He Cheated With My Friend, My Parents Helped novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: Whose Baby

Nathan stood in the doorway in his good coat, with snow on his shoulders.

Thirty faces turned from him to me.

I had spent three years learning how to look calm in this exact room, among these exact people.

I put the canvas tote on the table and let it go.

"Yes," I said.

Simone's smile slipped a quarter inch.

"Yes, I spent Sunday night with Nathan Brenner," I said. "I'm saying it myself so nobody has to whisper it in the parking lot."

A woman near the foil trays put her hand over her mouth.

"I was faithful to Colin for eight years," I said. "I stayed faithful for three years after I found out about her, right up to this Sunday. I kept a list of rules written by the woman at the head of this table, and I kept them for you, Mom."

Florence said, "Jeanie, sit down."

"No."

I took a folded packet out of the tote and laid it on the red paper.

"This is a petition for divorce," I said. "It's been ready since the Monday after Thanksgiving."

I took a pen out of my pocket.

It was Colin's pen, the heavy black one, the one I had signed the postnup with in his study.

I wrote my name on the signature line, slowly, so every person at the table could see it.

The pen scratched in the silence.

"There," I said. "That's done."

Colin let out a sound that was almost a laugh.

"You don't get to do this here," Simone said.

"Why not? You wanted everyone together."

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