To Love Twice (3 page)

Giving herself a moment to compose herself, she put the
phone down.  She hadn’t really thought too much about divorce, and what
that would entail.  But after this conversation with Brad, she could see
she had no other choice.  She dialed Georgie, and didn’t give her a chance
to say a word.

“I need a divorce attorney,” Kate said.

“Wow, the conversation went that well?”

“Oh, it went even better.  Tell Tim not to bother
tomorrow.  There’s nothing left for us there.”

“What?” Georgie exclaimed.  “What do you mean there’s
nothing left?”

“Exactly that.  Brad informed me that he cleaned out
the house the day after we left.  Everything is gone.”

“Are you sure, Kate?  I mean, that’s crazy.  Are
you positive he’s just not saying that, to get back at you?”

“I’m not sure, Georgie.  Honestly though, at this
point, would you put it past him?”

“Well, no, I guess not.  But shouldn’t you check to
make sure?”

Kate thought for a moment.  “Yes, I’d really like to
check.  But how am I going to do that?”

“We’ll just drive over in the morning and check,” Georgie
said.

“Alright, we’ll plan on that.  But in the meantime, I
want a divorce attorney.  Know any good ones?”

Georgie sighed.  “No, not personally.”

“Me either.  I guess I’ll Google it.  Brad usually
leaves around seven-thirty.  I have no idea if that’s changed over the
past two months.  I guess we’ll find out tomorrow.”

“Do you want me to come over tonight?”

“No, that’s okay.  I’m fine, really.  Mary and I
are going to eat some dinner, try out the bathtub and then head to bed. 
Tomorrow is going to be rough.  Thanks for the offer, though.”

“Not a problem.  Call me if you need anything!”

“I will.  Good night.”  Kate hung up and hugged
Mary close to her.  “Looks like it’s just you and me,” Kate whispered
against her temple.

As Kate drove up the driveway to her ex-house, she wondered
what she’d do if Brad really had gotten rid of everything.  She was making
a great salary but it wasn’t enough to repurchase all she’d lost.  Giving
herself a mental shake as she parked the car, Kate glanced in the rearview
mirror to make sure Georgie was behind her.

Kate stepped out of the car and retrieved Mary from the
backseat as she waited for Georgie to join her.  Cuddling Mary to her
chest, she glanced at Georgie and nodded toward the house.  “Here goes
nothing.”  Pulling out her key, she inserted it into the lock and was
pleasantly surprised when it worked.  “Well, he didn’t change the locks,”
Kate said.

“Wonders will never cease,” Georgie said dryly.

Kate pushed the door open and stepped inside.  As she
took in the foyer, then the living room and on into the bedroom, she wanted to
drop to her knees and cry.  He hadn’t lied.  Everything was
gone.  All of the furniture she’d spent years collecting was gone. 
The beautiful foyer half-table that she’d found at a flea market was no longer
in it’s spot.  She’d spent hours sanding and staining that table once she
got it back home.  She’d even replaced the glass in the center because it
had been cracked.  She’d had to special order the glass. 

The bedroom set that she’d scrimped and saved for was also
gone, to be replaced with nothing.  The mattresses sat on the floor. 
The house resembled a dorm room or a frat house.  Brad was using a milk
crate for a bedside table.  What was wrong with him?

She moved up the stairs and into Mary’s room.  Gasping,
she clutched the doorframe.  Everything was gone.  Mary’s toys,
blankets, the cute floral prints that hung on the wall.  All of Mary’s
clothes were gone, the crib that had once been Kate’s, the dresser, rocking
chair and the changing table.  All that remained in the room was the pink
paint on the walls and the white carpet.

Kate was dumbfounded.  How could he just get rid of
everything?  And where did it all go?  Bewildered, Kate continued to
roam through the rooms.  Brad had replaced the dining table with a card
table.  The couch had been replaced with a Lazy Boy chair.  She
walked back into their bedroom,
his
bedroom.  She looked around and
the tears started to fall.

Ten years!  Ten years of her life she’d given to
him.  Did it not mean anything to him?  How could anyone be so
callous?  So unfeeling?  He had turned into a stranger.  How
could she have lived with him for so long and not known? 

“How did I not know, Georgie?”  Kate asked in a broken,
shattered voice.

Georgie flinched at her tone, slowly shaking her head. 
“I don’t know, sweetie.  No one did, you aren’t alone.”

