My mother pulled me into her arms the second I burst through their front door, sobbing so hard I could barely breathe. She stroked my hair and patted my back while I choked out the words. “Ben’s gone. He had these sent to me at my job.
”
I shoved the envelope at my father. Frank Carr took it slowly while my mother held me against her chest. The divorce papers were crisp, official, and utterly devastating. My husband had served me at work.
No warning. No conversation. Just cold, legal paperwork handed to me in front of my coworkers. Dad was quiet as he read.
Then his eyebrows drew together. “Missy, he’s filing on the grounds of adultery. Did you cheat on him? ”
“No.
He thinks I had an affair with a friend from work. Andy Hebert, one of our sales reps. It’s not true. I would never cheat on Ben.
I love him. ”
The last words came out as an animal wail. My father’s face went still, but I could see the anger building behind his eyes. He knew Ben.
They worked together every day. The man was not impulsive or cruel. Something didn’t add up, and my father could feel it. “Why would he think that, Missy?
”
“I don’t know. Maybe the hug I gave Andy after he made a big sale. And he kissed me at a happy hour once. I was drinking too much.
As soon as I realized what was happening, I pushed him away. But that’s all. I swear. ”
Dad kept reading.
His left eyebrow climbed higher and higher, which meant he was furious. My mom noticed too. “What are you getting at, Frank? Are you accusing your daughter of something?
”
“No. Not yet. But Ben isn’t asking for 50/50 custody of Benjamin. ”
He held up a sheet of paper.
“He’s naming himself the custodial parent. He’s not asking for any custody or visitation with Kevin at all. He wants his name removed from Kevin’s birth certificate. He wants Kevin’s last name changed.
”
My mother gasped. I collapsed into her arms, sobbing into her chest, the tissues piling up on the coffee table. “Missy, look at me,” Dad said, his voice hard. I forced myself to look at him.
“He’s accusing you of cheating with Andy Hebert. Kevin’s middle name is Andrew, because you said you always liked that name. So I’m going to ask you one more time. Did you cheat on Ben with this Andy?
”
I wailed and buried my face in my mother’s arms. “Will you please drop this? ” my mother hissed at my father. “Did you know?
” he asked her. “Did I know what? ”
He held up another document. “This is why Ben isn’t asking for custody of Kevin.
It’s a DNA test. It says there is less than a 0. 2% chance Ben is Kevin’s father. So tell me, Carolyn.
How long have you known? ”
For thirty years my mother had known my father better than he knew himself. She knew she was standing at the edge of her marriage. If she admitted that I had told her years ago I wasn’t sure who the father was, Frank might divorce her.
If she lied and he found out, it would definitely be over. She shook her head. “I didn’t know. I’m hearing this for the first time.
I think Missy is as shocked as we are. ”
“I doubt that,” Dad said dryly. “But there’s one way to put my mind at ease. I want to see both of your phones.
”
My mother jumped to her feet, pointing a finger at him. “You will not invade our privacy. You are not going through our phones. ”
“People who have nothing to hide hide nothing,” Dad said slowly.
“So I’m guessing you have a lot to hide. Let me say this clearly, so there’s no mistake. Either both of you unlock your phones and hand them to me right now, or I’m filing for divorce tomorrow. ”
“Forget you!
” my mother screamed, baring her teeth. “I’ll clean you out in a divorce. I’ll take everything you have. You’ll be lucky to live in your car.
”
Dad rose from the loveseat, tossing the paperwork onto the coffee table. He walked to the kitchen and came back carrying a plastic Ziploc bag. He turned the bag inside out over his hand, used it like a glove, and scooped up a handful of the used tissues sitting in front of me. Then he inverted the bag back, sealed it shut, and put it in his pocket.
My mother’s face twisted. “What are you doing with that? ”
“I’m going to find out from Ben who he used for the DNA test to prove Kevin isn’t his son. Then I’m going to find out if Missy is my daughter, or if you have been lying to me for nearly thirty years.
”
My mother let out an animal screech and lunged at him, nails raking across his face. Blood welled up in four red lines. Dad stepped back and drove a palm strike into the upper part of her chest, just below her collarbone. It wasn’t a hard strike.
It wouldn’t bruise. But it forced every ounce of air from her lungs. My mother dropped to the floor, gasping, clawing at the air, unable to breathe. She panicked.
