Janice, I answered. This time she wasn't calling to wish me happy birthday. She was crying. Justin. What happened?
I messed up. I stood up. Where are you? At Caleb's. What happened?
Silence. Then she said the words that changed everything. I slept with him. I closed my eyes for a second. Did you plan this?
No. Did you drink? Yes. But I knew what I was doing. Did he?
Yes. Was this the first time? She didn't answer. Janice, I don't know. You don't know?
We've been talking for weeks. My grip tightened around the phone. How long? Since before Christmas. So, this wasn't about his mother's memorial.
No, she started crying harder. I was confused. No, I said, "You weren't confused. You made a plan. " Justin, please. You chose to spend my birthday with him.
You stayed at his house, and you've been talking to him for weeks. I swear I didn't think it would happen. I looked at the clock. It was almost midnight. That's enough.
Please don't hang up. I'll see you Sunday. Can we fix this? No. I ended the call.
Then I opened my laptop. The first thing I searched for wasn't Caleb. It was a divorce attorney. I barely slept that night. Not because I wanted to call Janice back, because I needed to make sure I didn't make any decisions based on anger.
By 7 Sunday morning, I had already found a divorce attorney. His name was Aaron Whitmore. He had an office downtown and specialized in family law. I called him when his office opened. "I need to discuss a divorce," I said.
"Are you looking to file immediately? " "Yes. " "Is your wife aware? " She knows the marriage is over. She doesn't know I've contacted an attorney yet. Aaron asked a few basic questions about our finances, the house, and whether we had children. We didn't. That simplified things.
He told me to bring our financial documents, property records, and anything relevant to the marriage. I'll see you Monday morning, he said. Good. After the call, I transferred enough money from our joint checking account to cover my normal expenses and moved my paycheck deposit to my individual account. I didn't empty the joint account.
I didn't hide money. I wasn't trying to punish Janice. I was making sure I could function while the divorce moved forward. At 9, I drove back to the house. Janice wasn't home yet.
I sat at the kitchen table where she had told me she was leaving 3 days earlier. The same chair, the same room, but everything felt different. At 10:17, her car pulled into the driveway. She came through the front door carrying an overnight bag. The moment she saw me, she stopped.
Justin, sit down. She put the bag on the floor. Can we talk first? We're going to talk. She sat across from me.
Her eyes were red. I've been sick about what happened. You should be. I didn't plan to sleep with him. You planned to go?