Page 4 of Below the Far Horizon
“No! I mean, you didn’t really like that job, but you made good money,” Stacy said immediately. And she looked truly distressed.
She was absolutely right on too. Which surprised Grace. Like Stacy had actually paid attention to her over the years, the few times they talked. Her job overseeing the various departments of the private university where she worked had not been a job that she loved, but it had paid really well.
“At least your husband still has work,” Jill said, and Grace assumed that was her way of trying to comfort her.
“Yes.” Her fingers picked at the hem of her shirt. “Only he had multiple affairs, and I signed the divorce papers before I left Indianapolis. They’re in the back of my car.”
“You divorced?” her mother said, the comfort and concern in her tone almost making tears come to Grace’s eyes.
“Yes. We’re officially divorced. The judge just needs to file the papers. I need to mail them to my lawyer. I didn’t take the time to do that.” She was supposed to have done it yesterday, which was ostensibly the reason that she stayed home, but she hadn’t gotten out of bed except to go to the bathroom. Her shades were drawn, and she’d spent the day crying. Thank goodness for eye drops, since it had taken an entire bottle to make her eyes presentable today.
“Oh my goodness. I didn’t know there was any trouble at all,” her mother said, pushing up with her elbows before Stacy reached over and motioned for her to stay down. At first, Grace didn’t think that Gita was going to listen, but she relaxed back into the couch after wincing.
“Yeah. I didn’t want to bother anyone. It was…difficult.” To say the least. She had built a life based on the two of them being together forever. She certainly hadn’t expected anything to happen to him and certainly had never even dreamed that he might cheat.
“So yeah, I’m jobless, divorced, and I’m behind on most of my bills. He hasn’t been paying me, and up until I lost my job, there was no leg for me to stand on because I made as much as he did. I hardly think a judge is going to reverse that just because I got fired. Especially considering that happened almost a year after we separated.”
Thankfully he had moved out, although it had taken her dipping into her savings to be able to make the mortgage on their condo by herself. They had definitely overextended on that. Not that she’d had much say in it, since her husband had originally said it was a gift from his parents. It was a gift she’d ended up paying for. And then there was her car payment. She paid it, because she knew she was going to take it with her, but after she lost her job, the severance package was just enough for her to pay her share of the lawyer fees for the divorce and the closing cost for the house. She had literally nothing.
“I’m so sorry to hear that. I thought you were doing fine.” Jill stood up and walked over, putting a hand on Grace’s shoulder almost as though to check the temperature before she leaned down and gave her a warm hug.
Grace hadn’t been sure what to expect from her sisters. They hadn’t been especially close growing up. Although, she liked them both, and they talked some. Still, they’d drifted even further apart after they’d all gotten their own families, and Grace had made no effort to stay close.
She’d been busy trying to make her life a success, and she supposed also to make herself relevant compared to them.
The room was quiet for a bit, the silence feeling heavy and hard, before Stacy said, “What are you going to do?”
The question she dreaded. The unknown was always scary. “Well, right now I’m going to take care of Mom. That’s what I’m going to do for the next six weeks.”
“And you’re welcome to move in. You know you always have a home here.”
She winced. “I don’t really want to go backward in my life.” It was too late for that, but either the other ladies in the room didn’t think that or they were too polite to say it, since no one said anything. She felt guilty at her mom’s hurt look. “I’m sorry. I appreciate the offer, and I probably will stay a little bit if you don’t mind. At least until I get back on my feet.”
“Of course I don’t mind!” Gita said, smiling with all the love and affection in her mother’s heart at her. It made her own heart tremble and want to cry.
But she was not allowing herself the luxury of tears. Not today. That was yesterday, when she signed the papers. And realized that that part of her life was truly over. Her husband wasn’t going to apologize and come back. They weren’t going to attempt to sweep the ashes away and rebuild. There was no going back. It was only going forward, in a direction she hadn’t anticipated, with one foot in front of the other, as painful and hard as that was.
“If there’s anything I can do to help, you know I will. Tony might be able to put a word in for you at his job in Chicago if you’d like.” Stacy always was a fix-it kind of person. “Or I can seeif the company where I work is hiring. I haven’t been paying attention, since I just do my job and spend as much time with my children as I can. You don’t get this time of their lives back.”
Grace nodded, although she was so far from thinking about things like that it seemed like Stacy was talking about another time and place.
“The hospital might be hiring in the administrative section. You’ve got plenty of experience. I can check and see and get you the information if you’d like,” Jill said, and her tone was sweet and helpful.
Maybe it would be easier if her sisters had been gloating and laughing at her. Telling her that she had left with such fanfare, so prideful and arrogant, so certain she was going to take the world by the tail and slap it to the ground, reminding her of how much she thought of herself and how wrong she was.
But they hadn’t, and their kindness and forgiveness of her arrogance and inconsideration was almost more than Grace could stand.
And neither of them had mentioned what she had done to Claire.
Those were all memories that belonged to yesteryear, or that’s what she told herself. Although she knew with coming back to a small town, she would probably have to face them, perhaps on a daily basis for who knew how long, since small towns never forgot anything.
“You two go on. It’s lunchtime for you, and I’d like to talk to Grace myself. I’ve not had a chance to for such a long time, and surely there are some good things that I’ve missed,” Gita said, making a shooing motion toward Grace’s sisters.
They reluctantly got up, with both of them talking about the different things that they did to help their mom. Stacy showed the pain med schedule and made sure Grace knew when the next pill was supposed to be given.
“We’ve been keeping her on a very strict schedule. The physical therapist said that was probably the main reason why she is doing so well. Because her pain has been managed.”
Grace nodded, thinking that she’d managed to screw up everything else in her life, she would hate to screw this up too. But obviously Stacy didn’t have a whole lot of faith in her ability to be able to do a good job. Either that, or she was just being Stacy, who had to control everything.
