On Halloween, My Husband Kissed Another Woman in Front of Our Daughter, So We Left novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: The Pirate Queen's Gown
At the school Halloween show Lana finds her husband kissing a widow in the gown she sewed while the widow's boy stands in their daughter's place, and she walks out with Junie; in the hallway the boy says Brad told them she wasn't coming.
My husband was kissing another woman onstage when my daughter pulled me into the school gym.
"Mommy," she whispered. "Daddy is kissing her."
Brad stood under the lights in the pirate captain's coat I had cut down from his old wool one.
The widow of his best friend stood against him in my pirate queen gown.
Earlier that evening, my daughter had been happier than I had seen her in a month.
She sat in the back seat in her striped shirt and black boots and the little red coat I had sewn from her own drawing.
She kept checking her reflection in the window.
"Did Daddy remember the gold hoop?" she asked.
"He has it in his costume bag."
"Then everybody will know we belong together."
She took the drawing out of her pocket. The folds had gone soft from being opened so many times.
It showed the captain in the middle, a queen in a red gown beside him, and a little navigator between them, holding a compass and pointing at an island.
Across the top, in purple crayon, she had written: THE ALTHOUSE PIRATE FAMILY.
I had spent three nights turning that picture into cloth after she went to bed.
Her navigator's sash had a tiny stitched star for every place she wanted the three of us to sail.
Brad had laughed when she first showed him the drawing. "Your captain will be there," he said.
That promise mattered, because he had missed her spring concert when Mona's son got sick.
He had missed family reading day because Mona's water heater broke.
This time Junie had asked him three times, and he had sworn.
That afternoon he had texted me a photo of the gold hoop in his costume bag, with a row of tiny flags and the words: Tell her I'm ready.
In the parking lot Junie pulled me along by the hand.
"Hurry, Mommy. Daddy says we stand in order. Captain, navigator, queen."
"What if the queen wants to stand next to the captain?"
Junie thought about it very seriously.
"Then I stand in front. But he has to keep one hand on each of us."
I laughed and hurried after her, my coat over the dress Brad had not seen yet.
Then we walked into the gym, and I saw the stage.
For a moment I could not make sense of it.
I knew every stitch of the gown on Mona. The feathered hat on her head was mine too.
Brad's hand stayed on the small of her back while the children clapped.
Her son, Eli, stood on his other side with Junie's star sash tied around his waist.
He held Junie's brass compass over his head in his left hand, the hand Brad used for everything.
Junie's fingers tightened around mine.
"Mommy, that's supposed to be you."
Brad looked up and found us by the door.
I waited for his face to change. I waited for shock, or shame, or any sign that he knew what our daughter had just seen.
His hand stayed where it was.
"There you are," he called. "We figured you two weren't coming."
Mona turned toward us with her lips parted. She did not step away from him.
"Lana, I hope you don't mind," she said. "Everything got so hectic backstage. I couldn't tell him no."
Junie stared at the boy.
"That's my sash."
Eli looked down at it. "Uncle Brad gave it to me."
That hurt more than the kiss.
Brad came down the stage stairs, but only far enough to keep one foot on the bottom step.
"Come on, Junie." He held out his hand. "We'll fit you into the last picture. Stand next to Eli."
Junie looked at Mona in her mother's dress. She looked at Eli in her place.
"Where would I go?"
Brad hesitated.
It was brief, but Junie saw it.
"We'll make room," he said.
"No." Her voice was very small. "That's not our family."
People in the bleachers had started to watch. Brad's jaw tightened.
"Lana, don't make this worse."
I almost laughed, because he was blaming me for a kiss I had not given anyone.
"You promised her," I said.
"They needed partners, and you were late."
"We were early."
"It's one performance. Mona has been through enough without being embarrassed in front of the whole school."
Mona touched his sleeve. "Brad, maybe I should change."
She did not turn toward the dressing rooms. Her other hand rested on the red skirt, holding it close.
Brad covered her hand with his. "No. We're finishing."
Junie made a broken sound beside me.
The photographer called for the pirate family.
Brad looked at our daughter. He had one more chance to choose her.
"Come up with us, sweetheart."
Junie shook her head.
He sighed, turned and climbed the steps.
I hated that I was still waiting for him to stop.
He took his place between Mona and Eli, under a cardboard sign that said OUR HALLOWEEN FAMILIES.
The camera flashed, and Brad smiled.
Something in Junie folded in on itself.
I put my coat around her shoulders so it covered the red coat she had been so proud of.
"We're leaving," I said.
Brad called my name from the stage, and I kept walking with my daughter.
Footsteps ran after us in the hall. For one second I thought it was him.
It was Eli, still wearing the sash. He held out the compass.
"You can have this back."
Junie did not take it.
Eli frowned. "I thought you didn't want to be in the show."
Her chin shook. "Why would you think that?"
He glanced back at the gym doors, and then answered with the plain honesty of a child who has no idea he is giving away a secret.
"Because Uncle Brad said you and your mom weren't coming tonight."
Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend