11. Steph

CHAPTER 11

Steph

“Have you told him about your appointment?”

“No.”

“Considering it’s in an hour, don’t you think you should do that?” I rolled my eyes at my twin. He was the one who didn’t want me to be with Ollie to begin with. I wasn’t sure why the hell he kept pressuring me to involve the man in my pregnancy. If anything, I would have thought he would have helped me keep the pregnancy hidden.

“He wouldn’t even know I was pregnant if it wasn’t for you. I’m angry, Stevie. Why can’t you, of all people, understand that?”

“I do, but the reason you’re angry now isn’t his fault.”

I glared at my brother. “Everything is his fault. If he had never climbed back in between that bitch’s legs, I wouldn’t be out of a job.”

“You weren’t fired.”

“I have been put on indefinite leave without pay for the safety of the students and staff, Steve. Unpaid leave,” I reiterated, “because they have to hire a sub to take my place. I am a single, pregnant mother who is divorcing my cheating, lying husband and I have no income.”

“You have savings, right?”

“How long do you think that will last?”

“Everything is paid for, so…”

“No, dimwit! Everything is not paid for. I have a car payment, vehicle insurance, my phone bill, the utilities, and food. Then I have my doctor bills because insurance doesn’t cover everything. Who knows how long I will even have the insurance? Not to mention the fact that I will need maternity clothes and baby stuff soon.”

“Okay, we need to unpack a few things. First, your husband is supposed to cover the house maintenance fees.”

“Yeah, that means taxes and home owner’s insurance. Not utilities, or other stuff.”

“Okay. Why do you have a car payment?”

“When my old Toyota died two years ago, I told Ollie that I needed a new car, in the hopes that he would go with me to help pick one out. He told me to go get one and ran out the door to work. So, I went and got a car, but I never needed credit before and didn’t have a lot of money to put down, so I have a $542 a month payment.”

“What the fuck, Sis? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I was embarrassed that he couldn’t be bothered and you already had a bad opinion of him.” I shrugged.

“Your husband and your lawyer are both under the impression that he owns that car you’ve been driving.”

“I’m not sure why they would think that, considering I don’t even own it yet since I’m still making payments.”

“Okay, and finally, why isn’t he paying child support for his son who is living with you? Not only the full parenting burden, but the financial aspects of raising Den, are on your shoulders right now.”

“I haven’t asked.”

“You shouldn’t have to.” Steve pulled his ringing cell phone out of his pocket and answered it. Then he started filling in whoever was on the other end of the line about my financial and career crisis.

I slapped at my brother to get him to shut up until he finally growled at me to stop. “It’s Hutch and he needs to know this shit as your lawyer.”

I huffed and plopped down on my couch. It was good that Den was in school. Those assholes couldn’t deny him an education. Instead, they put me on unpaid leave and banned me from drop off and pick up. Ollie’s mom or Steve handled it for us. Honestly, I wasn’t even sure Ollie knew about any of it.

For all his bluster about fixing things between us, he had dropped the ball and I hadn’t heard from him in days. Despite everyone’s assurances, Ollie’s TV appearance, and Jia’s videotaped statement retracting her claims that I was a homewrecker, it did not make everything go away. In fact, Jia’s statement made it all worse, especially when it came to light that Jia’s lawyer had quit and left her alone with Ollie and Caleb.

“I honestly hate my life,” I sighed out loud. Everyone was back on a “poor Jia” kick.

They thought she had been forced to retract her original statement. No one seemed to care about all the evidence that contradicted her statement, especially where I was concerned. The reporters were relentless in trying to reach me for my side of the story. Since I refused to cooperate with them, they made me their target to vilify. As if I owed the world an explanation when I’d been the victim of two horrible people’s actions.

My phone dinged with an incoming text.

Hutch: Meeting tonight with Ollie and his lawyer. It will be at your place at 6pm because all parties will be hounded by press anywhere else.

Steph: Fine.