I panicked. And while she rolled on the carpet, my father walked to his office, grabbed his laptop, changed the Wi-Fi password, packed a bag, and left. He came back a minute later empty-handed. He walked past my mother, who was still struggling to breathe, and said farewell to thirty years of marriage.
At a nearby McDonald’s, Dad logged into their joint accounts. He paid off and closed the American Express gold card. He paid off and closed the Chase credit card. Then he issued a check to himself, through his landscaping company, for half of the remaining balance in the joint account.
An hour later he arrived at Adam Davis’s house. Adam was Ben’s father. They sat on the patio with bourbon and watched the golfers. “How’s Ben?
” Dad asked. Adam cocked his head. It was a stupid question. “What he’s going through is just about the worst thing a man can go through.
He’s losing his youngest child. I can’t say the same for Kevin, though. He’s not even a year old. He won’t remember Ben.
But Ben will never forget. ”
Dad sighed and shook his head. “She was always spoiled. I turned a blind eye to it.
I guess this is my fault as much as anyone’s. ”
“Where’s Ben hiding out? ”
“He’s at the lake house with Benjamin. Four years old is too young to see his mother having a meltdown.
He doesn’t want to see or talk to Missy. ”
Dad told Adam everything. The DNA test. The lies.
The realization that his wife might have been hiding something from him for decades. “Turns out my sweet loving wife knew all along there was a chance Ben wasn’t the boy’s father. She never told me. Now I’m suspicious I’m not even Missy’s father.
And I’ve left Carolyn. ”
“Sweet Jesus,” Adam exhaled slowly. “Just when I thought this couldn’t get more messed up, you said, ‘Hold my beer. ’”
Adam’s wife Babe walked into the den.
She was a rancher’s daughter, a champion golfer, and she was livid. “What’s he doing here? ” she asked, staring at Frank. “And why were the police pulling up just as I got home?
”
“Frank’s on Ben’s side in all this. Turns out Carolyn knew about Missy’s affair and kept quiet. Frank’s left his home. ”
The doorbell rang.
Babe opened the door to two police officers. Frank raised his hand. “I figured this was going to happen. ”
He walked to the door, turned around, and let them cuff him.
When he showed them the scratches on his face and explained how his wife attacked him first, the officers were sympathetic but clear. “If you had called us right then, she would probably be the one getting arrested instead of you. ”
Adam promised to have Ben call Dad’s attorney. Babe hugged Frank as they led him out.
Six months later, the storm had mostly passed. The DNA test came back. Missy was my father’s daughter. It should have been a relief, but Dad’s feelings were mixed.
He would always love me because I was his daughter. But he had no respect for me, and we barely spoke. I refused him any contact with Kevin. Based on the booking photograph, which clearly showed the nail marks on Dad’s face, he was found not guilty of assaulting my mother.
He divorced her anyway. She fought it, her attorneys throwing up roadblock after roadblock, until the night the two of them were mugged in the parking lot of a nightclub. Parking lot cameras showed a small man in black and a ski mask wielding a thin steel rod, striking both women repeatedly until the rod bent. From their hospital beds, my mother and I claimed we had no idea who attacked us, insisting Ben was the only person with a motive.
But at six-foot-three, Ben was ruled out immediately. The investigation never found a suspect. The two of us stopped going out. We stayed home, paranoid and sniping at each other.
And we finally let the divorces proceed. Ben was granted 50/50 custody of Benjamin, becoming the custodial parent. No child support or spousal maintenance was awarded either way. Ben’s name was removed from Kevin’s birth certificate.
A court-ordered DNA test revealed that Andy Hebert was Kevin’s natural father. Andy was ordered to pay me child support, and his wife divorced him on the grounds of adultery. He was ordered to pay support for their three children and spousal support for her, leaving him in debt he would never escape. Ben weathered the storm.
He kept working for Dad, kept buying into the landscape business, and raised Benjamin. The boy was healthy and happy, except when he stayed with me and my mother. Those visits left him sad because I was either raging at his father or crying over missing him. My mother was consumed with rage at my father, who had become a sought-after date for the single women at the country club.
Babe Davis won the women’s championship for the fifth straight year, despite missing her four iron. And my father rebuilt his life, carrying the scratches I helped put on his face, and the knowledge that sometimes the people you trust most are the ones hiding the biggest lies.
