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,

had exploded, and I’d been left

you, but I fell

the grass, feeling as small as I did back then when I

with Ava.

didn’t sleep, and I didn’t attend

and when I refused to get better, she

you to know how I was struggling. I didn’t

tough things

I had so much bitterness and resentment towards

far I’d fallen, she would have been ecstatic.

been going through her own kind of

going well after that. Molly became my anchor. My grades were

or think about Rowan every second.” I take a deep breath “It was

that I met Calvin again. It turns out we went to the same Uni and he was

assignment partner.” 2

talk to him. After all, we weren’t friends.

show any remnants of the obsession he had for me in

stayed out of my

was hard. I wanted to stop, but now more

well for some time. They weren’t

until the night m alled me to let me know that Ava had given birth to a

first sight.

the surface.” I try to breathe through the

so fucking hard.

angry. Angry at myself for turning down

drunk and sleeping with Ava, angry

loved and angry

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

gone the way I

2/5

*15 BONUS

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

my virginity. I was saving it for Rowan and in the end I gave it

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

hadn’t planned for what was to come next.

back to ignoring each other like the other didn’t exist, that is, until my period was late. A cheap test. and later,

had been the worst news I’ve ever received. Deep in my heart, I believed that one day Rowan and I would get back together. I didn’t want an unwanted baby to hinder

of my mistake to always be in

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

new to me. To put it plainly, I

s–sex so I didn’t really

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

would have aused me to get one, but like I

anyone to know.”

me that during all the years you dated Rowan, you never

still a virgin?”

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

walked and had a vagina.

I was ready. My biggest

3/5

not talk about this? It was years

+15 BONUS

your question, yes I was still a virgin. Anyway,”

wanted to

abortion?” Mom asks, her voice ringing with horror

threatened