But don’t you see? Austin couldn’t just say he didn’t want children with me because then he’d look like the bad guy. So instead, he made me believe I couldn’t have children. Made everyone believe our marriage failed because of my fertility problems. Then left me for someone else so he could have a life free of that baggage.
A life with someone he thought was more sophisticated. That’s diabolical. It’s perfect. Austin gets to be the victim of unfortunate circumstances instead of the husband who abandoned his wife because he didn’t want to have children with her. He gets the life he wants without any of the work or commitment.
And I get to be the broken woman whose body failed her marriage. But sitting there with this new information, she realized Austin had made one crucial mistake. He’d assumed she would never find out the truth. Austin was planning to parade her at his baby shower as proof of his good judgment in leaving her. He wanted everyone to see the bitter, childless ex-wife compared to his new pregnant partner and think he’d made the right choice.
But Austin didn’t know that she now knew the truth about everything. He didn’t know that she had proof of his lies, evidence of his manipulation, documentation of his cruelty. Austin thought he was inviting his broken ex-wife to be humiliated at his baby shower. But he was actually inviting someone who could destroy his entire carefully constructed narrative with a single phone call.
She looked at that baby shower invitation again, but this time she wasn’t seeing it as a victim. She was seeing it as an opportunity. Austin wanted to use her as entertainment at his party. Fine, but the entertainment wasn’t going to be what he expected. She picked up her phone and started making calls, not to airlines, not to apartments to find somewhere to hide.
She started calling people who could help her become someone Austin would never see coming. Because Austin had taught her something valuable over the past eight years. If you’re going to destroy someone, you make sure they never see it coming. And Austin Adabio had no idea what was about to hit him. The choice was clear.
She could accept Austin’s narrative about who she was, the broken, bitter ex-wife whose fertility problems had ruined her marriage, or she could show everyone who Austin really was. She chose destruction, but not her own destruction. his the first call she made was to Dr. Bellow asking for copies of all her test results and medical records.
