He Took His First Love, So I Left

Chapter 3

Richard cut his trip short by a day. It was already 10 p.m. when he got home. He put down his luggage and, for the first time, took his mother's repositioning pad from me without being asked.

"I'll stay with Mom tonight. Go get some sleep."

I stood in the bedroom doorway and watched him struggle to work the controls on her adjustable care bed. When she'd had her first stroke, he'd taken time off and sat with her for 3 nights. After my surgery to deliver our daughter, he'd sat beside my bed with the baby in his arms and promised he wouldn't let me shoulder everything alone. If there'd been nothing good in those 30 years, if all he'd ever done was let me down, I wouldn't have stayed this long.

Richard poured me a glass of warm water.

"I came home early, didn't I? Stop talking about divorce."

My hand had already found the agreement in the drawer when the doorbell rang. Susan stood outside with her suitcase and two cardboard boxes behind her.

"My ex-husband changed the locks without warning. Richard said I could stay in the home you bought for retirement, but I thought I should ask you first, Margaret."

Our retirement home was near a park. We'd bought it with half a lifetime's savings. While it was being renovated, I'd worked seven night shifts in a row and put every bit of my extra pay into it.

Richard had promised that after his mother passed away, we'd move there and finally have a life that didn't revolve around looking after other people. I hadn't even lived there yet, and Susan already had the keys.

She set them on the table.

"If you don't want me there, Margaret, that's fine. I can stay at a hotel. It's just that my ex keeps coming to the hotels and causing trouble. I'm a little scared."

Richard pushed the keys back toward her.

"Stay there. You have nothing to worry about. Leaving the place empty is a waste."

"That's the home I bought for my retirement."

"Can you leave Mom right now?"

My mother-in-law heard us from her bed and joined in.

"It doesn't matter where you live. Susan just got divorced. Let her get settled first."

My son said Susan was only staying for a few months. My daughter told me that at my age, I shouldn't be picking a fight with a divorced woman. Susan clutched the keys and murmured that she could go back and beg her ex-husband to take her in.

Richard's expression darkened at once.

"You haven't done anything wrong. Why should you go crawling back to him?"

Then he turned to me.

"She's already lost everything. Do you have to fight her over an empty house too?"

As I looked at him, the tiny flicker of hope I'd felt died completely. He'd turned his mother over in bed once and thought that made up for 30 years of my work. Yet all Susan had to do was say she was scared, and he was willing to give her the home we'd planned to share.

I asked if he'd read the agreement in his suitcase.

"I read it. I don't agree to it."

"Then wait to hear from the court."

His expression turned cold.

"I bought you another trip. There's a caregiver. I even came home early to look after Mom. What else do you want me to do?"

"Those were your responsibilities to begin with."

"Do we really have to keep such a careful score of everything in a marriage?"

I gave a small smile.

"You've kept track of what you owe Susan for 30 years. Why haven't you ever done the same for me?"

My question angered Richard enough to make him finally admit what really bothered him. "All you've talked about for years is the children, medication, and bills. At least Susan remembers what I wanted to do when I was young."

I looked at him without a word. The children were his too. The woman in that bed was his mother. Those bills belonged to our household. He'd left me every responsibility, then used those same responsibilities as proof that I didn't understand him.

Susan told him to stop, then apologized to me. "There were things I could've asked other people to help with, but I still went to Richard. That was wrong of me." She paused. "But you should ask him why he was so willing to come every single time, Margaret."

Richard didn't contradict her. I went back to my room, took out the title documents for our retirement home, and sent them to my lawyer along with a marital property records covering our 30 years together.

As I left, Richard was still comforting Susan, telling her I'd stay away for 2 days at most. He didn't know I wasn't going to a hotel. I went to the dormitory where the mobile medical team was gathering for our final training session before departure.