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Chad just stood there, waiting for an answer but got nothing but silence. His ex-wife could tell that he was angry, and Chad had good reason to be upset. The last time he was this upset was when a gargantuan spider bit his foot, and that hurt like a motherfucker. Chad had his arms folded, as he looking at the woman who pretty much bullied the staff into giving her a key so that she could wait for him in his suite. She even claimed to be his wife even though they were one signature away from bringing their marriage to a rapid conclusion.
“You know there’s this thing,” Chad started, “Alexander Graham Bell invented way back when; it’s called a telephone. It’s made leaps and bounds since then, to the point where everyone’s carrying them in their pockets. You could have called to warn me you were coming over.”
“I’m sorry,” Paula said to him.
“Yeah, I bet you are,” Chad replied sarcastically, “You’re a sympathy card with ‘fuck you’ written on it.”
“There’s no need to be hostile,” Paula said, as his tone was upsetting her.
“Why not?” Chad replied, “This is my vacation and you’re violating my personal space! You lost the right to share any of my space a long time ago!”
“I need something from you,” Paula told him, “Something I needed done a few weeks ago.”
“God Dammit, Paula!” Chad said as he figured it out, “You came all the way over here just to get those damn papers signed? Really?”
“Yes, really!” she called back, “I’m allowed to get on with my life!”
“I was coming back in a seven days,” Chad informed her, “This was just a waste of time and money to come all the way out here for that!”
“I couldn’t wait that long,” Paula admitted.
“You’re that eager to throw me away?” Chad asked her.
“That’s not what I meant,” she disagreed.
“I made a mistake,” Chad insisted, “I don’t have any legal issues with the papers. I just forgot to sign them before I went on this blasted vacation. It was booked at the very last minute and I’m sorry. I was never perfect like you.”
“That’s not fair,” Paula replied.
“What’s not fair is leaving me!” Chad called out, “Deserting me to be with other men and breaking our vows! Leaving me at the one time I needed you most! People who claim to love one another don’t do that to each other!”
“I couldn’t look at you,” Paula confessed, “Not after what happened.”
“Oh, don’t you fucking dare!” Chad said, seething with anger. “What happened to him was an accident. When you left, you were making a choice! You chose to leave me, and you chose to sleep around Paula! You can’t hang that on anyone else but yourself. Own that shit because it’s all you!”
“And what are you going to own?” Paula asked.
“I didn’t do anything wrong!” Chad cried out, “And I will never confess to doing something wrong, because that’s not how it happened.”
“Then why isn’t he still here?” Paula screamed at him, tears running down her face as she thought back about the incident that drove the wedge between them.
“I’m not going to let you pin this on me,” Chad repeated as he was angry enough to spit nails. “I defend people for a damn living, so I’ll never let you blame me for what happened to our son.”
“But you were there when it happened!” she cried out.
“Yes, I was!” Chad admitted, “But that changes nothing!”
“He still died!” Paula said, not letting it go.
“You’re acting like this just happened to just us,” Chad retorted, “That just isn’t true. Over two thousand kids between one month and a year die of sudden infant death syndrome. Two thousand! And that year, one of those thousands happened to be ours. The key word here is sudden, as in not a single parent ever saw it coming. I didn’t do anything different that night. I gave Zach his bottle, and then I put him down for the night before going back to my den to do some paperwork. It’s the same routine I did many nights for several months! He never died those other nights, so I have no idea why he did that time! It just happened!”
“You don’t understand how I felt,” Paula said, crying.
“Of course, I did!” Chad disagreed. “I didn’t carry him in my belly for almost a year, but I still loved him. I lost him too; this was our loss, but you keep acting like you’re the only one who was suffering around here… which is complete bullshit! We lost Zachary together, and rather than grieve together, you walked out on me!”
“I did not,” Paula said, unwilling to bend.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Yes, you did.” Chad continued, “You checked out of marriage mentally and then months later you checked out physically by having an affair with that pathetic excuse for a man you must have found at a bar or something.”
“Derek is a nice man,” Paula countered, trying to defend him.
“He’s a scumbag!” Chad yelled at her. “What kind of man takes advantage of a grieving mother and helps her break her vows? A turd of the lowest form, that’s who.”
“I didn’t come here to fight,” Paula said to him, as she was clearly upset at the direction this talk had taken.
“Neither did I,” Chad agreed with her, “I came here to get away from my life. To get away from my bosses, my family, and especially from you! But now you’ve followed me all the way here just to get... wait, why do you need them signed now?”
“I just do,” Paula insisted, “I brought an extra copy with me for you to sign. When I return home, it will start the thirty day countdown.”
“I can’t believe this,” Chad said, completely astonished as he put it all together. “You’re already booked something with that scumbag. You’re going to marry that disrespectful piece of crap!”
“You have no authority over me anymore,” Paula declared, “I don’t have to listen to what you have to say.”
“That’s not surprising,” Chad countered, “You didn’t listen to me back then, why the hell should you start now?”
“What do you care?” Paula then chided, “We’re divorced. I suggest you get used to the idea.”
