Who Breaks First (Clearwater University)

What does she mean she and Paul used to dance all the time? I thought

that this was a new thing.

“All the time?”

She stops and blinks at me. Then she stops chopping vegetables, setting her knife down.

“Yes, we… well, I know we only just told you kids recently, but the truth is, we’ve been seeing each other for years.”

“Wait, what?”

“Yes, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about this,” Mom goes on, looking embarrassed. “After Emma introduced me to Paul, two years ago, we began a relationship that has continued.”

I’m knocked completely speechless.

What the fuck is happening right now?

The cool, calm, composed Trent from moments ago has left the fucking building. All that’s left is a slow-rising anger. Is mom trying to tell me that she had a full-on affair during her marriage, and that this thing with Paul has been going on ever since?

“Emma introduced you to Paul?”

“That’s right.” Mom looks conciliatory, like she didn’t mean for it all to come out like this.

When the fuck did she think it was going to come out?

“And you had an affair behind Dad’s back and have been hiding this thing with Paul the whole time?”

“Trent.”

“Answer me!” I shout, losing my cool.

“Yes.” She looks heartbroken. “It’s true. I—I was having an affair during my marriage to your dad. And yes, Emma introduced me to her father.”

“Was dad cheating on you? Did he have someone else on the side?”

“No.” She opens her mouth to say something else, but nothing comes out. She shakes her head and repeats, “No.”

Deathly silence fills the kitchen as I try to process everything I just heard. I thought, I hoped, that the kiss between mom and Paul was innocent. A mistake, a one-time thing. I told myself that maybe dad was having an affair on her, so she wanted to get revenge. But it turns out my mom was the guilty one, and Emma was absolutely the cause of all of this.

Not only did she bring her dad and my mom together, she was also the one that gave the information to my dad, thus ending their marriage.

She broke everything.

She broke me.

“I can’t believe you hid all of this from me.”

“I know it was wrong, but I was unhappy with your father, Trent. So unhappy,” Mom pleads.

“So you had an affair? And even after the divorce, you kept it from me for like, two years? What, did you and Paul meet in secret all this time?”

“No! He was gone for a while. His work took him away, you know that. But we were still together. We didn’t know how real this thing between us was, but even when we were several states apart, we still wanted to be together.”

“So why is all of this coming out now? Why are you baking me a fucking chicken pot pie and finally telling me the truth?”

“Paul and I felt like we got to a place in the relationship where we couldn’t wait anymore. We wanted to get on with our lives and live in the truth. There was no way we could go on keeping it a secret, especially since you and Emma are in the same school again. It just wouldn’t be fair.”

“Why did Emma introduce you to Paul in the first place?” I growl, thinking that maybe this was all some kind of master plan from the beginning.