Chapter 1: The Message
When my ex-wife Maya texted me, I almost dropped the phone.
“I’ll be at our daughter Adele’s wedding. How would I look in front of my new family if I skipped an event like that, right?”
New family.
Those two words stung more than they should have after fifteen years.
The last time I had seen Maya, I was standing in our hallway with our nine-month-old daughter in my arms while our other five girls cried from the living room. Maya was packing dresses, jewelry, and perfume into two expensive suitcases Harry had bought her.
Harry was her boss.
And, as I later learned, the man she had been seeing behind my back for months.
“You can’t give me the life I want,” she told me. “Harry can. He took me to the Maldives. He bought me a car. That is the life I deserve.”
Then she walked out.