“I am used to the idea,” Chad said as he walked up and snapped the papers away from her. He picked up a pen off the table and flipped through and signed every part that had an arrow beside it. When he was finished, Chad slapped the papers onto the table that was between them. “There… now we are finished! Thirty days after you submit that to the courts, our disillusion will be final.”
“Thank you,” Paula said, picking the papers up.
“I didn’t do it for you,” Chad said, anger seething out of him. “I did it for myself. I deserve so much better than what you offered me.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Paula asked, slightly offended.
“What I mean is I will never, ever tell anyone you were a bad mother.” Chad explained to her. “You were good to him, and he reacted well to you too. You were always great mother, Paula. You were just a shitty wife.”
“Excuse me?” she asked.
“You heard me,” Chad said, as he was doubling down. “You were a pathetic excuse for a wife. I’m starting to wonder if you were ever there for me instead of just there for yourself. When I needed you badly, and your first instinct was to run. That told me all I needed to know about the status of our marriage, which is why I filed papers and moved out. You were already gone, so there was no point in my staying either.”
“You’ll never really understand,” Paula repeated.
“Maybe not, but I’m done trying.” Chad said as he pointed to the door. “You’ve got what you wanted, so get the fuck out of my room.”
Paula’s face was one of shock. “Well, I don’t think that kind of language...”
Without warning, Chad picked up one of the vases that was sitting on the desk at the back of the wall and did something that his ex-wife never anticipated. He threw the vase at the wall furthest away from her, as the intent was to emphasize how angry he was, not to hurt her.
“That was not a request!” Chad said through grit teeth, “Get out and leave your key on the coffee table!”
She held the papers tight and slowly put the key she got from the front desk onto the coffee table before walking to the door and exiting the suite. Once the door had closed, Chad quickly walked to it and quickly locked it and put up all the chains so no one else could get in even if they had a key. Once the door was secure, Chad stood there at the door leaning his head against it. His face was flushing red as he was angrier then he could ever remember. The gall of that woman! For her to come all the way out here and interrupt his good time because she and the patience of a dead horse was almost unforgivable. To try to pin her sins and betrayals on the death of their son was even more outrageous and that was what was upsetting him the most. He was so angry that he started to punch the door, several times before he turned his anger out on the room before him. He picked up a chair and sent it flying into the air. It smashed into the big screen TV, permanently messing it up. And he was just getting started as he overturned chairs and tables, tossed the couch over, and broke everything in the place that was breakable. It took less than twenty minutes to lay waste to the living room. He had so much pent up rage that he lashed out at the room rather than at any specific person.
When he looked around the room, he saw thousands of dollars in damage, which was going to take a big bite out of his pocket. He didn’t care about the money, but Chad felt ashamed that he let Paula get under his skin as much as she did. Her reason for wanting the papers signed rubbed him the wrong way, because he knew that she was still seeing the man that broke up their marriage. Needless to say, Chad was not going to get any invites to the ceremony, which was just fine by him as he didn’t want to go anyway. All the stuff he had to take up with Dr. Connor was building up. He was going to need a few hours the next time he saw him rather than spit it all out too quickly. He sighed again and rather than clean up, he went back to the master bedroom to change and get ready to meet Penelope. He would have to inform the staff about the damage and given them options to fix or replace them. For now, he was going to clean up and get ready to meet with the girl that had called him.
While part of him wanted to call her up and cancel lunch, he refused to let Paula beat him like that. She wasn’t going to ruin his fun and he was going to back out there and have a good time without the ex-wife on his mind or in his presence. Chad changed into some jeans and a white t-shirt before putting his sandals back on and he was ready to go down and mingle. He realized there was still time before he had to meet Penelope, so Chad set an alarm on his phone ten minutes before they were supposed to meet, and then laid down on his big bed in an attempt to calm down after everything that had just happened. He closed his eyes, eager to get a little rest, drifting off to better times, when he was still someone’s loving husband but also someone’s father. Zachary had been his everything. The only person in the world that he loved more than he loved himself, and that was saying something because Chad loved himself a lot. That little boy brought such joy to his heart that Chad had never thought was possible. Nothing seemed like a chore to Chad, from changing the diapers to feeding him whenever Paula needed a break. It was his pleasure to participate in parenting as much as he wanted, because he loved that little bugger that much.
And as quickly as he had arrived, Zachary had been taken away.
It was the darkest day of his life, finding his son lying there lifeless in his crib. According to the medics, his son had been that way for hours which meant all of Chad’s attempts to save the child had been futile. It was more than likely the reason why Chad had been so friendly to Frankie Junior during the Anderson’s stay at the resort. Zachary would have been around his young boy’s age if he was still around, so hanging out with Junior gave Chad the impression of what kind of Dad he would have been had the worst not happened. As he faded to sleep, he could feel the anger fading away with his consciousness. He would have plenty of time to think about it later, he needed to calm down and resting seemed the best way to do it at that particular moment. As he waited, Chad couldn’t help but think of Paula and her selfish ways, but then he started to think about Rachel and his demeanor changed, as he had a smile on his face as he faded out.