I called Monica about keeping Denmark for a while longer and she quickly agreed to keep him overnight instead. I knew, even though she didn’t say anything, her hope was that her son and I were meeting about a reconciliation and putting the whole ugly mess behind us. My mother-in-law would be disappointed later when she realized that would never happen.

“Thanks for making the rest of my day a complete stress fest.” I rubbed my eyes tiredly as my words found their mark with my twin.

“Sorry, Steph. You need help, and being stubborn won’t fix the problems that keep piling up for you.”

“It’s my mess to fix,” I argued.

“No, it really fucking isn’t. This is all on Ollie to fix. He is directly responsible for your current lack of employment, pregnancy, and your inability to leave the damn house, let alone any possibility to find a job elsewhere.”

That did it. My stupid brother summoned my stupid tears and once they started, I couldn’t get them to stop.

“Shit,” Stevie hissed after the first couple minutes of my sob fest. “Fuck!” My brother growled when it continued for more than ten. “I’m sorry. Dammit, Steph. I’m no good with all the crying stuff. Please, stop!” He begged which only made me cry harder.

Then, to my complete horror, my brother started to sob right along with me. “Knew I should have killed that fucker before you could marry him.”

“S-s-stop.” I stutter-sniffled my way through that one word. Steve simply continued to blubber next to me. I rolled my tear-swollen eyes and then blew out a watery half-laugh, half-sob that made me form a very undignified snot bubble from my left nostril. That sent us both into a giggle fit to end all giggle fits, which in turn led to a startled yelp from me.

“Shoot. I just peed on myself a little, you jackass.” That only made Stevie laugh even harder. “You’re a psycho,” I called back to him as I ran to the bathroom while trying to clutch my thighs together to stop the pee from coming out.

It did not work.

By the time I made it to the toilet, and pulled my soaked jeans down, there was barely a tinkle of urine left to expel from my body. I groaned. As if I hadn’t faced enough humiliation lately. I hadn’t peed my pants since the incident in first grade where my brother also peed his pants in solidarity so kids would stop making fun of me. I’d been known as Stephan-pee for all of five minutes before Stevie-pee was crowned the latest “pee pot” of the classroom.

“Don’t worry, Stephan-pee, I’ll mop the floor while you finish up.”

“Asshole,” I muttered. “Go get me some yoga pants or something.”

“Fine but I’m not going through your underwear drawer. I don’t need to see what you wear down there.

“Okay, but when I’m commando under my yoga pants, you’re still technically seeing what I’m wearing down there, idiot!”

“Ugh!” He yelled back. “Fine, but never ask me to do this again.”

“What if I go into labor and need you to pack me a bag?”

“I suggest you get your hospital bag pre-packed soon and tell me where it is. Keep one in your car and one by the door just in case or something.”

“You’re ridiculous!” I yelled at my brother.

“Yeah, well you peed your pants!”

I rolled my eyes and marveled at how childish we could still be. At the same time, I was thankful for it because it was the first time in months that I felt normal and not bogged down by all the stress.

Later that evening, Hutch, Ollie, and Caleb all showed up within minutes of one another. Stevie brought them all back to the dining room where I was seated. Part of me ached to lay eyes on my husband, who I hadn’t seen or heard from in about two weeks. The other part of me couldn’t stand to look at him. He was the same person but recent events and revelations changed how I saw him now. It made him look different to me in a weird way that defied explanation. The phenomena of seeing both the man I had loved for years and the stranger his actions turned him into was disconcerting to me.

“Steph,” Ollie called out when I failed to acknowledge his presence. “Are you doing okay?”

“You might already know the answer to that question if you bothered to check on your wife and kid – you know, the family you claim to still want despite your disappearing act.”

“Whoa! If this was a set up, so you could get Ollie here to lay into him, I’ll take my client and we’ll leave. I was told this was an emergency situation. Ollie has been trying to save his company from the fallout of all the negative press.”

“At least he gets the luxury to try, even though his own actions caused the problem,” Steve yelled at Caleb. “My sister lost her job. She’s a pregnant, single mother with no income, medical expenses, bills to pay, and a kid to feed. Thanks to her husband cheating so publicly and allowing his side piece to drag her through the mud, my sister has no job prospects at all and too much stress considering her condition.”

