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,

and I’d been left with nothing. When I

tell any of you, but I fell

feeling as small as I did back

with Ava.

eat, I didn’t sleep, and

Molly noticed this. She started pushing, and when I refused

guys to let you know. I didn’t want you to

out how tough things were

so much bitterness and resentment towards Ava back then. I

would have been ecstatic.

she had been going through her own

that. Molly became

Rowan every second.” I take

turns out we

assignment partner.” 2

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

didn’t show any remnants of the obsession he had

He stayed out of my way and

This was hard. I wanted to stop, but now more than ever, I knew they

going well for some time. They weren’t perfect,

me to let me know that Ava had given birth to a baby boy

first sight. Everything around me crumbled, and all

to breathe through the pain of the

so fucking hard.

angry. Angry at myself for turning down Rowan’s proposal, angry

and sleeping with Ava, angry at Ava for getting

I loved and angry

need to turn to know

around Noah because if everything had gone the way I wanted it

2/5

*15 BONUS

word would probably get back to Rowan, and that would have hurt him. That’s why I slept with Calvin

how I lost my virginity. I was saving it for Rowan and in the end I gave it to the guy who kept fighting for

morning. It had been foolish of me to sleep with a guy I didn’t even like just to get back at the man I loved. I told Calvin that it was 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 it was a terrible one–night stand

been wrong. I hadn’t planned for what was to come next. What destiny had planned

like the other didn’t exist, that is, until my period was late. A cheap test. and later, a doctor’s appointment

believed that one day Rowan and I would get back together. I didn’t want an unwanted baby to hinder

mistake to

the morning after?” mom asks, making me

new to me. To

ever h–had s–sex so I didn’t really know that I should

so I assumed tha‘ n’t really enough to get me pregnant. Looking back,

get one, but like I said, I was so

anyone to know.”

to tell me that during all the years you dated Rowan, you never slept together?

still a virgin?” Travis asks

Rowan wasn’t. Before we started dating, which was at seventeen, he’d

a vagina. When I’d told him I wasn’t ready,

I was ready. My biggest regret was

3/5

a groan uncomfortably “Can we not talk about this? It

+15 BONUS

I was still a virgin. Anyway,” 1 paused.

wanted to get rid of it, but he

Mom asks, her voice

but nod my head. “Calvin threatened to tell