Eight Months Pregnant, I Left My Cheating Husband Behind

Eight months pregnant, I walked in on my husband, the boy I'd grown up with, in bed with the woman who'd been my closest friend for ten years.

"Babe, we're just friends, we only shared a bed, don't make a scene."

My husband coaxed me, exasperated, expecting me to break down and demand answers the way I always had.

My best friend chimed in, breezy as ever: "Come on, you're the only one who can stand how badly he sleeps. He's not my type at all."

But I only calmly took out the divorce papers I'd disguised as a real-estate contract, held them out to Elijah Delgado, and said,

"Sign it."

They had no idea I'd already decided to keep the baby and cut off the father.

Once, everyone envied me. They said Elijah, my childhood sweetheart, had doted on me for twenty years, that I would always be his number one.

But no one knew that in barely a year of marriage, he'd abandoned me three separate times for Jeanette Gomez.

The first time, my pregnancy grew unstable partway through our honeymoon and I needed to rest, so he left me behind and finished the entire honeymoon that was supposed to be ours with Jeanette instead.

The second time, my morning sickness got so bad I ended up in the ER, and he still left me to go stand up for Jeanette, who was fighting through a divorce.

The third time, Jeanette drank herself sick late one night. I watched with my own eyes as she kissed Elijah, and my husband didn't push her away. He gathered her up and carried her off, leaving me alone in that bar.

Three abandonments in a row, and my heart was finally dead.

I was done with my best friend. And with my husband too.

1

Eight months pregnant, I walked in on my childhood-sweetheart husband and my best friend of ten years waking up in the same bed.

They thought I'd fall apart and interrogate them the way I always had.

"Sign it."

Everyone envied me. They thought that after twenty years of growing up with Elijah, I was spoiled like a princess, always first in his heart.

But no one knew that after only a year of marriage, Elijah had abandoned me three separate times for Jeanette.

The first time, he left me behind while my pregnancy was fragile and went with Jeanette to every single place we'd planned for our honeymoon.

I was so furious I checked into the hospital and demanded a divorce.

He knelt by my hospital bed all night, eyes red, swearing he would never leave me behind again.

Jeanette cried too, saying she'd just never been abroad and didn't want to waste the tickets they'd already booked.

For the sake of all those years between us, my heart softened in the end and I forgave them both.

The second time, my morning sickness turned severe. I was rushed into the ER and nearly lost the baby.

But he left me without a second thought and went to back up Jeanette, who was fighting with her husband.

I cried so hard I wanted to end the pregnancy, and Elijah, eyes rimmed red, took three slaps from me and said,

"Jeanette's your best friend. I only went to help her because I was afraid you'd worry after the procedure and it'd be bad for your body."

With the Delgado elders pressing me, I pushed my disappointment down and told myself: never again.

Then came the third time. After her divorce, Jeanette drank herself sick late at night and clung to Elijah, sobbing for him to come get her.

I went along, eight months pregnant, only to see Jeanette push right past me, throw herself into Elijah's arms, and kiss him.

Elijah didn't push her off. He sank into it.

I was shaking all over, my voice going shrill.

"Elijah, she's drunk, but are you out of your mind too?!"

He came back to himself, flustered.

"Jeanette had too much to drink and she's acting out, that's all. I'm a victim here too."

I looked down at his body and let out a broken laugh, tears spilling before I could stop them.

"A victim? Then why did your body react to her?"

The color drained from Elijah's face in an instant.

Right then, Jeanette knocked a bottle off the table by accident. It shattered, and a shard sliced her palm, blood dripping down between her fingers.

Her eyes were bleary with drink, but she still stepped in front of me.

"Beryl Simmons, did Elijah hurt you? I'll teach him a lesson for you."

Elijah's face changed. He shoved me aside, bent down and lifted the bleeding Jeanette into his arms, and strode out.

"Beryl, you have such a filthy mind. Can you stop imagining the two of us doing something so disgusting?"

"Jeanette's in a bad place after her divorce, and it's not right to bother you while you're pregnant, so she keeps coming to me for help. Once she's past the worst of the divorce, we'll go back to how we always were."

I hadn't braced for it, and I hit the cold edge of the bar table, a sharp pain tearing through my belly, my breath going ragged.

Scared, I reached out to catch hold of Elijah.

But he didn't spare me a single glance.

It felt like someone had gouged a bloody hole straight through my heart, and I sank to the floor, unable to hold myself up.

My filthy mind? Disgusting?

My husband and my best friend had kissed, his body had responded to her, and we could just go back to how we always were?

Back to how it was when Elijah had eyes only for me, when he'd report in to me before even being alone with Jeanette?

Or back to when the two of them couldn't stand the sight of each other?

Could we ever go back?

The love wasn't pure anymore. Neither was the friendship.

I didn't want either one.

Once the pain eased, I called my lawyer to discuss the divorce, and even holding the divorce papers, I still felt lost.

More than twenty years of feeling, two people as much a part of me as my own flesh and blood. How could that just be cut off with a word?

But when I got home and saw Elijah and Jeanette lying in the same bed, that little bit of lostness was swept away by the cold.

"Sign it. It's the house in the good school district, I picked it out."

I pushed Elijah to sign the fake divorce papers.

Maybe it was guilt. He didn't even read the contract, just signed.

"Beryl, let me explain. I bandaged her wound last night, I was exhausted, I fell straight asleep. Nothing happened."

Jeanette smiled too, the picture of innocence.

"Exactly, Beryl. Don't go dreaming things up."

Then she frowned and complained.

"Though, Elijah, you really are a terrible sleeper. You crowded me all night long. Beryl, how did you put up with this all these years?"

Elijah scoffed and shot back,

"You're the one who got drunk and thrashed around, didn't settle down all night, and you've got the nerve to blame me?"

"Beryl loves me the most. Quit trying to stir things up."

The two of them bickered like they always had.

Neither of them even noticed the new tenderness that had crept into their words.

It felt like a hand kneading my chest to pieces over and over.

All I could do was bite down hard on my lip, forcing it back, so the tears wouldn't fall right then and there.

Holding the signed divorce papers, I didn't want to look at either of them another second. I went straight upstairs to pack.

Only once I started did I realize how much of it there was, all the things tied to Elijah and Jeanette. So much.

After all, one was the boy I'd known since I was five, and the other the friend I'd had since our last year before high school.

Among those things, three had once meant everything to me.

The first was a high school graduation photo of just the three of us.

We all looked so young in it. In the picture, Elijah was looking down at me, his eyes full of love and warmth.

And Jeanette had her arm hooked through mine, laughing without a care.

By then we'd all gotten into the same college and sworn we'd never be apart again.

The second was a hand-sewn lucky charm.

The year of the pandemic, I got infected and ran a high fever.

They'd heard somewhere that a handmade charm could keep a person safe, and they spent three days without eating or resting, taking turns sewing it for me, their hands covered in needle pricks.

The third was a heavy gold bracelet.

The year I graduated college, Elijah gave me a big gold bracelet and swore he'd give me a good life for the rest of my days.

Jeanette heard about it and, refusing to be outdone, took every cent of her salary and bought me one too.

In the end I had the two bracelets melted together and wore it for a long time.

I'd thought we would stay happy like that forever.

How did it come to this...

I wiped away my tears, gritted my teeth, and put those three things deep in the back of a storage cabinet. I wasn't taking them with me.

Three things, to settle three abandonments.

There would be no next time.