“I never said you had to quit forever,” Seth said.
“You told Heather I’d already decided to quit.”
“I figured you could maybe work something out with Dr. Bennett.”
“After you promised somebody else I’d be available fifty hours a week?”
He didn’t answer that.
“You don’t understand how much pressure I’ve been under,” he said instead.
I closed my eyes.
“I didn’t know about the loan, Seth. You told me you paid for that truck out of savings.”
“Because I was embarrassed!”
“You could’ve told me.”
“And then what? You’d lecture me about money.”
“I might have asked how you planned to pay it back.”
“Exactly.”
He actually sounded relieved. Like I’d just proven his point.
“You made a promise you couldn’t keep,” I said. “And then you made another promise with something that didn’t belong to you.”
“Don’t talk about yourself like you’re property.”
“Then stop making decisions like I am.”
He went quiet.
Across the room, Heather covered her face and turned away.
“Look,” Seth said. “I panicked. Heather kept asking about the money. The wedding was coming. I didn’t want to start our marriage with that debt hanging over us.”
“So you decided I could work it off.”
He didn’t deny it.
“I thought once we were married, you’d understand.”
“No, Seth,” I said. “You thought once we were married, I’d feel stuck.”
He sounded exhausted.
“Can’t we just start over? We postpone. Take a few weeks. Have a smaller ceremony.”
“And Heather’s kids?”
“We help her out until she gets something figured out.”
There it was again. We.
Even after he’d blown up our wedding, he still treated his promise like my job.
“I won’t be watching the kids on Monday,” I said.
A pause.
“Not even Monday?”
“No.”
“Natalie, come on. They don’t have anywhere else to go.”
“Then you and Heather need to figure that out.”
His voice turned hurt.
“I can’t believe you’d take this out on the kids.”
For a second, that landed.
I pictured Maddie with her little pink backpack. Ben asking for pancakes. Owen holding his arms up for me to pick him up.
They hadn’t done anything wrong.
And Seth knew exactly how much I loved them. He knew exactly which button to push.
I looked over at Heather. She was watching me, silent.
“I’m not taking anything out on those kids,” I said. “I’m saying no to a job I never agreed to take.”
“Then I don’t know what you want from me.”
“The truth would’ve been a good start.”
I hung up.
Sophia Rivers is an experienced News Content Editor with a sharp eye for detail and a passion for delivering accurate and engaging news stories. At TheArchivists, she specializes in curating, editing, and presenting news content that informs and resonates with a global audience.
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