Page 54 of Another Life
“You are divorcing him, no?” he asks, his eyes glistening like black diamonds. “Why do you care what he thinks?”
“I share children with him,” I cry out, frustrated that I even have to explain this to him. “I want a peaceful divorce. You being here does not help with that.”
Abraham nods once, his jaw set. I want to make sure he understands, make sure the truth hasn’t upset him. But I can’t afford to coddle this man. I have too much at stake.
“Please,” I start, “if you care, you’ll finally do things my way.”
He stares down at me, opening his mouth to speak. And, as if he’s lost his words, he closes it, his eyes flitting to Miley once more before settling back on me. I get another nod from him before he walks away.
I watch him get into his car as Miley walks up beside me.
“It seems like you’ve got some ‘splainin’ to do, Lucy,” she says, pulling her sunglasses down a fraction to look me in my eyes.
I sigh, resigned.
I guess it’s time to spill my secrets.
“You get the wine,” I instruct her. “Meet me at my place.”
Miley adjusts her sunglasses and pushes her lips out before saying, “I expectallof the dirty details, my dear.”
She heads to her car and when I get in mine, I immediately roll down the windows. It’s stuffy, but I already feel like I’m being smothered by the fact that I now have to explain everything I purposely never told one of my dearest friends.
I just hope she doesn’t hate that I’ve kept this secret from her for over a decade.
“What in the actualfuck, Sabrina,” Miley says, her mouth still open after the words have been uttered. She sets her wine glass down and continues to stare at me, trying to figure out how I could’ve kept this from her. It’s something I’ve grappled with for a very long time myself.
“I know,” I tell her before taking a hefty gulp of my wine. I grit my teeth before I speak again. “I’m sorry.”
“Oh, don’t be sorry,” she says with a chuckle, leaning toward me and tucking her hair behind her ear. “I’m just glad you had a ho phase before you married Peter. I was worried for a while, you know.”
“Bitch,” I start, setting my own glass down. “I wasn’t a ho. Well, I—no I wasn’t a ho.”
“He turned your ass out, didn’t he?” She leans in. “I just know it wasfilthy.”
I can’t help my loud laughter at her words. She reaches for the bottle of wine and tops both of our glasses off.
“I don’t know why I didn’t tell you,” I say after a moment while Miley sips her wine.
“Yes, you do.” Another soft chuckle as she gestures toward me with her wine. “You’re so used to being the responsible one, you didn’t want to be the bad girl. But welcome to the dark side. Doesn’t it feel good to be bad?”
And it may well be partly that. But I know that it’s also thefact that if I told someone, it would’ve hurt more when we ended. And maybe I knew from the beginning that it would end catastrophically.
“Okay, so bring me up to speed. You guys haven’t seen each other since college. What’s he doing here now?”
And now comes the hardest part—the darkest part of our story.
“That…wasn’t the last time I saw him, Miley.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
WHAT ABOUT PETER?
PAST
“Please don’t be upset.”
I roll my eyes, pressing my phone against my ear so I can hear him clearly from where I stand outside the loud pub. An Irish pub in Boston. How incredibly cliché.