Trix
Everything hurts. “Oh God, how much did I drink last night?” I ask myself, sitting up in my bed. I notice someone’s left a few pills and a glass of water on my nightstand, along with a note.
Hey Trixilicious,
Sorry, you made us call you that all night. LOL. Anyways, the girls and I cleaned the place up for you and took off early this morning. We’ll chat later today, promise! Take the Midol and aspirin and make sure you keep hydrated, you literally drank an entire bottle of vodka. Fingers crossed you don’t barf.
Lilly
Okay, no wonder I feel like shit. I haven’t drunk this much in years. I grab the pills and the water and gulp it down, trying not to throw up. I can’t stand taking pills, I always gag something awful. Surprisingly, the pill went right down without any issues. Huh, maybe I’m finally getting the hang of the pill thing.
I go to lay back down in bed to try and sleep off the hangover but can’t, since someone is going crazy at my front door. Going back and forth between knocking and ringing the damn bell.
“For fuck sake! Knock it off!” I shout as I open the door. “Oh, hell no.” I go to close it again when I see Chris standing there, but he blocks it with his shoe.
“Let me in, Trixie, we need to talk. And when did you change the locks on the door?” he demands, shoving the door open and stepping inside.
I didn’t change the locks, I’m assuming the girls called one of the guys over while I was sleeping to do it. I’ve gotta remember to thank them for it.
“There’s nothing we need to talk about, not anymore. Time for talking was months ago, when this bullshit all started, or better yet when it first fucking happened!” I shriek at him.
His face is pained and he just stares at me. “You have to believe me, Trix, I never meant for any of this to happen. God, when Lola died, everything went to hell.”
“You don’t have to tell me that, I know it all went to hell, I was the one that had to carry a child inside me and still give birth to her when she was dead.”
“We’re going to sit down, and I’m finally telling you everything, please let me do that. We’ve been together for ten years Trixie, eight years of marriage. Please.”
I clench my jaw and nod. “I’ll hear you out Chris, but no promises I’ll ever forgive you.”
“I’ll take what I can get.”
I sit down on the couch and he sits next to me. I’m almost tempted to move to the chair but he puts a stop to that by grabbing my hands.
“It was while we were planning Lola’s funeral. I went to the bar, you know the one with the hotel attached to it?”
I nod, remembering his text that night saying he was sleeping off his drunken night, and I didn’t mind. Before I got pregnant with Lola, we did that often enough.
“The guys from work were there, so we got to drinking together, and I was three sheets to the wind, so I don’t remember much of it. The last thing I remember is the world spinning as I got into the elevator and Lacey was there too. Next thing I know I wake up the next morning and I’m in bed naked, and she’s laying there too.”
“Wait, so you don’t know if you actually slept with her? Maybe you didn’t. Maybe that child isn’t yours.” I’m trying to be hopeful.
He shakes his head. “Honestly, if it wasn’t for us losing Lola, I would have told you right away, I promise you that, but you and I both had bigger things to deal with and I didn’t want to add to it. Instead, I let the guilt eat me alive. And I had to have slept with her, Trix. The night before I left … that’s when I got the results of the DNA test. Lita is mine.”
My head drops, there is no way we can move on from this. I feel punched in the gut.
“Trixie, please look at me.” My eyes find his, tears filling both our eyes. “I love you, I only left because I was trying to figure out what the hell I was going to do about this. Everything is so fucked up. You have to know I’m taking Lacey to court and getting custody of that little girl, and first thing I’m doing is changing her name. I couldn’t believe it when Lacey told me her name. I about killed her.”
“I believe you, but I don’t know, Chris. This is just too much. That little girl, that should have been ours. Not my husband the cheat’s child, but mine.”
“I know, Trixie, I never meant for any of this to happen. The worst part, when I was looking at Lita’s baby pictures, her and Lola are practically identical. It killed me.”
More pain. The more he talks, the more pain tears through me. I don’t want to hear anymore. I can’t do this. He is taking what little there is left of my heart and shattering it.
“I need you to leave,” I tell him.
He grabs my shoulders and shakes me slightly. “Trixie, we can work this out, I’m going to get custody, you can adopt her, we can be a family.” He begs me.
I shake my head. “I don’t think we can, Chris. You cheated on me, you have a child with that slut, a child with almost the same god damned name as ours. And you just told me as a new baby she looked identical to my Lola. How can you not see this from my point of view? You need to leave, give me space.”
“Fuck! Trixie, please. I’m begging you, don’t give us up. Please don’t.” His hazel eyes tear up, and I notice that sparkle is coming back into them that’s been lost for so many years.
“Right now, it’s the only thing that makes sense,” I tell him softly.
“We’re not getting a divorce, I will fight it,” he vows.
“I didn’t say anything about a divorce, not right now. Just space. You have to give me that. I gave you space for months, the least you can fucking do for me is to give me space!” I shout.
I swear if he doesn’t get the hell out right now, I will throw this lamp on my end table at him, and call up Lilly’s dad and start divorce proceedings. The longer he takes to get the hell out of my house, the angrier I become.
“Fine, but I’m not giving up on us.” He storms out of the house, and slams the front door behind him.
I don’t know what to do. He lied, he cheated, he has a child with another woman. I just… Fuck, I don’t know anything anymore. I spent months begging for him to just talk to me, and now that the tables have turned, I can focus on the problems, and he had better leave me the hell alone while I figure out what I’m going to do.
Chris
I knew it wasn’t going to be easy talking to her this morning. I didn’t expect her to jump back into my arms, but I did at least expect us to talk more, to spend the day together, something. I wanted to tell her all about Lita, tell her who my lawyer is, stuff like that. But she threw me out. I only left because I could see the anger in her eyes. I knew she was about to lose it and I’d be in the line of fire.
My phone rings as I park my car in the grocery store parking lot. “Hello?”
“Mr. Crescent?” My lawyer. “This is Ms. Green; do you have free time today? I wanted to go over your case, and give you some information I was just made aware of.”
“Yeah, I can be there in five minutes if that works?”
“Perfect, just come right in and head down the hall. First door to your left.” She clicks off, and I start the car back up and head towards her office building.
It doesn’t take me long to get there and I sprint down the half and knock on her door. “Come in.”
“Ms. Green,” I greet her. If I had to guess her age, she looks mid-thirties. Not much makeup, just a hint of lipstick. And she’s wearing the standard lawyer outfit: black dress pants, white button up blouse and her suit jacket rests on her chair.
“Mr. Crescent, lovely to meet you, please sit. This shouldn’t take too long.” She shuffles some papers on her desks and brings out a large folder. “I started looking into Lacey Bradley and her record is so far from clean, I could use her file as toilet paper for the next year.”
I chuckle at her choice of words.
“Bad news first. I received a call this morning from a social worker, a Mrs. Jordin contacted her saying she had a little girl in her care and that her mother never came to pick her up.” My heart races, and I go to stand up to go get my daughter. “Calm down, Mr. Crescent. Lolita is perfectly fine, the social worker went and picked her up and is a floor up from us watching her until our meeting is over.” I calm down, relieved my girl is okay. “As for Ms. Bradley, well, we don’t know where she is right now. Police went to her apartment and searched it, seems her personal belongings are gone, and they found a room that was dedicated to you. Seems she quite fancies you.” She looks at me, waiting my reaction. When she see’s a look of disgust on my face, she smiles. “Care to tell me the story of how this came to be? From your file, you’re married, and have been for eight years. The time of conception for the baby upstairs seems to be around the time you lost the child your wife and you had.”
I nod and tell her the whole story. How I was drunk and upset at losing Lola, how Lacey left town after that night, and how she showed up a few months ago with Lita. I also tell her how all this has affected my marriage.
“I’m sorry for your loss,” she says quickly, and then moves on. “Gaining custody will be easy. You have it, went through the courts this morning. And stripping Ms. Bradley of her parental rights should be easy as well, since she abandoned Lolita. So, unless there is something else we need to talk about, you can go up and get your daughter.” She smiles at me.
“One thing, I need to legally change Lita’s name.”
She looks at me in confusion and she shuffles through her papers and pulls out a birth certificate. “It says here she already has your last name.”
“No, I mean, I can’t have her name being Lolita. I want to legally change it to something else, or simply just Lita. Lacey, being the person she is, named her Lolita to hurt my wife. Our child’s name was Lola.”
Ms. Green’s face goes to shock, then to pity and she quickly jots something down. “I’ll get the paperwork for that filled out the second you leave and have the judge, who is a personal friend of mine, sign off on this. I’m so sorry that woman did this to you and your wife, by naming her that.” She shakes her head. “It also shows she has no middle name, would you like to add something there as well?”
“Lita Marie.” Trixie’s middle name. Hopefully it will mean something to her.
“Very well.” She smiles at me and stands up, shaking my hand. “I’ll call you as soon as I hear back from the judge, and hopefully Ms. Bradley won’t be a bother in the future.”
“Thank you again.” I didn’t realize how fast this could get done, and I’m thankful for the rush on everything.
I leave her office feeling ten times better than how I felt when I first walked in. Now to go get my daughter and take her home, and pray I’m able to convince Trixie to give me another chance.