Back To 1981, No More Wife, No More Mother Chapter 06

Back To 1981, No More Wife, No More Mother Chapter 06

The party’s raucous noise died the second the sirens blared.

“Grace got into college all along?”

“Nicole stole her acceptance letter?”

“Was James in on this?”

The guests who’d just been fawning over Nicole moments before now stared at her with unmasked contempt.

Nicole tried to hide behind James, but she saw that he was shaking too.

Mrs. Turner’s voice turned sharp with anger.

“James Whitman, you let your wife slave away in this kitchen for years on end, and then you stole her college chance and gave it to another woman?”

Someone looked at the new leather boots on Nicole’s feet, then at James’s new shirt. Disgust etched across their faces.

“No wonder they dressed up like a newlywed couple today.”

“Grace even fixed her light fixtures and defended her from all the town gossip.”

“Those two are disgusting.”

Nicole couldn’t take the stares. She fell to her knees on the grass, sobbing.

“It wasn’t me! I didn’t know! James gave me the letter. I thought it was

really mine!”

James whipped his head toward her.

“Nicole!”

“Don’t yell at me!” she screamed. “You’re the one who said a housewife like Grace going to college was a waste! You said she should stay home and take care of you and Daniel!”

The crowd buzzed with more shocked murmurs.

I didn’t say anything. I just took a manila envelope from Robert.

It was the new set of admission materials from the state university. I’d previously requested the admissions office reroute all my official documents away from my home address. They sent it straight to the county sheriff’s office, and Robert held it for me.

The envelope bore faint edge creases, stamped with a crisp, legible postmark.

I looked down at it, and I remembered my past life.

That whole summer, I’d waited. Each morning I’d check the mailbox. When I returned empty-handed time and again, I kept telling myself the letter would arrive the next day.

It turned out I wasn’t waiting for a letter that never came.

They’d stolen my future right out from under me.

James’s voice shook. “Grace… when did you go to the Sheriff?”

I looked up and met his eyes calmly.

“While you sent me to the parking lot so you could take Nicole to get that picture taken.”

That day at the mall, I didn’t stand around by the Greyhound station waiting for them.

I went to the post office.

I asked the clerk what to do if someone took a college acceptance letter from a residential curbside mailbox.

The clerk told me to call the sheriff’s office. And he told me that stolen mail and scholarship paperwork might also require a report to a postal inspector.

So I went to the station.

Robert didn’t believe me at first. A small-town housewife. A woman whose husband told people she was “unstable.” Saying her acceptance letter was stolen—it sounded like a typical messy domestic dispute.

But I provided my application ID, the university’s name and admissions contact number, along with my exam scores, copies of recommendation letters and application confirmation receipt.

Robert called the admissions office right there in front of me.

There was a long silence on the phone.

Then the person on the other end told him that not only had Grace Whitman been accepted, but she’d also gotten a state scholarship and a federal grant that required her signature to confirm.

And the signature on the confirmation form didn’t look like mine.

James’s face went gray.

“Grace…” he said, struggling to get the words out. “I’m your husband. If you get me locked up, how do you plan to get by on your own?”

I laughed.

“I’ll take care of myself.”

I turned to Robert.

“Sheriff Daniels, I also want to file official reports. James unlawfully locked me inside the garage, and Daniel physically assaulted me. Nicole knew I was trapped inside and actively stopped witnesses from extinguishing the fire.”

Robert looked at Daniel, then at the garage still burning in the background. His expression turned grim.

“We’ll take full notes. Everyone here will have to give a witness statement later on.”

James finally looked desperate.

“Grace! Daniel’s just a kid!”

I looked at Daniel, who was standing on the grass shaking all over.

“He’s fifteen years old. He knows full well what pain and fear are. He knew exactly what he was doing when he threw that rock at me. And he stood there while the garage burned and said I deserved it.”

Daniel’s head shot up. For the first time, I was truly free from the suffocating confines of that old house.

“Mom…”

It was the first time he’d called me that all night.

But I didn’t want to hear it anymore.

“Take them away, Robert.”

Robert nodded.

The two deputies led James and Nicole toward the patrol cars.
Another deputy took Daniel aside, where a juvenile affairs officer stood by to take him into custody.

He thrashed and sobbed uncontrollably the entire time.

“Dad! Nicole! Don’t abandon me!”

No one answered him.

The patrol lights blazed over their disheveled, defeated backs.

And I held that late acceptance letter in my arms. For the first time, I really felt like I’d walked out of that house for good.