1
Julianna
Iput my hands to my forehead as my soon to be ex-husband, Cam, spoke into the phone. It was the last thing that I needed to deal with.
“I just don’t understand,” he said. “We should have been divorced by now. What’s the hold-up?”
I glanced out the window to make sure our daughter, Caley, wasn’t home yet and wouldn't walk in on what I was about to say.
“Do you really think that I’m dragging this out on purpose? That I actually enjoy being married to you? Or do you need to be reminded about why we got divorced in the first place?” I proceeded to pace back and forth in my foyer, my bare feet slapping the granite tile.
I wasn’t near a mirror, but I could feel the heat brightening my cheeks. It was the same feeling I got the night that I found out about his affair.
Cam scoffed into the phone. “Stop acting like I forgot. Yes, I messed up. You know why? Because I’m a human being and have needs that weren’t being met.”
“And you just had to have them met by Lydia of all people!” I screamed so loudly that I scared even myself a little. It was hard to be calm whenever I thought about his girlfriend, though. The woman had utterly wrecked my idea of a perfect world.
He let out an audible sigh, and I instinctively formed a fist with my left hand, stopping to stare at a watercolor painting on the wall. It was one of the first pieces I had purchased when we bought this house. Cam never even noticed it.
His voice held a tone of fake pleading. “What else do you want, Julianna? For the sake of our daughter, please. Just tell me.”
I hissed at him, tired of him acting like he gave a shit about anything. “It’s never been about what I want, Cam. I know this is Lydia, just nagging away at you to get rid of me.”
“You’re gonna have to get over your hatred of her,” he calmly but firmly said into the phone.
I turned to my left and opened the door into the garage, thinking about all of those nights when I waited for him to come home. I’d hear the garage door opening and feel a passing relief, followed by a wave of insecurity about where he’d been.
I quickly slammed the door shut and headed into the family room, tired of talking. “Whatever. Anyway, my attorney still has to look over the documents before I sign anything.”
“I have given you everything you asked for, Julianna. Unless you suddenly want more from me, then I see no reason as to why you can’t sign them tomorrow.”
I rolled my eyes.Oh yes. Everything that I want, except for you to keep your wedding vows.
Plopping down on the sectional, I leaned my head back and closed my eyes. “This isn’t you talking, Cam. It’s her. She wants me out of your life completely, doesn’t she?”
They thought I was stupid. The silence on the other end gave way to the sound of Lydia whispering something inaudible. My eyes popped wide open. “Tell her to speak louder so I can hear, Cam. Or perhaps I should be having this entire conversation with the person who is actually trying to rush this divorce along. Put that bitch on the phone!”
I turned and looked over the back of the couch, making sure that Caley hadn’t suddenly walked in and heard me, letting out a sigh of relief when I saw that I was still alone.
Cam muted his phone to talk to Lydia. Once again, I rolled my eyes, realizing how pathetic and weak he’d become. I was sure by the time the divorce was over and settled, I would have learned how to rotate my eyeballs a complete three hundred and sixty degrees. Either that or they would get stuck like that and I'd be forever annoyed.
“Do you want our daughter to hear you using that kind of language,” he patronizingly said to me.
“Don’t question my parenting skills.” There I was, screaming again. By that point, I was in full rage mode, having to stop myself from throwing the phone against the wall and into a million pieces. “And since when do you care so much about our daughter?”
I knew that comment would get to him.
“Just because I’m not with her 24/7 doesn’t mean I’m a bad parent,” he said slightly louder.
He was doing everything possible to come off as the better person, refusing to raise his voice while patronizing me to the point of insanity.
“You barely make time to see her, Cam. It’s all about you and Lydia,” I yelled back.
A knot formed in the pit of my stomach as I pictured them in bed.
Then I opened my mouth to really let him have it, but the sound of the front door creaking open stopped me. I turned on the couch, putting my arm across the back and forced a pleasant smile across my lips. My sister, Annie, and Caley were walking through the foyer and into the kitchen. It’s the first place Caley went to every day after school. Like clockwork, she would toss her bag on the breakfast bar, sigh, push the wild stray hairs that had escaped her ponytail from her face, and begin to decompress.
“Who are you talking to, Mommy?” Caley did her exact routine and sat down, swinging her feet back and forth while Annie got her a juice box from the refrigerator.
