And for what? What did you get out of this?”
Claire actually had the audacity to look bored. “You’re being dramatic.
Emily’s overreacting. It’s just a little lie.”
A little lie? My breath was uneven.
My hands trembled. “You’re going to fix this.”
Claire scoffed. “Oh, yeah?
And how do you suppose I do that?”
I gritted my teeth. “Get in the car! You’re going to tell Emily the truth.
Right now.”
When we got to Emily’s parents’ house, I was armed with a bouquet of flowers and a chocolate cake. It had been her constant craving for the past week, and I hoped that it would make her smile. She was hesitant to let me inside.
I could see it in her eyes. The uncertainty. The hurt.
It was all there. “I just need you to listen, my love,” I begged. “Please.”
After a long pause, she opened the door.
Claire shuffled in behind me, suddenly not so smug anymore. “What’s going on?” Emily asked, arms crossed. “Tell her,” I turned to my sister.
“Now.”
Claire hesitated, glancing at me like she wasn’t sure anymore if this was a good idea. But I wasn’t letting her back out. “Tell her.”
With a sigh, Claire admitted everything.
And when she was finished, Emily turned to me and grabbed my waist. My wife turned to Claire, her expression unreadable. “You owe me an apology, Claire,” she said.
“This was despicable behavior. I can’t believe that you’d do something as horrible as this. If it was such a big deal, and you were genuinely worried about Henry, why didn’t you just come to me?
You could have told me what he said and that you thought he wanted out.”
Claire shifted, clearly uncomfortable. If I’m being honest, I could barely look at my sister. Something had changed in me.
She wasn’t the person that I loved a few hours ago. Now? Now she was a horrible woman who had tried to end my marriage based on a conversation we had a long time ago.
A conversation that had been in passing. A conversation that had never gone any further than that moment. “I’m…
I’m sorry, Emily. And Henry, I was wrong. I didn’t think it would go this far.
I just thought that you two would be forced to have a conversation and that he would tell you the truth.”
“But that isn’t the truth,” Emily said. “It was just your assumption.”
Claire looked to Emily as though she would say something else. Anything to make it seem as though forgiveness was in sight.
But Emily didn’t say much else to her. And I could tell that she was done with Claire. For a long time, maybe.
Or maybe even forever. And honestly? So was I.
I couldn’t imagine Claire being around my child. I couldn’t imagine what she would be whispering to my child or how she’d treat that baby. No, we were better off without her.
Over the next few weeks, Emily and I worked through everything. It wasn’t easy breaking through the doubt that had crept in, but we came out stronger. As for Claire?
Well, she’s on thin ice as far as family is concerned. I made it clear that she’s not welcome around us unless she gets her act together. In the end, I learned two things:
Never let anyone’s drama mess with your marriage.
Be careful who you vent to. Because some people don’t want to help you. Some people just want to watch you burn.
What would you have done? Source: amomama