“But I lived with him.  Slept with him.  Made a
baby with him.  How did I not know that he was this monster, so cold and
unfeeling?”  Kate paused and closed her eyes.  She sank to her knees
in the middle of the bedroom.  In a whisper, Kate continued.  “He
saved me, Georgie.  He saved me and he stayed with me.  He didn’t
know who I was, but he stayed for five days in a hospital room with a woman he
didn’t know.  I know somewhere in there he must have loved me.”  Kate
glanced around the room, completely baffled.  “He loved me, married me,
made a baby with me.  But first, first he saved me.  I didn’t know he
had this in him. How is it possible he kept this part of himself from me?”

“I don’t think he did.  At least not completely,
Kate.  You left him.  A part of you had to know.”

Kate shook her head slowly.  “No Georgie.  No, I
left him because he wouldn’t help me.  He became distant and rude. 
He didn’t want anything to do with Mary.  He would tell me to get a
babysitter if I wanted to take a shower.  I thought us leaving would wake
him up.  Make him see that his selfishness was ruining our lives.  I
thought he was just scared of becoming a father.  I thought the nightmares
were just his way of working through the fears.  God!  He was missing
so much of Mary.”  Kate looked around the bedroom.  “But this. 
No, this is something very different, Georgie.  This is…this is…I don’t
know what this is, but it’s not Brad.  This isn’t
my
Brad.”

Georgie walked over and knelt down beside Kate.  “I
know it doesn’t help, but you have a chance to start over here, Kate. 
You’ve only yourself to please now.  You and Mary, you’ll be a team,
you’ll be there for each other.  You need to start looking toward the
future and away from the past.”

“He sat by my hospital bed for five days.  Five days,
Georgie!  He had no idea who I was.  I can’t wrap my head around
this.  How do I get past that?  How do I get past all we’ve been to
each other?” Kate rested her head on her sister’s shoulder and let out a long
sigh.  “I know you’re right, Georgie.  And I’ll get there, someday. I
need time to grieve.  When I walked down the aisle, I never expected it to
end like this.  Never in my wildest dreams.  I just wish I
understood.  I think if I knew the reason, I’d be able to find a bit of
closure.  It might make it easier to move on and look to the future. 
This is so hard.  I’m not ready for this next part.”

“I don’t think anyone ever is.  But I’m here for you
and so is Tim.  You’ll get through this, we’ll help you.  You aren’t
alone, Kate.  It appears Brad is thrilled to be alone.  Eventually,
he might come to regret this.  But you.  You can’t regret this. 
It’s painful now, but you got the best part.  You got Mary.”

Kate allowed a small smile to break through.  “Yes I
did. She is my miracle.  And I need to focus on her.  All of this was
just stuff.  It can’t be replaced, each piece was unique and special in a
way.  But I can collect new stuff.  That’s something that Mary and I
can do together.”  Kate sighed.  “Come on, let’s get out of
here.  There’s nothing here for me anymore.”

Kate stood and walked out of the bedroom.  Taking a
last look around the house, she realized the house felt cold, lonely and
empty.  Exactly how she imagined Brad to be at this moment. She relocked
the door and left the key under the mat.  There was no point in keeping
it, she would never be back.

“Thanks for coming with me Georgie.”

“Are you sure you’ll be okay?  I can have Tim bring me
back later for my car.”

“I’ll be fine.  I think I’m going to go home and finish
unpacking Mary’s bedroom.  I need to do something constructive with all
these pent up emotions.”

Georgie nodded.  She gave Kate one last squeeze before
she slid into her car.  “Call me later.  I love you, sis.”

“Love you too.”  Kate watched as Georgie drove
off.  She quickly buckled Mary into her car seat and slid in to the
driver’s seat.  Putting the car in reverse, she glanced over her shoulder
and was surprised to see a police car parked behind her.  The tapping on
her window startled her.  Rolling the window down, Kate wondered what was
going on.

“License and registration, please?”

“What?  Why?”  Kate asked, confused.

“Ma’am, I need to see some identification.”

Deciding to cooperate, Kate reached inside her purse and
removed her license.  She opened the glove box and removed her
registration as well.

A puzzled frown crossed the cop’s face as he inspected her documents. 
“Ma’am, do you live at this address?”

“Not anymore.  My husband and I have separated.”

“Ma’am, you set off the security system.”

