On Saturday morning, I drove to my mother-in-law’s house.
She was eighty-two years old.
She lived in a small brick house with a garden full of roses.
I had loved her for decades.
She had helped me raise our children.
She had held my hand when my father died.
She had sat beside me at the hospital when Jim had his surgery.
I had always believed she was one of the few people in the world who would never betray me.
When she opened the door, she looked at my face.
Then she stepped aside.
“Come in, Muriel.”
I sat at her kitchen table.
She poured tea.
Neither of us spoke.
Finally, I asked.
“Did you know?”
Her hands trembled.
“Muriel…”
“Did you know Jim had two children with another woman?”
She closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
The room seemed to tilt.
“How long?”
“Several years.”
I stared at her.
“You knew?”
She nodded.
“And you let me stand at that pharmacy counter and discover it from an insurance profile?”
Tears rolled down her cheeks.
“I didn’t know how to tell you.”
I laughed bitterly.
“That’s what everyone says.”
She reached for my hand.
“Jim begged me not to tell you.”
I pulled my hand away.
“He begged you to lie to me?”
“He said he would tell you eventually.”
“Eventually?”
She began crying.
“I thought he would.”
I looked around the kitchen.
The old curtains.
The photographs.
The little clock above the refrigerator.
I had spent so many years feeling like this was my second home.
Now I felt like a stranger.
“What about the house on Cedar Street?” I asked.
She looked down.
“I let Claire and the children live there.”
“Did you know Jim was visiting them?”
“Yes.”
“Did you know he was using our insurance?”
She nodded.
I stood.
“I’m going home.”
She reached for me.
“Muriel, please.”
I turned toward her.
“I loved you.”
Her face crumpled.
“I love you too.”
I shook my head.
“Then why did you help him make me a fool?”
She had no answer.
I left.
And as I drove down the road, I realized that betrayal was not always one person’s act.
Sometimes it was a whole family deciding that one woman’s pain was easier to ignore than a man’s wrongdoing.
CLICK HERE CONTINUE TO READ>>Chapter 6: The Children
