Racing like a bat out of hell from his driveway, I sped home. The tears got so bad at one point that I had to stop just a short way up the road. Putting my car in park, I let the sobs overtake me. It felt like someone was ripping my heart to shreds. I loved Brad with all my heart, and there was nothing that I wouldn’t do for him. I would go to the ends of the earth to please that man. But in one moment, when I needed him the most, he chose a lie over me. He chose to believe a snake over the woman he supposedly loved.
I’m not saying that the situation didn't look bad, because it did. You would need a serious Photoshop program to get that picture to look like one taken from a camera. I instantly saw where the program hadn’t worked out too well. It was the one small detail that Brad didn’t see that I had. I saw it the moment he handed it back to me. When I tried to explain it to him, he just told me to get the fuck out of there.
If he loved me like he said he did, he would have noticed that wasn’t my body. It was strikingly similar; anyone could be fooled by it. But I wasn’t just anyone. I knew my body better than anyone else, and that wasn’t my body. Where I have full D cups the woman in the picture barely had Cs. But seeing that, if he would have just let me show it to him, would have cleared me of any guilt in the matter.
A knock at my window brought me from my inner turmoil. I looked up through tear-stained eyes to see Henry standing next to my car. I sobbed that much harder, laying my head on the steering wheel. Before I knew it, my door was opened, and I was gathered into strong arms. His hands made small circles against my back in a soothing motion. He cooed at me to get my crying to tamper down.
“Oh, sweetie … We both know it’s a lie,” he exhaled.
I nodded my head. “I do. But B-Brad w-won’t listen t-to me. He h-hates me, Mr. T-Titan,” I cried out between sobs.
“Oh angel,” he cooed, wrapping me in his arms even tighter. “I’m so sorry this happened to you.”
We stood there clutching each other for what felt like hours but was probably mere minutes. I sighed. Stepping back from his embrace, I wiped my eyes. The sobs finally eased up enough so I could drive. My heart still ached from the knife Brad stuck there, probably always would. He’d been my world, then tragedy struck. It’s like that famous Shakespearean play, Romeo and Juliet. Except Romeo doesn’t die, he does the slaying.
“Mr. Titan… I know I don’t have to repeat myself, especially to you. But… that was not me in the picture.”
He chuckled. “I know, Claire. I would recognize that body anywhere. Trust me, dear. I know this is too much information, but I’ve seen that body naked for the last twenty years.”
My eyes jerked to his laughing ones. I was so confused. “Say what?”
His laughter boomed from his lips. “That, my dear Claire, was my wife.” He raised his hands to smooth his hair back into place. “I’ve been waiting for her to pull something like this, but I never expected her to go this far. She’s been all but dying for a divorce. She is a real bitch, that one. Instead of just filing for divorce, she staged the whole thing. Of course, she’s acting like she’s heartbroken and Brad’s playing right into her ploy. But don’t doubt it, the truth will come out.”
I was surprised as shit at what he said. I stood there for several minutes, mouth hanging ajar, just staring at him. He smiled before asking me if I was hungry. I wasn’t really, but I knew that we had more to talk about. Having dinner was the perfect chance to talk without being interrupted. It wasn’t an ideal situation we found ourselves in, but it was what life had thrown at us. Halfway through the dinner is when I’d connected the dots to the box on my bed. It had been from Brad. That’s what my mom had been trying to tell me before I left. Right now I wished I had stopped to see what she wanted before I took off to Brad’s.
After having dinner with him and showing him the letter I got from New York, his face had filled with pride. If for just a minute, I forgot everything that was going on around me. I let the warmth of him being proud of me fill me up. My mother showed me the same enthusiasm as Henry did. He told me to go for it. To get out of this podunk town and make something of myself. With him being a terrific lawyer, I took his advice.
He must have done something right to get to where he was today. His home life was totally fucked up, but he never let anything stand in his way. Nothing. He did what he wanted, meeting every obstacle in his path with vitality and quick wit. I would always remember him. Even if I didn’t step a foot back in this town, he and my mom would always be in my thoughts.
The letter to the university had stated that I could come up early if needed, so I could get settled in and find my way around before the semester started. Since their semester started in mid-July, I knew that now was as good a time as any to get away from here. It would hurt me so bad to leave and know that I was not coming back to Brad, or that he was coming with me. But there was no other choice. Brad has made his decision, albeit the wrong one, he still made it.
Henry gave me an envelope before I left the restaurant and made me promise not to open it until I got to the school. He also made me promise that I would get a cell phone that I could keep in touch with my mother. He gave me five hundred dollars in crisp, one-hundred-dollar bills. He stated that I have no excuse not to now. I laughed. There was always something about this man that caused me to smile.
After I got home and talked with my mother, we both thought it’d be a good idea if I left that night. Since it was only about five p.m. in Cedar Grove, PA, I would drive halfway and get a hotel for the night. Then I’d arrive in New York on Sunday and sight-see and stay in a motel until Monday morning. Of course, she was the one that thought of it; one of many reasons why I loved her and why it was so hard letting her go. She has been my rock for so long. She was the only person, besides Henry, that I looked up to. I would make both of them proud. There would be no doubt about it. I don’t care how long it took me, I would succeed.
“Oh, sweetheart. This is for the best, you’ll see,” my mother stated.
“I know … It just hurts so badly.” I sniffed, lugged the suitcases out of the house and to my car.
After I put the luggage in my car, I turned to her. She threw her arms around me, gripping me to her tightly. “He messed up. Do you hear me, Claire? He believed someone else over the woman he said he loved. Do not let that boy take another ounce of love from you,” she sternly stated in a choked-up voice.
I nodded into her chest and sobbed. I held my mother for the longest time, her swaying me back and forth. Our sobs echoed through the empty street. She released me and dried her tears, shutting the car door as I got inside. I wiped my eyes, put the car in drive, and then I was off. Away from this town, Brad, and his evil mother. I was determined to look ahead instead of keep glancing behind me. It hurt like hell, and I was absolutely positive I would break down multiple times along the way. But I would make my mother proud of me. There would be no failing, especially since she never failed me.
I chewed on my cheek as I came to the last stoplight. The envelope that Henry gave me was in the passenger seat, drawing my attention like a beacon in the night. Curiosity got the best of me and I picked it up. Turning it around in my hands, I opened it. Seeing what was inside, I laughed and then cried. Inside was a check that would cover all of my schooling and housing for the next four years. I wiped the tears from my eyes as the light changed.
I glanced in my rearview mirror, seeing the lights become smaller and smaller with every foot I sped in the other direction. Brad would always be my first love, more than likely my last love. There would be no way I would ever forget him. But the finality of it all tore at my heart. A tear slid down my cheek when the last of the lights left my mirror.