Three is a crowd: Diane is back at the drawing table 

(Continued from last issue)

David and Diane have been married for years; then there is Julie, the young secretary whose axis collides with the couple’s in ways none of them saw coming.

JULIE

I woke up at the crack of dawn the following morning; I had slept poorly, tossing and turning for most of the night, thinking about David’s appearance the previous evening.

I had not wanted to forgive him, and in my heart I was not sure I had, but I had accepted his argument that all that really mattered was Junior and his future and so I had tacitly allowed him back into our lives.

He had spent the evening playing with Junior, while I had hurriedly put dinner together, and that had brought back memories of what we had once been like, but the sense of companionship that we had shared then was gone; it felt awkward having him around the apartment again.

Part of the reason for that was that while David was here now, my mind kept going back to Kenneth and the argument we had had; I hated that we had parted so badly. What made it all the more frustrating was that I could not fault him for the way he felt, and the truth was that I would probably have felt the same way if I were in his shoes.

At the same time, I knew that my own stand was just as valid; David was Junior’s father and that gave him both the right and the duty to be a part of his life. Furthermore, while Kenneth might not agree with my willingness to be dependent on David for my family’s financial needs, my relationship with David was the reason I wasn’t able to meet those needs anymore in the first place, so it was only fair that he now did.

I had fallen in love with Kenneth and did not even want to think of the possibility of losing him, but with David in the picture, and the reality that he would always feature in it, especially now that he had gotten those DNA results, I could not help but wonder what the future looked like for Kenneth and me.

DAVID

Diane did not spend the night in our room that night, but I was not as disturbed by that as I probably should have been.

The truth was that I felt oddly liberated by having been as open with her as I was; it felt good laying all the facts on the table and not having to make up lies and excuses about where I had been or why, and even though she was clearly upset by what I had had to say, at least I had been honest.

At the same time, I was not so insensitive that I did not understand that having your husband tell you that not only had he fathered a child with another woman, but that he intended to be a part of that child’s life, was a tough pill for any wife to swallow, especially one as proud as Diane, and I knew I owed her an apology, but at the moment, I had bigger things on my mind.

As expected, Julie had not exactly been thrilled to see me, but at least she had heard me out without asking me to leave, which was a positive start. I knew that repairing my relationship with her would be a long process, but also that it was a necessary one if I was to have the kind of relationship with Junior that I was determined to.

I did not know what the situation was with her and that doctor; I still did not trust him, but I would worry about him later.
For now, Julie was giving me open access to my son and that was all that mattered. I had stayed at the apartment until he fell asleep, and then with that buffer gone, the awkwardness between us grew so glaringly obvious that I decided to put us both out of our misery and call it a night.

She had mentioned that her sister would be coming for the holidays, and that was both comforting and reassuring; if her sister was at the apartment, that’s where she and Junior would be, so at least I would always know where they were.

DIANE

I woke up feeling like I had just been through the longest night of my life. After David had gone up to bed the previous night, I had remained crying in the living room for hours until, completely exhausted, I had dragged myself upstairs.

Even though from the silence in our bedroom, David was clearly already asleep, my entire being was in total turmoil and I could not bring myself to go in there and lie down next to him, so I continued on to the guest bedroom.

That night, I went through a whole range of emotions, from shock and horror at how my entire plan had fallen to pieces, to hurt and anger at how David had acted. However, more than all of these, I felt a cold, deep fear that bordered on terror at what this turn of events would mean for the children and me, especially considering how determined David appeared to be about being a part of his bastard’s life.

It was hard enough to imagine sharing my husband with that whore, but it was far worse to imagine the children sharing their father’s affection – and their inheritance – with her bastard son.

At the back of all these different thoughts and emotions was the overwhelming sense of failure; not only had I failed at my plan to get David’s whore and their bastard out of the picture, but I had failed to safeguard and preserve mine and the children’s world, and it was this that disturbed me the most.

At the same time, although I felt this crushing sense of failure, I was not ready to accept defeat; I had been so sure that my plan would succeed, that even though it had failed so spectacularly, I was not ready to let one stupid lab technician make me lose the family David and I had built over all these years.

Although I could not think of how to fix this just yet, I just knew I would find a way to; I might have lost this battle, but the war was far from over.

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