“Then what do you mean?”
He became defensive.
“You weren’t there.”
“No,” Diane said.
“Apparently I wasn’t.”
The words carried more weight than the volume of her voice.
She looked at me again, and for the first time since arriving, there was no accusation in her face.
There was embarrassment.
Maybe even shame.
Eric must have sensed the shift too.
“Mom, don’t let her manipulate you.”
Diane went very still.
I felt something inside me settle.
I had spent three weeks wondering whether I needed more proof.
Better explanations.
Screenshots from every conversation.
Dates.
Details.
Some perfect arrangement of facts that would make people understand I had not driven Eric away.
But now Eric was doing more damage to himself in five minutes than any collection of evidence could have done.
Diane asked, “Did you tell her you deserved happiness?”
A pause.
“Yes, because I do.”
“Did you tell the mother of your eight-month-old baby that she was too much stress?”
“That’s not exactly how—”
Diane raised the paper.
“I’m looking at your words.”
Eric’s tone changed again.
“Why does she have that printed out? That’s insane.”
I almost smiled, though nothing about the moment was funny.
There it was again.
Not I shouldn’t have written that.
Not I was cruel.
The problem, in Eric’s mind, was that I had kept evidence of what he said.
Diane heard it too.
She sat down slowly on the edge of the couch.
“Eric,” she said, “where are you right now?”
“I told you I’m not talking about her.”
“I didn’t ask who you were with.”
Another pause.
Then he said, “I’m staying somewhere else.”
Diane closed her eyes briefly.
“When were you planning to tell me?”
“I knew you’d overreact.”
She opened her eyes.
“You left your family and hid it from me because you thought I would overreact?”
“I didn’t hide anything.”
“You let me come here expecting to find you living with your wife and children.”
“I didn’t know you were going there.”
“That is not an answer.”
Eric’s irritation became obvious.
“Look, this is between me and her.”
Diane looked toward Ruby.
“No,” she said.
“It stopped being only between you and her when you had children.”
The words landed with a force that made me stare at her.
