Back To 1981, No More Wife, No More Mother Chapter 07

Back To 1981, No More Wife, No More Mother Chapter 07

The interrogation room at the sheriff’s office was bitterly cold.

A faded calendar hung on the wall. An old tape recorder sat on the table, its reels turning slowly with a faint, granular whir.

James sat across from me, his hands cuffed together. He looked a decade older, worn thin in an instant.

The moment he saw me walk in, he thrashed in his chair.

“Grace! Grace, tell them this is all a misunderstanding! I acted foolishly, and I never meant to hurt you!”

I didn’t sit down.

I slid a few photos across the table toward him.

They were taken at the photo studio in the mall. In them, he and Nicole leaned their heads together, smiling like a couple who’d just gotten engaged.

James’s eyes narrowed sharply.

“Grace, let me explain. Nicole said she’d moved from California to this small town with nothing. She just wanted a nice picture to keep. I only felt sorry for her…”

“You took pity on her… and that’s why you stole my mail?”

“It wasn’t stealing!” he said quickly. “I just figured college wasn’t right for you. Daniel and this family still rely on you. Nicole is different. She’s young. She doesn’t have the same responsibilities. She can go farther.”

I looked at him.

So that was what he really thought.

It wasn’t that he didn’t know I wanted to leave.

It was that he didn’t think I deserved to.

“James, I’ve been married to you for over ten years. I took care of your home, raised Daniel, paid the bills, made the mortgage payments, cooked your meals, did your laundry — I held our whole life together.”

My voice was quiet.

“And you traded my entire future away to curry favor with Nicole.”

His lips trembled.

Then, without warning, he dropped to his knees.

“Grace, I was wrong! I’m so sorry! Nicole seduced me — she said she wanted to go to college, wanted to leave this town, and I was too weak to say no!”

He was crying, tears and snot running down his face.

“Please drop the charges. Think of Daniel — don’t lock me up. What’s he going to do without me?”

“Daniel is fifteen,” I said coldly. “He has to answer for his choices. And so do you.”

In the next room, Nicole’s voice was even shriller.

She was talking to Robert and a female deputy.

“I’m the real victim! James said those papers belonged to me. Grace never meant to go to college; it was just a silly game to her!”

Robert asked, “Then why did you put Grace Whitman’s signature on those forms?”

Nicole’s crying stopped for just a second.

“I-I had no idea it was her name. I just thought it was a standard sign-off form.”

The deputy slid another paper in front of her.

“What about the financial aid paperwork? It lists her birthdate, household income and marital status. Are you saying you knew nothing about this too?”

Nicole’s face went pale, inch by inch.

Then she saw me standing in the doorway.

She lunged for me, clinging to me as her last lifeline, but the deputy pushed her back into her chair.

“Grace! Grace, please stick up for me! You’ve always been kind to me. You can’t let my life fall apart like this!”

I looked at her and said nothing.

Her meek facade shattered, raw jealousy boiling to the surface.

“What makes you so special?” she hissed, barely above a whisper. “How come a married mother beat out everyone in the county? What do you have that I lack?”

I finally smiled.

“What you’re missing is this: what you stole will never truly be yours.”

Nicole stared at me like she wanted to tear me apart.

I turned and walked out.

On the steps outside the station, Daniel sat under a dim streetlight.
He was tall and skinny, still not fully grown, yet his features already
held the bitter malice of a chronically spoiled child.

He jumped up when he saw me.

“Are you happy now? You’ve wrecked Dad and Nicole’s lives!”

I stopped.

“They ruined themselves.”

“You’re just jealous Nicole’s outshining you! She’s heading to college
and moving to the city. Unlike you, she won’t be trapped in the kitchen
all day!”

I looked at him and felt nothing.

In my past life, I searched for him for twenty years.

Back then, I thought I was looking for my son.

Until he told me, on his own, that he’d known the truth all along.

All that time, I’d been searching for a child who never really existed.

“Daniel,” I said, my voice calmer than I’d ever used with him before.
“From now on, your life has nothing to do with mine.”

He froze.

“What are you talking about?”

“It means I’m through buying your meals, cleaning up your messes, and letting the title of Mom drag me back into that nightmare.”

For the first time, panic crossed his face.

“You can’t do this! I’m your own flesh and blood!”

“I used to think that meant something.”

I looked him in the eye and spoke slowly.

“But you tainted that bond with your own hands.”

Then I turned and walked away.

This time, I didn’t look back.