I Left My Ex, Now He Regrets

Chapter 2

I sat beside Megan and handed her the unsigned agreement just as my phone rang.

The caller was Jess Harper, the owner of a bakery. I had been a pastry chef before my second marriage and had occasionally taken baking orders from her after I remarried.

We had an interview scheduled for the next afternoon.

"Nora, I got an email from your husband this morning."

My grip tightened around the phone.

"He says you're not fit to work right now, and he attached a video. I wanted to hear your explanation first."

She forwarded the email.

Ben claimed I had become emotionally unstable. Since the kitchen had knives and equipment that ran at high temperatures, he said he was worried I might hurt myself, an employee, or a customer.

He signed off: A husband trying to protect his wife.

The attachment showed me standing by the door, crying as I lunged forward and repeatedly shouted, "Give my things back!"

The clip lasted only 27 seconds.

It didn't show him taking my wallet and phone. It didn't show me begging him to let me leave. And it didn't show the shove at the end.

Hearing myself sob on the video was so humiliating that I wanted to close it immediately.

That day, he had blocked the door to keep me from going to an interview. Now he had followed me all the way to the bakery owner's inbox.

I had thought that once I made it through that door, I could at least start earning money.

He had simply found another way to block me.

A drop of water landed on the screen. I hadn't realized I was crying.

"The video is incomplete. The court is hearing my protective order petition today... I'll explain everything this afternoon. Could we please keep tomorrow's interview for now?"

Jess didn't answer right away.

During those few seconds, I thought about the resume I had struggled to finish and the worn work shoes sitting in Ruth's guest room.

"Call me this afternoon," she said.

I set the phone on the table and smoothed down a bent corner of my resume.

Then I forwarded the original email to Megan so she could preserve it.

Ruth circled the photo album on my property retrieval list.

"Keep asking for this too."

I stared at the words she had circled, and tears suddenly slipped down my face.

My mother had died while I was still in my first marriage.

The hospital called that night and told me to come as soon as possible. Adam insisted I attend a firm dinner with him first. He took my phone and cash and promised we would leave after the appetizer.

After the appetizer, there were still group photos to take and clients to see.

After he got drunk, I finally got my phone and cash back and called myself a cab, but I didn't reach the hospital in time to see her alive.

That was why I ended our marriage.

Now Ben was using the few photographs she had left me as leverage for another chance.

"I don't have many things from her left."

Megan handed me a tissue.

I wiped my eyes and added, "But I can't go back just to get them."

Adam returned with Ben's attorney and, right in front of Megan, offered to arrange housing for me.

Megan brought up Ben's email to Jess and told the young attorney to advise his client to stop interfering with my job search.

Adam said, "See? This is why you need someone who knows how to handle this to step in. Even if you fight to keep that part-time job, how much can you make in a week?"

I turned my resume face down and slid it into the folder.

He said it so casually, as though a small paycheck wasn't worth being upset over.

He had asked me the same thing the first time I said I wanted to go back to the pastry station. He told me to wait until the firm was more stable. Later, he and his partner, Victoria Hayes, had offices of their own while I kept changing the date on my pastry-course application. After our divorce, Victoria became his girlfriend.

"I'll make my own arrangements for work."

"Why make things this hard on yourself? I'm not asking you to go back to Ben."

I knew it would be hard. The night before, I had washed those old work shoes and found I couldn't wring out the towel with one hand. Standing at the sink, I had suddenly wanted my mother so badly it hurt.

'If she were still here, maybe I could call her without first figuring out how to prove I'm doing fine.'

"Don't arrange an apartment for me. I won't live there."

Adam reached for my phone, saying he would talk to Jess for me first. I put the phone back in my bag.

"Please don't contact her. I'll call her at the time we agreed."

I turned to Megan.

"Keep the divorce and the protective order moving forward as planned."

Adam looked at me. "And what about us?"

"I'm not forgiving Ben, and I'm not taking you back. From now on, if it has anything to do with this case, contact Megan."

Under the table, Ruth touched the back of my hand. I turned my palm over and held onto two of her fingers.

Soon, everything I'd lost would be mine again.