2: 2
Timothy had barely hung up before he was messaging Janet again.
【Janet, we agreed back then—once the baby's born, you'd divorce him. When are you doing it?】
【Lewis isn't weaned yet. Wait until he's at least two.】
【Then promise me. The baby's here now, so from now on you're not allowed any closeness with him at all.】
【I know, you big jealous baby.】
My hands and feet went cold as I read their conversation.
So the reason he'd begged me to remarry him was because Timothy wanted a child.
Timothy couldn't have one, so Janet offered me up to help.
【Adrian's family, he's trustworthy. Once the baby's born, I'll divorce him, and since I'm the mother, I can get custody.】
A laugh burst out of me before I could stop it.
I laughed and laughed, until my throat drew tight.
For three years, everyone said Janet loved me more than her own life.
She'd drive four hours round trip in the middle of the night just to buy the apple hand pies I liked.
When I ran a high fever, she stayed by me while she worked, three days and three nights without closing her eyes, and once the fever broke, she was the one who collapsed.
So all that tenderness was just the wages she paid her tool.
And I'd been the fool who ached for her, thinking she was worn out caring for the baby alone, so I put in my resignation at the company, meaning to stay home and raise our son full-time so she could have a little more freedom.
While I sat there thinking, the message tone chimed again.
【I saw you gave him a watch in the bedroom a couple days ago. Wasn't that supposed to be for me?】
【If you want one, I'll just buy another.】
He was getting worked up now.
【That's not the point! You promised that to me. Why give it to Adrian?】
【And last time, you said you'd take me to a movie, and instead you drove across half the city to buy him apple hand pies. I waited through the whole thing and you never showed.】
【Aren't you being way too good to Adrian?】
This time Janet didn't fire back in a second. Two hours passed before she sent one line.
【Timothy, say what you want, Adrian is still your brother, not your enemy. In the end we're the ones who wronged him. I'm only making it up to him.】
Reading Janet's words, all I felt was the irony of it.
Timothy should have been the person closest to me in the world.
Our parents died too young, and I took on the burden of raising him while I was still very young myself, which is how I grew into someone steady and mature.
Back then Janet said she loved how quiet and reserved I was, and then after she met Timothy she changed her tune and said a man ought to be a little more lively and outgoing.
It wasn't that I never noticed how special Timothy was to her.
But when I told her to keep her distance from my brother, she only smiled and put her arms around me.
Told me not to be petulant, that he was her future brother-in-law.
What happened afterward was too dramatic, and it had been a long time since I let myself go back over it.
They grew closer and closer, close enough to share a single straw.
When we married the first time, even the wedding ring had to be a style Timothy liked.
On our first anniversary, I walked in on them tangled together, and Timothy didn't stop, didn't warn her either, just fixed his eyes straight on me.
When I demanded to know why, hysterical, Timothy's voice was very soft. He said: "An older brother is like a father. You should share everything with me. Everything of yours."
And Janet shielded Timothy behind her, silent, offering no argument.
I couldn't bear that the two most important people in my life had betrayed me.
I divorced her and blocked both of them.
I thought our paths would never cross again in this life.
But she threw herself into getting me to remarry her, threw herself so completely that I softened again.
Thinking of it, I laughed like a fool, and the tears kept falling and wouldn't stop.
I really was a fool, fool enough to believe Janet would change, fool enough to chase after a heart I thought was real.
But peel back the disguise and it was rotten through long ago.
Thank God there was still time.
