3

Liesl sat in the coffee shop with her mother and stared sadly into the latte she couldn’t even enjoy. Right now, under the supervision of Elsie and Janka, her husband was removing his basic belongings from the house. Having a powerful family like Merlin McGrath had meant everything was moving along quickly. The papers had been filed. She had not contested, and they would be divorced in under a month. New Hampshire was making it easy for them.

Her mother was quiet, “they set the wedding date for the day after the papers should be finalized.” She paused, “your sister asked for you to be there.”

“She can go fuck herself,” she spat bitterly.

“She’s your sister, Liesl,” her mother reached for her hand sighing when Liesl drew it backwards. “What do you want me to do? I’m stuck in the middle here.”

“You shouldn’t be stuck in the middle. Your daughter acted like a whore and has been fucking her brother-in-law for months,” her brother interrupted the conversation as he entered the coffee shop loudly drawing attention. He plunked down beside Liesl and hugged her tight, bringing on another set of tears. “I’m so sorry, baby girl. I didn’t know. I just found out when I got back into town a few minutes ago. Meredith let me know right away.”

“Fred, your sister isn’t a whore,” Lorraine Sutherland sniffed. “She made a mistake.”

“No mom. A mistake is when you circle b instead of a on a multiple-choice quiz. A mistake is putting salt instead of sugar in your coffee. Having an eleven-month-long affair with your sister’s husband, while having sex with other men and engaged to another schmuck, is not a mistake. Liesl would never have suspected either of them. Meredith told me how he told her. Who the fuck tells his wife of five years he wanted a divorce with no warning and a stack of signed papers. Then for Sandy to text her and tell her how long it’s been going on and how much they are in love? She asked her to give up the house, so she and the baby have a place to live.”

“No,” her mother made sad eyes at Liesl. “You didn’t tell me.”

“Why should I? It’s not like it changes anything, Mom.”

“Liesl, it’s not black and white for me. There’s a child to consider.”

“Well, I refuse. I’m not giving up the house. I’m contemplating selling it to the lowest bidder and letting them raze it to the ground out of spite.” She rested her head on Fred’s shoulder sadly, hating how much she was still crying over the pair of them.

“I’ll bring the bulldozer,” Fred nodded his agreement. “You can move in with me and Meredith.”

She sniffed and reached for her coffee, “I hate him. I hate them both so much.”

“You don’t hate your sister.”

“Mom, stop telling me what I feel.” She felt Fred’s supportive kiss to her temple and felt grateful for the love he was showing her. “She’s your baby. You’ve been making excuses for her since the day she was born, but this I can’t forgive or forget. She could have been with anyone else but my husband. I loved him. I spent eight years of my life with him, loving him and doing everything for him. I should have listened to Fred.”

“You should have but now is not the time to be playing what if’s,” Fred said softly.

“Fred, I gave up everything for him. He wanted a housewife to hold his dinner parties and look pretty on his arm. I followed his damn fitness regime and ate the food he bought so I would always look good on his arm. I had my hair styled the way he liked it. I haven’t been allowed to cut my hair the way I like in seven years. Seven fucking years of having hair to the middle of my back because he liked being able to pull it when he was behind me,” she knew she’d overshared when her mother gasped. “I worked as a receptionist to subsidize my income as an artist when we met and he made me quit. I was only allowed to show the pieces he approved of lest they sully the family name.” Infuriated she snapped, “I hope their baby is ugly.”

“Liesl!” her mother snapped. “It is not the baby’s fault.”

“I didn’t wish it dead, I wished it ugly.”

Her brother snickered at her comment earning him a glare from Lorraine as well.

Liesl looked at Fred, “when he takes his glasses off, his eyes are beady. I hope they have a beady eyed baby with her big nose. I hope it’s a girl too. Nothing would be more insulting than his first being female.”

“Liesl,” her mother tried again.

“You know Mom, you named us all after your favorite movies. We could blame you for bringing the drama to our lives.” Fred tossed out snidely. “You did encourage Sandy to be theatrical.”

“Very funny. I’m pretty sure I didn’t tell your sister to let her brother-in-law bone her for drama.” She groaned and slapped her hands on the table. “I’m upset with her too but she’s still my daughter and I still must support her the best way I can. She’s going through it right now.”

“She brought it on herself.” Fred refused to sympathize with his youngest sister. “She’s twenty-six and she knew better. She made a conscious decision.”

“She’s not the only one,” Liesl said quietly. “He knew what he was doing. It’s not only her fault. I want him to pay. I want him to suffer this humiliation the way I am.”

“Well, you could sleep with his brother.”

She gagged at the thought as Fred laughed, “I would rather sleep with his father than his brother and that’s saying something. The old man is sleazy.”

“His sons are chips off the old block.” Fred commented dryly.

Her phone rang and she noted it was Janka. She answered it on speaker, “is he gone yet?”

“No. He’s asking for your engagement ring. He says it was a family heirloom and he wants Sandy to have it.”

“I’ll kill him where he sleeps,” she whispered furiously. “He’s going to put the ring he proposed to me with, in front of all our family and friends, at Christmastime, on her finger?”

“I’m so sorry, Liesl but he’s refusing to leave without talking to you, unless you tell me where the ring is.”

“Why is he trying to hurt me more? Hasn’t he done enough?” she whimpered against Fred’s shoulder. “What did I do to him to make him hate me so much he would do this?”

“My feeling from the way he’s been behaving here in the house is he thought you would fight for him. I think he thought you would argue more over the divorce and beg him to stay. I think you kicked his ego in the balls by signing on the same night. I think he thought you would come crying to us and boohoo and beg.” Janka threw her two cents in. “I caught him going through your clothes and he had taken some of your lingerie. I told him it was not part of his belongings, and I took it from him. He tried to argue he had purchased it, but I made him put it back.”

“Mother –” she censored herself as an older lady sat down at the table next to them. She blinked back tears and nodded, “tell him I have the ring on me, and I will give it to my mother. I realized Wednesday I was wearing it when I was at the doctor’s office getting my pap smear done to make sure he didn’t pass on Sandy’s chlamydia.” At her mother’s rolled eyes, she dug the ring out and made her mom hold it up and snapped a photo. “Show him that she has it.”

“I hope she loses it on her way home.”

“I don’t. I hope his grandmother, who was a saint, comes back from the dead and haunts Sandy for wearing it.” Janka’s chortle of laughter echoed as she hung up the call and she eyeballed her mother who was carefully putting the ring in her handbag. “I hope you know how much this hurts me, Mom.” She turned her head into Fred’s chest and let the tears fall yet again.

“I’m sorry Liesl. I can’t choose between daughters.”