You're ruining my life. From Marcus, we need to talk. This is getting out of hand. From my mother, your father and I are on our way over. Don't make any decisions until we get there.
From Sarah, Rachel's coworker. Is it true about Marcus? Everyone at the office is talking about it. I made coffee and started responding methodically, honestly, letting the truth continue. It spread to Rachel.
I'm not ruining your life. I'm telling the truth about what you did. There's a difference to Marcus. There's nothing to talk about. You wanted my wife, you got her.
Congratulations to my mother. I'm fine. Come whenever. Doors unlocked to Sarah. It's true.
6 months. Ask HR to check the security footage from the parking garage if you want dates. The last one was calculated. Sarah was the office gossip, the woman who knew everyone's business and shared it with editorial flare. If I wanted the truth to spread through Rachel's workplace.
Sarah was the vector. My parents arrived at 8, my mother sweeping in with a casserole and concern. My father with the quiet anger of a man whose son had been wronged. We sat at the kitchen table, my mother holding my hand, my father reading through the evidence folder with increasing fury. And I told them everything.
That son of a, my father said when I got to the part about Marcus, give me his address. I'll dad. No, this isn't that kind of situation. The hell it isn't. He slept with your wife.
That's exactly the kind of situation that that requires legal resolution, not violence. I squeezed my mother's hand. I appreciate the sentiment, but I'm handling this the right way. My mother was crying. Quiet tears that match Patricia's from the night before.
How are you so calm about this? If your father did something like this to me, I'd not calm. I'm focused. There's a difference. I pulled my hand back, wrapped it around my coffee mug instead.
If I let myself feel everything right now, all the anger and hurt and betrayal, I'll fall apart. So, I'm compartmentalizing, dealing with the practical aspects first, emotions later. That's not healthy, honey. Neither is staying in a marriage built on lies. I'm doing the best I can.