A MISUNDERSTANDING
Chapter Seven
Isabella’s Bad Day
This couldn’t be happening.
Isabella sat in silence as her world crumbled all around her. "You don’t
know what you’re saying. A divorce?" She spit the word out. Didn’t
he know that this would ruin both their lives? She would be cast out of
everything and, no doubt, written out of the will.
Cal kneeled next to his wife as
she sat in a wooden chair at their breakfast table. "Yes, I do know what
I’m saying. And I’m so, so sorry for doing this. But it’s what I have to do. I
love her."
She looked down at him
incredulously. "Who?"
"Why, Rose!"
"Rose? Rose? She’s
the reason for all this madness? Ha! And to think that I was actually going to
take you seriously. Look, Cal, some little whore with bastard children is not
your calling. You can have your little fling, and I’ll look the other way, but
her empty promises mean nothing."
He stiffly stood up, and regarded
her coldly. "That little whore happens to be the most wonderful woman on
the planet. And I also just happen to be in love with her."
*****
Cal came to Rose four months
later. "It’s final."
"The divorce?"
"Uh-huh."
"Was the child issue
settled?"
"Isabella is going to take
care of them, but I can visit whenever I want and still have full parental
rights."
Rose had since uprooted her small
family and rented a cheap apartment in a lesser-known part of town that Cal
helped pay the rent for. The divorce had gotten high media coverage, and
everyone felt that this was the best move. She had gotten a job as an apprentice
for a New York fashion designer on location. Cal had purchased the summer house
from his father, who had given in with the hope that his disgraceful son might
disappear from society and thus the face of the earth.
"Do you realize what this
means?"
"What?"
She pulled Cal close in her arms.
"We’re free."