His Betrayal

Day of the Interview

I was sitting in my hotel room sipping my coffee while I was scrolling through a couple of emails from attorneys. I had to go back to work tomorrow and I wanted to get as much accomplished today as I could. I was thankful that the school had agreed to me taking these two days off, and all I told them was it was for personal reasons. I had texted a couple of people I trusted not to ask too many questions about opinions for attorneys and gave the names of the ones I was thinking of. I narrowed my choice down to one and made an appointment for later that afternoon when my phone started ringing.

“UGH! Why can’t they just leave me alone? I just want to get the rest of this finalized before I have to return to work,” I exclaimed. I picked up the phone and sure enough it was Mark calling, so I hit the silence button and put it back down. I had about an hour before my interview. I was already ready to go, but there were still some things I wanted to get done. I found some prospective places to stay if this works out and made notes on questions and notated phone numbers to call. They were all two bedroom places that were perfect for me because I would have a bedroom and an office to work in.

It seemed like minutes later but my interview went smoothly and I enjoyed the conversation I had with Mr. Fitch regarding the position. When he described the work that they would like me to do with the children and some changes they were making to the social emotional curriculum they were using, I knew I was going to enjoy this job. When he offered me the position towards the end of our meeting, I asked him to forward me the hiring packet and I would look it over and get back to him the next morning. I knew I would probably take this position but wanted to make sure I looked all the details over first. I knew the decision I made to leave the area was drastic, but I didn’t want to be there anymore.

I thanked Mr. Fitch for the interview, and told him I looked forward to speaking with him the next morning. I ended the call and waited for the hiring packet to be sent to my email so I could look it over before I had the meeting with a potential attorney. My phone sent an alert. I had a text and I looked to see that this time it was Mark again. This time the only words I saw were

PLEASE CALL ME!

I again ignored the message and decided that he could wait until tomorrow. Tomorrow I will have a better idea of where I stand after looking over the hire packet and getting information from a meeting with the attorney. I was just thankful that we didn’t own a house together or have a child. That would make this process much more painful. I saw the hire packet was in my email, so I started skimming the contents liking what I was seeing. The salary was doable because I knew that I would also be working on starting my practice with clients. I decided to finish going through it later tonight, closed out everything and grabbed my purse and room key, then ran out the door.

I walked into the attorney's office and sat waiting for my appointment after talking with the receptionist. I was nervous and could not seem to sit still because I never pictured this would be where I would be at this point in my life. “Mrs. Bern, Mr. Stern will see you now, 3rd door on the right”, the receptionist stated with a polite smile.

I knocked on the office door and heard “Come in!” from the other side. Walking in, I was faced with a middle-aged man sitting behind his desk. The office was surrounded with dark wood from the huge desk he was sitting at to the various shelves that stored law books. I loved the look. It was more welcoming than the cold, sterile appearance of many other offices I have been in. I appreciated the warm old looks and I felt a bit more at ease. “I love the office Mr. Stern, it is much more welcoming than some of the other offices I have been in over time.”

“Thank you, I have to say I agree with you. That is one of the many reasons I stay here, because I appreciate older looks. It puts people a bit more at ease when they come here to meet.” Mr. Stern added. I shook his hand and sat down in an overstuffed chair facing him and took a deep breath. “Why don’t you tell me why you are here, Mrs. Bern, I see that you were able to get an appointment due to a cancellation but I don’t have any details.”

I spent the next hour talking through everything I had been dealing with since walking into our home the other day. I spoke about Mark trying to deny cheating at first but then backtracked quickly when confronted with my evidence. “Can I ask to see this evidence please,” Mr. Stern asked me. I quickly turned red from embarrassment. It was one thing to confront Mark, but this was someone outside our relationship asking to see the photos and video. I knew my face was as red as a tomato but I handed him my phone with the photo pulled up. It was hard to look him in the eye even knowing this was something that was not my fault, but I couldn’t help at one point asking myself what I did wrong, or why I was not enough for him.

“Mrs. Bern, please don’t be embarrassed, and please don’t blame yourself. This is not on you but on him.” almost as if he could read my thoughts. I must have looked shocked because he chuckled and added “I see things like this frequently, sadly enough, and the victim of the indiscretion is usually thinking the same thing each time.” I took my phone back as he was speaking, nodding my head silently. “So, what are you wanting to do? Take him to the cleaner?” he asked me.

I shook my head and told him “I just want a clean break, we didn’t have children yet, we didn’t buy a home together. We each have our own vehicles, so I just want to split any savings down the middle, and split any furnishings in our home and walk away. I already have a job offer out of state and I have some options for a new residence.”

We spent the remainder of the time finalizing details of what I wanted and he warned me that if Mark fights the divorce it could drag things out. I told him I understood but he could reach me if he needed me on my cell phone. I am just thankful that if I needed to be available for any court dates it was easier now to do it virtually. I asked him to make sure I had to be there in person to give me plenty of notice so I could make arrangements. I left the meeting feeling like I had a huge weight off my shoulders, but I knew a new one would be there when I had to have some difficult conversations over the next few days.