“What does he mean? You lost your job?” Ollie asked.

“I am technically on forced, unpaid leave because it is a security hazard to have me on campus. I’m not even allowed to drop off and pick up Denmark. Steve or your mom have to do it for me.”

Ollie glanced at everyone in the room completely floored by the news. “Why am I just now hearing about this?”

“First I’m hearing it too, man.” Caleb glared at Hutch who raised his hands in surrender.

“We’re working on dealing with the school thing. I didn’t know Ollie hadn’t been in touch, failed to offer financial support of any kind – including for his son – or that Steph’s car is financed and she has payments to make. That is a violation of the prenup that needs to be dealt with immediately.”

“What the fuck?” Ollie roared. “How in the hell do you have a car payment? Did you get something new?”

I would not cry. “Two years ago. I asked you to help me go pick out a car when my old one broke down. You were too busy.”

“Okay, but why did you finance it?”

I stared at my husband like he was stupid. “I’m a teacher. I don’t make enough money to flat out buy a vehicle with cash.”

“You could have used the joint account, Steph.”

My laughter was met with blank stares all around the table. “I tried to pay the electric bill with your account three years ago, after we got married, and they refused to allow it because my name wasn’t on the checks. So, rather than continue to be embarrassed, and treated like a thief again, I always paid everything myself or had to take a loan for things like my car.”

“So, you’ve been paying the utilities out of your own paycheck alone all this time?” Hutch asked. I nodded my head. “How do you pay for groceries for the family? Denmark’s clothes and school supplies?” Hutch fired the questions off to me rapidly.

“I pay for everything with my account.” I turned my glare on my brother for making me go through yet another mortifying conversation. “That’s why my savings isn’t sufficient to carry me through my pregnancy without a job. There isn’t much of it to work with, especially with mounting medical bills and impending expenses for the baby.” I glanced around at all the men who were gaping at me like they never heard of a woman who paid the bills before. Then I added on, “Everything would have been fine if I had been able to work until my due date.”

Ollie sat there staring at me like I had two heads. “You have been paying for everything.” He stated it as if it needed to be repeated to be believed. “Why the hell didn’t you ever say anything?”

I shrugged. “Figured you knew when no money came out of your account.”

“Fuck’s sake, Steph. That account is meant to be joint and I don’t use it other than to deposit money into it each month and that is done automatically.” Ollie pulled his phone out and fiddled with something. “Christ! There’s over $200,000 in the account. I’ve been depositing $6,000 into it every month since we married three years ago.”

All three men turned back to me. I looked at them all like they were missing the big picture, because they were. “How in the hell did you expect me to access the money? You never gave me an ATM card and the checks you gave me only had your name on them – which is why they wouldn’t allow me to endorse it at the electric company.”

“Why didn’t you ever tell me?”

“After the way you made a huge deal about gold diggers when we dated, and then had me sign a prenup that left me with absolutely nothing if we divorced, I didn’t really feel comfortable asking you about anything financial. You paid for the house. I figured me paying everything else was my contribution.”

“What in the absolute fuck, Ollie?” Hutch growled. “You need to sign that supposed joint account over to Steph. You owe her for the three years she has been propping up your family financially all on her own. Not to mention, you were supposed to provide a vehicle that was paid for. She spent the first year of your marriage in her run down, ancient Toyota Celica until it died. Then, she financed her new vehicle herself. I always wondered why you were such a cheap fucker to get her a used car. Turns out, it was worse than that.”

“I didn’t fucking know!”

“You didn’t care to or you would have checked. Fuck man, do you even know what kind of car my sister drives or were you that oblivious?”

“Steph, I’ll make this all right, I promise,” Ollie directed toward me as he ignored my brother’s question.

“It’s too late to make anything right. I need the media circus to leave us the hell alone, so I can get my life back on track. That’s all I want from you at this point.”