I thought keeping the peace with my ex-husband was the best thing I could do for our son. But his new girlfriend kept finding ways to humiliate me, and Nigel seemed happy to let her. At the school fall fair, her latest insult pushed things further than I’d ever imagined.
When my ten-year-old son took the microphone at his school fall fair, I thought he was about to show everyone the pumpkin cupcakes we’d baked together.
Then I saw my ex-husband’s girlfriend grab his arm.
“Make him stop!” Annabelle whispered.
Nigel looked confused.
“He’s just showing pictures.”
But Annabelle seemed to understand what those pictures could reveal before I did.
And judging by her expression, she was terrified of what Dustin might show next.
***
A week earlier, Dustin had come home from his father’s house with a question I wasn’t prepared to answer.
I was cutting fabric for his pumpkin costume.
“That’s an interesting question. What’s wrong with my clothes?”
I put down my scissors.
Annabelle was Nigel’s new girlfriend. They’d been dating for several months, and lately, Dustin had been returning from their weekends unusually quiet.
“What else has she said?”
Dustin pulled at a loose thread on his sleeve.
“She said you have terrible taste in clothes. Last weekend, she asked Dad how he stayed married to you for so long.”
“He laughed.”
I looked at the orange fabric spread across our table.
At 35, I worked full-time, raised a growing boy, and handled most things myself. I wasn’t particularly concerned about impressing Annabelle.
But I was concerned about Dustin hearing those comments.
What happened next changed everything… FULL STORY on the next page.
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