they hate me?

Mel: I think their hatred is reserved for their father right now. They know that he lied to you. I refused to hide that from them because I didn’t want my children to treat their sibling’s mother with anything other than respect.

I honestly didn’t know what to say to that as tears stung the backs of my eyes and my throat tightened. How was it possible for this woman to have so much class, so much integrity, that she didn’t hold the affair I had with her husband against me, especially when everyone else did?

Mel: Are you at work?

Aviva: About to pack it in for the day.

Mel: How did it go?

Aviva: Besides being called into the principal’s office first thing and then being called names by the mean girls? It felt very much like the worst days of high school all over again. Except that I never had those kinds of bad days in high school, so this is a new experience for me.

Mel: Of course, that asshole wouldn’t set anyone straight about what he’s done. That would mean taking responsibility for something.

What more could I add to that? She wasn’t wrong. Rich proved to me with every one of his actions, and his inactions, that he was not the man I once thought him to be.