The Wife Stalker(20)
They sailed back in companionable silence, speaking only when she needed help with the lines. After they had docked the boat and disembarked, they left Piper’s car at the club and took his car to her house.
“I’ll run upstairs and change for dinner. I won’t be long.” She rose onto tiptoes and kissed him as they stood in the entrance hall. “There’s a bottle of red in the kitchen. Go pour yourself a glass while I change.”
“I think I’d rather follow you.”
“Down, boy,” she said with a laugh.
True to her word, she was back downstairs in ten minutes, her shorts replaced with a long, white slip dress. She’d released her hair from its ponytail, and it hung loose and straight to her shoulders.
“Beautiful,” he said appreciatively as she descended the stairs. “You are absolutely glowing.”
She smiled at him. “A certain gentleman is the reason for that.”
They left the house hand in hand, and as she settled back into the passenger’s seat of his car, she replayed their lovemaking in her mind. Things had changed on the boat this afternoon. The relationship was at a completely different level now—intimate and private. They had the whole evening ahead of them, and she knew beyond a doubt that he would stay until morning. It would be perfect . . . and she couldn’t wait to have him all to herself all night.
16
Joanna
The week after the moving van had showed up, I called Leo every day, but he wouldn’t listen to reason. Celeste advised me to give him some space, a chance to see what he was missing. She told me she’d had clients whose husbands had acted the same way when they were in the thrall of an affair, but that after a while they’d come to realize what they had in their wives. But I couldn’t afford to wait any longer, with someone as aggressive as Piper inserting herself, and planned to go to the house to confront him. Before I could, late one afternoon the doorbell rang, and I opened it to see a woman standing there. She asked me my name then handed me an envelope. I realized too late that she was a process server. My hands shook as I read the document that announced the end of my life with Leo. He was severing our relationship with the ruthlessness of a shark. No call to warn me, nothing to let me know that he was making it official.
I wasn’t even aware I was shrieking until my mother yelled to me from her bed.
“Joanna! What’s wrong?”
I stumbled into the living room, my chest heaving with sobs, and thrust the paper toward her. “He’s done with me. And I apparently made it easier on him by being the one to leave.”
She threw the paper at me and scowled. “Are you trying to blame me? I can’t help it if I fell. That bastard was through with you before you ever packed up and left. He’s probably shacking up with that blond bimbo right now.”
“Stop, Mom. That’s enough!” I regretted ever saying a word to her about Piper. I ran to my bedroom and called his cell.
“Joanna?”
“How could you do this to me?” I choked out.
“You got the papers, then?” His voice was flat, devoid of emotion.
“You can’t do this. I won’t let you. Please, Leo.”
“I’ve told you, Joanna, you’ve forced my hand. This is the only way that you’ll realize I’m not going to change my mind. It’s best for all parties involved if we all move forward.”
All parties involved? Did he think I was stupid? “I won’t sign the papers. I’ll fight you!”
“If you do, I’ll keep this thing hung up in court until you don’t have a penny left. I’ve been very generous with the settlement, and I was happy to do it. But if you don’t sign, I’ll make sure you end up with nothing.”
“Stelli and Evie will be devastated. How can you do this to them?”
“This is just about you and me. You’ll still see the children. I would never try to keep you from them.” His voice softened as he spoke, but I knew that once he moved Piper in, he’d try to edge me out. If I signed the papers, I’d have nothing to tie him to me anymore, no leverage to keep him from making a life with her.
I hung up and called Janice, a friend from my book club who was a family law attorney. We spoke for a long time, me railing against Leo and her trying to talk me down. She encouraged me to take the settlement, convincing me that a long, drawn-out fight was good for no one. He was offering me a lot of money, money I needed. I had given up my dreams of becoming an attorney and had spent the years supporting Leo. Now I found myself with no job, and no real prospects, given my responsibilities to my mother. I’d heard of so many women who’d been screwed over by the men in their lives, women who’d been married for years and ended up broke after all their legal fees, while their ex-husbands drove around in luxury cars and took expensive vacations. I had to think of my future. And I had to think of what was best for the children. So I took Janice’s advice and signed them. Sobbing, I texted Celeste to see if she could fit me in, but she couldn’t see me until the following day.
My mind was racing the next day as I drove over and waited outside Celeste’s office. I looked up as her door opened and she beckoned me in, her shiny blond bob swinging back and forth, and looking younger than the thirty-four years my googling had informed me of. She was one of those people who looked perpetually content. Maybe it was because she realized her life was pretty good compared to her patients’ crappy existences.