Then she said his name.
“It’s Arthur.”
I blinked. “Arthur… who?”
“You know who,” she said.
I stared at her, and my throat tightened.
“My Arthur?”
She nodded and blushed, with a smile so wide it looked pasted on. “It just happened. He reached out, and we talked. He always understood me — and now that you’re not together…”
Her words blurred after that. I could hear them, but I wasn’t absorbing anything. I couldn’t believe that she was dating my ex-husband — now a 40-year-old man! He was 16 years her senior, and she had no business being with him!
I tried to find my voice, but she cut through my silence with the kind of threat only a child can wield against their parent. Her ultimatum was cold, direct, and delivered with that particular confidence young women have when convinced they’re fighting for love rather than repeating a family pattern.
“You either accept this, or I cut you out of my life.