“What security system?”

“The one that is installed at this location.  I’m
sorry, ma’am.  It must be something your husband had installed
recently.  I’m going to need you to come with me.”

“What?  Are you serious?  This is crazy.  My
daughter is in the backseat.  What am I supposed to do with her?”

Glancing in the backseat, his eyebrows rose and he
sighed.  “If you will cooperate with me, I’ll allow you to drive to the
police station on your own and I’ll follow you.”

“I really have to go to the police station?”

“I’m afraid so, ma’am.  The security company cannot get
a hold of your husband.  Until someone speaks to him and gets the safe
code, I have to bring you in.”

Could this day get any worse, Kate wondered.  “Alright,
officer.  I’ll cooperate.”

Pacing a trail in the carpet in Tim’s office, Georgie
vented.  “I’m telling you Tim, that house was cold.  Empty.  It
was eerie.  And Kate, oh Kate!  She just wandered the house with
this, this, devastated look on her face.  There were a couple of times
when I thought she was going to faint.  And when she went into Mary’s
room.  God Tim!  You’ve never seen such a desolate look on anyone’s
face.”  Georgie sighed and dropped her head into her hands.  Tim
walked up behind her and rubbed her shoulders.  Georgie put her hand on
his and held on.  Squeezing his fingers, she turned her head to see
him.  “What makes people do that?”

“I don’t know, babe.  I don’t know.”

“She just wants to know why, you know?  I don’t think
she’ll ever know.  I can see how much that part is eating at her. 
She’s having such a hard time comparing the Brad who saved her with the Brad
he’s become.”  Georgie shuddered at the memory of Kate in pain.  It
had been Brad who’d called her.  Kate had been in a coma, and when she
woke, Kate had asked Brad to call her.  Five long days Kate had been
alone.  No family, no friends – no one, except Brad.  The man
who’d saved her.  He would always hold a special place in Georgie’s heart,
because if not for him, Kate may have died.

“Georgie don’t.  Don’t go back there.  There was
nothing you have done differently.”

“That’s where you and I disagree, but I’ll let it go for
now.  She’s calling a divorce lawyer tomorrow.  She’s hoping for a
quick divorce.  She doesn’t think he’ll fight her for Mary.  And
she’s not going to ask him for anything.  I think she’s out of her
mind.  She should at least make him give her child support.”

“You think he’d do that?  He didn’t help her with Mary
before she left, you really think he’s going to start now?”

“The old Brad would, Tim.  You know that.  And
without him…” Georgie let the thought drift away. 

“Georgie, he’s been a piece of crap for a year now. 
Shit, I’m more Mary’s father than he is.  He doesn’t want them anymore and
I’ll bet you he does what he has to to get it over and done with quickly.”

“I just think he should DO something.  But, she should
just at least ask for child support.”

Georgie’s cell phone rang, and she jumped up to answer
it.  “Hello?”

“Georgie? I need you to come, now.”

“What’s going on?  Kate, is everything ok?”

“No, I’m at the police station.  I’m being held for
breaking and entering.”

“What?!  I’ll be right there,”  Georgie hung up,
already heading toward the door.  She spun around remembering her purse
and keys.  Not seeing them on the chair, she cursed. “Shit, shit!  My
keys, where are my damn keys?”

“Right here,” Tim held them in his hand.  “What’s going
on?  I’ll drive.”

“The police.  She’s at the station.  Something
about breaking and entering.  Oh my God, Tim.  What is going on?!”

“We’ll find out when we get there.”

The usual twenty minute drive into the city only took
ten.  Tim had barely put the car in park when Georgie opened her door and
ran for the front door.  Rushing through the lobby of the police station,
Georgie scanned the room looking for someone to speak to.  As she
continued down a hall, she looked into a big room full of cops and desks. 
Spying her sister, she rushed over.  “I’m here.  What’s going on
Kate?”

“Oh Georgie, thank God you’re here!”  Kate walked over
and put Mary in Georgie’s arms.  “They’re holding me on suspicion of
breaking and entering.  They can’t get a hold of Brad, and until they do,
I have to be here.”

“What?  That’s ridiculous.  You’re still
married.  You haven’t even filed for divorce yet.  How can they do
this?”

“Do what?” Tim asked as he joined them.

“Tim, they’re holding her for breaking into Brad’s house
today.  Can they do that?”