I tried to control it, but I let out a snort anyways. “I know adulterers shouldn’t throw stones at one another,” she went on to say, and I thought, At least she seems to be taking a little bit of responsibility. “I’m truly sorry for the pain I caused you Aiden. I understand somewhat now how bad that hurt must have been,” she said. “I think only those who had a child and then lost them would understand.”
I thought about Mark again and said, “I don’t think you have any real idea what you did to me, Cecile. I couldn’t trust anyone after you. Because of that, I almost lost the best thing that I had going for me at the time.”
“You’re probably right that I wouldn’t understand. I know that my lies about Mark hurt you more than anything. I never told you this, but Jake knew all along the baby was his. He wanted to let you spend all of your money getting ready for him and then he would swoop in and play papa. I don’t think so. Anyways, Jake has had two successive affairs. I discovered them both so easily. It was like he wasn’t even trying to hide it. He works ten to twelve hours a day and then he spends most of his weekends with his women. I was hurt of course, but mostly it’s been really tough on Mark. Jake acts like he’s a bother, or that he is in the way most of the time and brushes him off when he’s looking for attention…and it’s even gotten worse than that…”
I felt a pang in my chest for the sweet little boy that I had known. I thought about him all the time. I wondered what he’s been doing, if he started school…if he could ride a bike yet. In knowing that little boy, I’d found out the hard way that biology doesn’t make you a parent. I still loved that little boy the way I did the first time I saw him and I missed him every day. Finally, realizing the time and that I was already late for an important meeting, I wrapped up the phone call.
“Cecile, I feel bad for Mark. You know how I feel about that little boy…I think. But you took him away from me, years ago. I’m not sure why you’d be calling me now torturing me with tales of how unhappy he is. Anyways, I am late for a meeting and I have to go now, I hope it all works out.”
“Aiden, wait! I just want to ask for a little bit of your time, for Mark. Please, he needs you. No matter how bad you despise me…”
“My time? You want me to spend time with the boy you let me fall in love with, the one you let me believe was mine, and then you tore him from my arms and kept him away from me for what…almost four years now? He won’t even remember me, and if he does it will be even worse this time for you to let us get close and then take him away on a whim.”
“I know, you’re right. You have no reason to do this for me, for him. But, I do know how much you loved him. I was just hoping…for Mark’s sake…I’m not going to take him away from you again. I realize now what a terrible mistake that was.”
“Aiden, they’re all waiting for you in the conference room.” My company CFO, Randall had stuck his head in the office.
Covering the phone with my hand, I said, “Two minutes, Randall.” Then back into the phone I continued, “Cecile, I really have to go.” I was struggling with whether or not to trust her again. Randall stuck his head in again and I said, “Give me your number and I’ll get back to you on this. I’m married now, I’m sure if you’ve kept up with me at all, you know that. I’ll have to talk to my wife; we have a son of our own.”
“Yes, I heard you got married, and I think I read a birth announcement as well. Everything you always wanted,” she said. “Congratulations, you have your family at last.” It was too bad that she didn’t sound sincere. She gave me her number and I wrote it on the back of one of my business cards and stuck it in my jacket pocket. Before I hung up she said, “This isn’t about me at all, Aiden. It’s all for Mark.”
“You can bet that if I agree to this, it won’t be you and I doing things together. It will be my son and I getting reacquainted with each other, no more,” I told her once again.
“Yes, I know that, Aiden. That was why I chose to call you. Mark needs you.”
I hung up the phone and thought about it all for a minute. I meant what I said, but I sincerely doubted that she did. Cecile rarely did anything, just for anyone other than Cecile, it was one of the reasons I had started spending so much time away from her before we split, I had just gotten so tired of all the drama. She used my absence as an excuse to have an affair. Neither of us handled things right, but I didn’t cut out her heart by taking her child away either.