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“Hello Mark?”
It had been seven years since she abruptly served me with divorce papers and promptly disappeared. “What do you want, Diane?” I replied, not bothering to conceal the hostility I felt. It had been a decent enough day until now.
“I’m sorry, Mark. I know I hurt you, but it was the best thing I could have done. You don’t owe me, and I don’t have any right to ask, but I’m desperate and there’s nobody else to ask. I need a place to stay for a few days. Is there any chance I can borrow your couch? I’ll sleep on the floor if I have to. You’re not with anyone are you?”
“I pay you plenty to afford a place to stay, Diane. What’s this really about?” Being an ex-husband in California wasn’t quite like being a field hand in Alabama before the Civil War, but it wasn’t far off, either
“Mark, if I go home, they’ll kill me. If I use a credit card, they’ll find me.”
“And this is bad because…?” I asked, callously. I mean, no more alimony.
“I suppose I deserved that,” she admitted, “Goodbye, Mark. I wish I could have explained, but I didn’t want to drag you in. For what it’s worth, I’m sorry.”
“Wait, Diane,” I told her. It was close to ten already. “You can stay here tonight. Tomorrow, you need to find something else.” She had to have another friend somewhere. I’d put her on a bus if I had to. I started to give her my address, then stopped. I’d changed my cell number when she left. “How did you get this number?”
“Mark, I’ll be there in half an hour. I can’t explain much without dragging you in, but what I can, I will. I know where you live. Thank you!” She hung up.
Well, shit. She’d suckered me again. Seven years since she just vanished (well, except for the lawyer that worked the divorce for her). I hadn’t been able to make a go of any relationship since, and I knew exactly why, and she’d still suckered me.
Damn.
She’d said half an hour, but it was only eighteen minutes before she knocked softly. I didn’t even finish berating myself for my own stupidity and lack of balls to tell her no and make it stick.
I wanted to just sit there and pretend I wasn’t home. But I’d told her she could stay the night. Reluctantly, I levered myself off the couch and slouched my way to the door.
At first I didn’t recognize the woman standing there. Honey-blonde hair where Diane had always been a medium brunette, a face that looked like it might have been eighteen but probably belonged to someone younger. Then I took in the green eyes, the pert nose that was somehow smaller but still hers, the immaculately perfect eyebrows, the lips I’d kissed so many times. It was her.
The rest of her looked somehow younger as well. The breasts were perkier and smaller than I remembered, she’d shed a few pounds and looked even more stunning. I knew this woman was forty-two – three years older than me – but she looked like a teenager and I didn’t know how.
She saw the recognition in my eyes. “I can’t explain, Mark, but it’s me. It’s been a while.”
“You look good,” I said, “You hook someone better off than me?” Alimony was until she remarried. Her having a sugar daddy on the side didn’t let me off the hook.
“Mark, I never wanted to hurt you,” she replied, “I’m sorry that I did, and if there was any other way that wouldn’t have made it worse, I’d have done that instead. I’m sorry to reopen old wounds, but I’m desperate and I don’t think I deserve to die for what I did to you.”
“According to you, someone thinks you deserve to die for what you did to them.”
“Mark, I already told you I can’t explain. It’s all tied together. What I can tell you is this: Cindy told me I had breast cancer. Stage four. Not much chance of beating it, not much time if I didn’t. She said she knew somebody who might be able to help me.”
“Well, you’re still here.”
“I talked to Cindy’s associate. One of the terms to their offer was you had to abandon your previous life. It wouldn’t have been fair to ask that of you. I know how hard you worked to get where you are. If I even told you about it, they’d have come after you.”
“Damn it, Diane, that was my choice to make, but you had to be all noble – when it just so happens that ‘nobility’ let you off the hook with me. Why didn’t you at least talk to me about it?”
“I told you – that would have brought you in. No choice.”
“I can pay lawyers good enough to beat non-disclosure clauses.”
“We’re not talking about lawyers, Mark. And that’s all I can tell you. If I told you any more, they’d kill you.”
“Are we talking about a cult or the mob? You trying to scare me with fairy tales Diane?”
“It’s neither the mob nor fairy tales, Mark! And I know you don’t believe it, but I’m still trying to protect you! I can’t tell you any more! Let it drop, okay?”
“You’re still trying to protect me, Diane? If that’s the case, why are you here?”
“Because there’s nowhere else I can go!” She was crying. “Nobody can really help me anymore, okay? The best I can hope for is a few months and a quick exit when time runs out. But I’m not ready to just go out now!”
“Why not? What’s the difference?”
“Because for those few months, I’ll be free again!”
“Free? Someone been holding you captive?”
“Yes! There weren’t any chains or bars involved, but I was a captive just the same! And now I’m free, but I don’t want to throw you into the same prison I just escaped from! Please, Mark! What I did to myself was bad enough, but I went into it with my eyes open and they did what they said they would. I can’t do it to someone else, someone I love!”
Yeah, she was a manipulative bitch when she wanted to be. But she’d been pushed off-balance enough that what she said rang true. And I could see it in her eyes, the way her lips sucked in. She wished she hadn’t said it. She wanted the words back, and she couldn’t get them.
And suddenly I believed her. I might have been the biggest sucker of all time, but I believed her. “I’m sorry, Diane. I’ve been an asshole.”
“You couldn’t have known,” she replied. “It hurt, but I knew you had no way of knowing what happened wasn’t what I wanted. I didn’t blame you when I walked in, and I don’t blame you now. It was all on me, and I’m so sorry for what I had to do. I’m not going to lie and say that if I had it to do over again, I’d do anything different, because I didn’t know what I didn’t know. Knowing what I knew then, I’d still do it the same.”
“But not knowing what I know now.”
I started to say that it wasn’t too late, but put her finger on my lips and over-rode my words, continuing, “I’m sorry Mark, and I hope someday you can find it in you to forgive me. I was wrong. I was scared, but as scared as I was I knew I couldn’t ask you to do what I thought I had to.”
“It’s okay, Diane. I understand.”
And then we were in each other’s arms, and it was like the previous seven years hadn’t happened at all.
Copyright 2019 Dan Melson. All Rights Reserved.
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