Page 32 of The Other Woman

“Jacob!”

“What?”

“We’re talking about someone being paralyzed.”

“And? Oh, you want me to pretend to care. Gimme a sec. Nope, I’ve got nothing.” I rolled my eyes and looked at the others, who you would think, because of their ages, would say something, but instead, it looked like they were holding back laughter.

“That’s just wrong.”

“Why is it wrong? She’s an awful human being. Just because she got what she deserved, is everyone supposed to forget that shit? Actions have consequences. It would be good if everyone knew that.”

“I know, but…”

“You feel bad for her?”

“No, but if not for her, we wouldn’t be together.” I’m trying for reason here.

“You’ve got a point; I’ll send her some flowers. Now, dinner! Where we at?” I give up.

“Helen, have you been by to see her?”

“Why would I do that? My asshole daughter has been all over my ass about cheaters and cheating. Doug called and asked for help, and she swore up one side and down the other that if I let them move in, she was moving out the same day.”

I could see Susy doing that. That girl hates cheating like it’s her mission in life. I wasn’t sure how to feel. I mean, how do you celebrate someone being in that position? I don’t like her, but it’s kind of sad. She didn’t get anything she expected in life.

I’d like to think that Doug was better to her than he had been to me, but somehow, I doubt it. I wonder if she ever realized that she’d done me a huge favor, or maybe I should be asking how long it took her to figure it out.

Now, to be paralyzed from the neck down, confined to her bed most of the time, and using a breathing tube that can’t be good at all. What a waste of a young life. But Jacob had a point. There wasn’t much I would’ve done had I known.

My only interest in Doug or his life is what pertains to my kids, and since he no longer has a relationship with them, I guess that’s dead. Jacob is convinced that Doug is going to come out of the woodwork at some point down the line and want to have a relationship with the kids just to be a pain in the ass because it’s obvious that he doesn’t really care and that’s why he wanted to go ahead with the adoption.

I’m inclined to agree, but I think the kids should have the option when they’re old enough to understand. Jacob had already said that he’d pay off the judge if they tried to make the kids spend any amount of time with Doug, but now that he’s responsible for his wife, I doubt he has time for the kids.

I didn’t even know they’d gotten married until Susy said something a few weeks ago about marrying the harlot doesn’t make it legit. I didn’t care then, and I don’t now, but life sure is strange. Doug wouldn’t change a diaper when the kids were young so how is he handling taking care of an adult in diapers?

I’d learned more about the situation as the evening went on while the men grilled and the women gossiped and she was totally reliant on him. Helen and her husband refused to help; Bree said she was too busy, and Susy laughed and hung up on him.

I’m sure he’s blaming me for his family’s treatment of them; he’d said it more than once in the past when the divorce first happened. But I don’t think it’s my place to tell them to go easy on him now that he’s found himself in this situation.

Once the night was over and the others had gone back to their homes I hopped on the computer to find out what I could and was surprised that there was hardly anything to see. No one was talking about it. Doug’s socials had been quiet for months now, and there was nothing from Wendy.

I had to wait for Jacob to come to bed to grill him about what he knew, but he didn’t know much either. He knew that she’d fallen and hit her head and had spent a couple of weeks in the hospital and a rehab place and was now back home in the last few days.

I was still in shock and wasn’t sure how to feel. I hate them both, of course, or at least I used to. I haven’t given them much thought lately, truth be told. But she’s so young. How is the rest of her life going to be? I know what she did to me was wrong, but I can’t help but feel just a little bit bad for her.

Doug, I could care less about. Hopefully, she has someone to take care of her because Doug is not the right fit for something like that. I wanted to be cold about it and not care, but I’d be lying if I didn’t admit to feeling a little sad for her. She’s an idiot, but I can’t ignore the fact that if those two hadn’t done what they did, my life wouldn’t be as amazing as it is now.

HOMEWRECKING SKANK

I watched him cross the room with the bowl of chili in his hands. I wanted to yell at him not to feed it to me, but the last time I turned my face away, he’d slapped me around the head, and since that was the only place I had any feeling, I had no choice but to eat the food I had poisoned and hope that the dose wasn’t enough to do me harm.

When the doctor mentioned me coming home, I wanted to protest, but since I couldn’t talk and couldn’t do anything to make my feelings known, there was no hope for it. I thought that I would at least have a case worker or a carer, but Doug had put on an act and somehow got himself signed up as my personal caretaker because he found out that the state would pay him each month.

I’ve only been back a few days, but this was the third bowl of chili he’d fed me. I’m sure they gave him a list of things I could eat and this was not one of them. “Open up. I have a hot date tonight, and I won’t be coming back in here to see to you until tomorrow, so if you shit yourself, you can just lay in it.”

What’s new? I have no control of my bowels, and the humiliation of having him change me is about more than I can take. He makes all these derogatory comments each time he has to do it and has taken to doing it only once a day.

I watched him as he moved the spoon to my mouth, shoveling food in fast enough to choke me. I didn’t want to die; I still held out hope that there would be some miracle cure that would get me out of this mess. While I was in the hospital, this horse-faced bitch came around with her sanctimonious bullshit about paying for sins and repenting.

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