His Betrayal

The Next Day

I opened my eyes the next morning and sat up quickly wondering where I was, just as the memories of the previous day flooded in. What I wanted to do was curl back up into the bed wrapped in my blanket and just hide. It felt like my whole world just fell apart, and in reality, it did. I had planned my last few years around a life with Mark. I was just thankful I finished school when it was so easy to put my degree on hold and we were merging our lives together. Mark was employed as a manager in a local office, he enjoyed his 9-5 job and having his weekends off. He had contemplated going back to school but decided he was happy where he was at his job. I finished my Masters Degree in Social Work not long after we got married and worked at a local school, but I had been playing around with starting my own practice, so I had more control over my schedule. While I loved children, I also wanted to broaden my horizons and had talked with Mark about this more lately because I was thinking about cutting back on my work hours to focus on forming my business.

Mark seemed supportive of this but he had been delaying me starting this when I wanted to start at the beginning of this school year. “Babe, I love this idea for you, but let’s wait a bit longer before you do this. I could never get him to give me a reason, but looking back now, I wonder if it was because he thought he could predict my schedule working at a school. I rolled my eyes, not giving him any more thought, and got up to start some coffee and jump in the shower. Time to start figuring things out, girl. I said to myself, I am not going to give him the power to take over all my thoughts.

As I shut my hotel room door, I turned on my phone and decided I was going to head to the library where I would have quiet to focus on where I was going to go from there. I had made the decision to talk to an attorney to see what my options were. All I wanted was to take what was mine and walk away. I didn’t want to drag this out because I wanted to forget this part of my life now. My phone going off made me stop from walking out of the hotel. I looked down and saw numerous texts from Mark which I deleted and then I came across one from my best friend, Amy. Mixed feelings flooded me. While I wanted to just call her and vent to her my frustrations and pain, I also remembered her response to me yesterday. I just put my phone back in my purse and walked to my car determined to just focus on what I needed to get done today. I stopped off at a local coffee shop and got a muffin and a cup of coffee and then drove to the local library.

Armed with coffee and a laptop, I researched local divorce attorneys and sent out a couple of messages to see if any would be willing to provide a consultation appointment. I figured out that with the ones that responded I would ask around to see if anyone had any recommendations for who I should use, since I didn’t have any knowledge of good local attorneys. I never thought I would have to take this route in my life, but here I am trying to stumble my way through. After making some notes in my notebook, I next set out to research places to stay. I was not sure if I wanted to stay close to keep my job or look at moving away from here and starting my business like I had been wanting to do. Nothing was popping out at me in the surrounding area, so I decided to start researching away from Tennessee. I loved the scenery here but now I think it is time to look somewhere else. I had thought about moving to Georgia a long time ago while I was in high school. I just loved the gorgeous older homes there and imagined living out in the country surrounded by trees, nature, and silence.

With determination, I started looking at jobs and places to live in Georgia, and then I found a job at a school in Georgia looking for social workers in a local school. Maybe this could tide me over while I work on building up my own practice and it is in a perfect area where there is plenty of outdoor space to go for quiet and silence when I just want to think. Thomasville, Georgia looks good, so I started looking for a place to stay after I applied and attached a resume, then I started going through some options if I got this job.

As I was scrolling through houses and apartments to rent, my cell phone went off again. It was a random number so I took the risk and answered the call, praying it was not Mark, Dean or Amy trying to talk to me. “Hello, I am trying to reach Jessie Bern,” a male voice asked on the line.

“Speaking, how can I help you, “ I was just thankful it was not someone I was trying to avoid right now. I knew deep down I was going to start having some hard conversations, but this was not the time. Right now I was just focusing on what I needed to do for myself, because staying here was not an option.

“My name is James Fitch, I am the principal at Shabonna Middle School and I just had your application and resume come up while I was in the office and I wanted to reach out after skimming through the information. I would love to set up an interview time with you to talk to you more regarding your information and the job if you're able to.” he said. I was shocked that I got a response so quickly and the principal was reaching out directly to me.

“Absolutely! I am surprised by such a quick response, because I just sent that over about an hour ago.” I pulled out my calendar and quickly set up an zoom interview for the next day just as my stomach started growling at me. Sounds like my stomach is telling me it's time to take a break and get some food. I was on a role so I chose a place to sit and eat that had wifi so I could continue my research. I had more of a spring in my step as I left the library, got in my car and searched for a place to eat. I hoped internally that this was a good sign things would start improving for me and I had such a good feeling about these changes, because I knew staying here was not an option any longer.