“Then what do I do?” I ask, sounding more pitiful than I want to.
“Artists have strong souls, Seraphine, and you are an artist. I can see it in your eyes without ever having gazed at your work,” Lorna answers. “You can let him go and do this on your own. You can raise these babies all by yourself without needing their father involved.”
“But what about Chad? Heistheir father. Isn’t that wrong to deprive him of knowing his own children even exist?”
Lorna turns and reaches for something inside a stack of papers. It looks like a pile of old newspaper clippings.
“I saved this, only because I thought it was interesting. I never knew I would actually have a purpose for keeping it, but I guess thatyouare that purpose.” She hands me an article and instantly I recognize the picture on the front of the page.
Right next to Chad’s photograph, is the title “Fancy new billionaire bachelor.”
The article was written by a local journalist here in Asheville and appears to have been written shortly after Chad moved to town. In it, the interviewer asks Chad about the tragic loss of his wife. Chad is quoted as saying that he will never fall in love again, that he will never want to marry again, and that he never wants to have any more children.
For a moment, even after I have finished reading. I just sit there holding the newspaper article in my hand and staring blankly at it.
“You see,” Lorna says. “He is what he is—a billionaire with no desire to remarry or settle down or be burdened by a new wife and children. You deserve to live your own life and not be tied to that.”
With a heavy heart, I realize that she is right. Chad and Lilly have been through enough already, and the shock of being saddled with twins that he obviously wouldn’t want would certainly destroy him, and in turn, hurt Lilly.
“Thank you for showing me this,” I say as I hand the paper back to Lorna and then set my teacup down on her counter. “And thank you for the tea and for the advice. I think that I really needed someone to talk to. I’ve been inside my own head about this for too long and now I finally know what to do.”
I buy a few new paints from her, which she doesn’t even charge me for and tells me that it’s a “gift to paint new things for the babies,” and then I leave.
The rest of the night I don’t think any more about it because there is nothing left to decide.
The next morning—a bright and early Monday morning at the start of a fresh work week that I am supposed to be heading into the office for—I call Tori andresign.
Tori sounds shocked on the phone and tries to ask me a bunch of questions, but I can’t answer them without my voice cracking, so I simply tell her that I need to go and hang up the phone. I feel bad about it. I know that it will put an extra burden on her at the office and she has been nothing but nice to me ever since I got here. She’s also a friend, and I feel bad for lying to her and not giving her an actual reason for my resignation. I can only imagine how furious Chad will be when he gets into the office, and she has to be the bearer of bad news. I wish that there was a way for me to keep her out of the middle of it but there isn’t. It’s still better this way. It would be worse if I went in person.
As soon as I hang up the phone, the reality sets in of what I’ve just done. I have no money, no job, and no steady income now. I have no idea what I’m going to do, but I know that I couldn’t have gone into work feeling as pregnant as I do.
I’m going to need to come up with another solution, one that takes into account what is best for me, the babies, and Chad and Lilly. And I will need to come up with itfastbecause the babies will be here sooner rather than later, and I can’t just wing this like I do with everything else. This time, I need to be the responsible and non-emotional one in the room, whether I want to or not.
Chapter Fourteen
Chad
“What? What do you mean shequit?”
I don’t mean to shout at Tori. This is obviously not her fault, but I am too shocked and upset to keep a low voice.
“Did she say why?”
“No. All she said was that she had to resign for personal reasons,” Tori answers.
I scoff at the choice of words.Resigningis usually used with high level executives that are leaving a company on good terms with sufficient notice. What Seraphine just did, wasquit.
But even as angry as I am at her cowardice move to “phone it in” instead of coming to speak with me about terminating her employment with my company, I know that something isverywrong. Seraphine has little money, and as far as I know no other job opportunities here, so quitting means that something is wrong.
She’s already taken several days off sick, and now this. I am much more worried about her than I am mad.
I grab my coat and head out.
“Reschedule my calls and meetings for today,” I tell Tori on my way out the door.
“Where are you going?
“To find out what the hell is going on.”