Ex-Husband's Regret

Her side of the story
Mom collapses in the chair after my admission. The heartbroken look in her eyes was undoing

me. The disappointed look she gave me nearly made me crumble on the spot.
Travis, who had been holding me, lets go as if I had burned him. He backs away from me slowly

until he’s a few feet away.

I know the rest had varying degrees of shock, but they didn’t matter to me right now. Not when

my family was looking at me like they didn’t know me. Like I was a stranger.

“Please tell me you’re playing a sick joke on me,” Mom pleads. “Tell me you didn’t have a child and

kept him hidden from us all these years.”

I want to lie to them just so the heartbroken and disappointed look in their eyes will disappear. I

know that I can no longer do that. There was no hiding from this. There was no more running from

the truth.

“I’m sorry. So sorry,” I cry as I stumble towards her. “I wanted to tell you, but I was so ashamed.”

I go to take her hand, but she flinches and pulls it away.

This is what I’ve been so afraid of. Ava was right. I was the perfect daughter. The one who never

made any mistakes.

The one that thought things through before, except for that one time. Now their image of me is

tarnished. Now they know that I am just like them. Human. The Ace card I had over Ava was gone. 2

I was in the same boat as Ava. I made mistakes that are now hunting me. Sleeping with Calvin

remains the greatest mistak

y life.

“H–How did this happen? When did it happen…did dad now?” Travis asks as he paces, frustration

clear in his steps.

“Dad didn’t know. No one except Calvin and Molly knew.” I look at the ground, unable to face the

look on my mom’s face.

“Start from the beginning and don’t leave a single thing out. I want to know why the hell you’ve

kept my grandson a secret from his family,” Mom growls, her eyes turning fierce.

I didn’t want to rehash the past, but at this point, I don’t think I had any choice. If I didn’t want

them to be even madder than they were right now, then I had to spill it.

1/5

+15 BONUS

“When Rowan married Ava, I was broken I tried not to let it show. Tried to make you, dad, and

Travis believe I was okay because you were all so worried about me. I felt like I was drowning,

my world had exploded, and I’d been left with nothing. When I went back to school,

you,

as I

with Ava.

didn’t eat, I didn’t sleep, and I didn’t attend classes. In fact, I rarely left

started pushing, and when I refused to

want you

how tough

much bitterness and resentment towards Ava back then. I

fallen, she would have been ecstatic.

been going through her own

after that. Molly became my

constantly cry or think about Rowan every second.” I take a deep

Calvin again. It turns out we went to the same Uni and he was also

assignment partner.” 2

talk to him. After all, we weren’t friends. I tolerated him because he

any remnants of the obsession he

being weary of him. We co–existed. He stayed out of my way and I

but now more

going well for some time.

m alled me to let me

Rowan fell in love with his son at first sight. Everything around

been hiding came to the surface.” I try to breathe through the pain of the memories, but

so fucking hard.

Angry at myself for turning down Rowan’s proposal,

getting drunk and sleeping with Ava, angry at Ava for

loved and angry at

air. I don’t need to turn to know that it is from Rowan. I

because if everything had gone the

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*15 BONUS

for the way he crushed on me, so that night I approached Calvin and seduced him I knew word would probably get back to Rowan, and that would have hurt him. That’s why I slept with Calvin that night, because I counted on Rowan’s friend telling him. He would have been so hurt, I would have gotten my revenge, and maybe then it would no longer hurt

Rowan and in the end I gave it to the guy

a mistake and that he should forget about what happened between us. I snuck out of his room, and I thought that was that. That

wrong. I hadn’t planned for what was

like the other didn’t exist, that is, until my period was late.

received. Deep in my heart, I believed that one day Rowan and I would

mistake to

the morning after?” mom asks, making me blush a

being a complete mess, everything was new to me. To put it plainly, I was

ever h–had s–sex so I didn’t really know that I should have. It was

to get me pregnant. Looking back, maybe if I’d

to get one, but like I said, I was so

anyone to know.”

that during all the years you dated Rowan, you

still a virgin?”

Before we started dating, which was at seventeen, he’d

anything that walked and had a vagina. When I’d

We planned to wait till I was ready. My biggest regret was holding out on

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groan uncomfortably “Can we not talk about

+15 BONUS

I was still a virgin. Anyway,” 1 paused. “I told Calvin about

child and I wanted to get

an abortion?” Mom asks, her

head. “Calvin threatened to tell