Goodbye to You

It was 10:00 pm, and I was sitting across from Carl Larson. It was our anniversary today.He looked exasperated when he said, "I'm just spending one night with her. That's all. She doesn't have much time left. She's been saving herself for me for the past three years. Can't you be a little understanding and let me do this for her?"The candlelight flickered between us. The roses I had spent all afternoon picking were already starting to wilt, just like our six years together were coming to an end.Carl disappeared for a week. When he finally came back, he didn't say a word about where he'd been or ask how I was doing. The first thing he said was that he wanted to sleep with another woman.I didn't even know how long we sat there in silence until his phone rang on the table. It was that special ringtone he had set for Wendy Lyle."Carl, you're still not coming?" Wendy's voice came through the phone.I tightened my fist so hard that my knuckles went white. "Carl Larson! We're not o

I shot a quick reply, "Don't even think about divorcing me."Then, I pulled up the location tracker on my phone to check where Carl was. Sure enough, he was at Wendy's.The tracker even had a recording feature. Carl set it up for my safety. I never thought it'd come in handy like this one day.I watched them all over each other in bed. My stomach turned, and I ended up throwing up everything. I couldn't help but wonder—would they really just sleep together once?Of course not. Once someone had taken a bite of the forbidden fruit, they'd keep going back for more.My phone rang with an incoming call from Carl. He sounded pissed. "How much longer are you going to keep this up?"I could hear rustling on his end of the line. Suddenly, a thought hit me. What if he knew I was pregnant? How would he react?"Carl, I'm pregnant."There was a long pause, then he actually laughed. "Hailey, you'll say anything to avoid a divorce, huh? You've always been on birth control. There's no way you'

I didn't need the necklace anymore, but Carl was already walking away.I stood there for a moment, watching his retreating figure, wondering if he'd ever regret losing me and our child for Wendy.…I scheduled an appointment with Carl on purpose.As I lay on the cold operating table, the bright lights burned into my eyes, making them ache. Once the anesthesia kicked in, I couldn't feel a thing.My mind drifted to something Carl once said, "Wendy's about to die. I'm only sleeping with her once. Why are you making such a big deal out of this? Can't you be more understanding and wait until she's gone so we can remarry? Don't make this harder for me, Hailey."How noble of him, right? Leaving me, his wife of six years, for another woman, and willing to do whatever it took to humiliate me just to sleep with her.Tears fell for the six years I'd given everything, now gone for good, and for the baby who wasn't even born yet. I felt so bad that I couldn't give my little one a decent fath

I wasn't a saint. I couldn't just ignore the fact that my husband was cheating on me.Carl acted like he was trying to comfort me, but honestly, he was just fooling himself. He was doing everything he could to keep our shaky relationship from falling apart.Wendy must have noticed how often Carl had been stopping by. She posted a suggestive photo of herself and him in bed on Instagram—a reminder to him and a warning to me.I thought her behavior was pretty immature, like a kid afraid someone was going to steal their snack.After all, Carl didn't mean anything to me anymore. I was long past the stage of obsessing over love like I used to. If he was cheating and she wanted him, fine, she could have him.The first thing I did when I got out of the hospital was call Carl to discuss the divorce.On the phone, Carl snapped, "Are you really in such a hurry?"I was baffled. He had been the one pushing for the divorce, yet now he was stalling. He always had to be the one in control, and

Since Carl cheated on me, I was obviously entitled to everything."What are you even talking about? I didn't cheat," Carl said."Are you seriously saying you didn't? You didn't sleep with Wendy?" I shot back.Carl hesitated for a second before answering, "No."I couldn't help but scoff in disbelief. They were this close to doing it right before me, and he still had the nerve to deny it.I was too wiped out for any small talk, so I just sent him the screen recordings and screenshots of the photos Wendy posted on Instagram."Well? Ready to walk away with nothing?" I asked.Carl was so pissed he was about to snap. He hadn't slept in three days and couldn't go to work just to be with Wendy.The second he saw the screenshots I sent, he froze. He turned to Wendy, sitting on the bed, grinning like she hadn't done anything wrong, and for the first time, he actually felt a little scared."When did you post these?" He was shaking as he shoved his phone toward her.Wendy just shrugged,