…”son. That’s my son, Tyler.”
The whole restaurant turned to look at Frank, my husband’s best friend for forty years. He had gone white. His wife put her hand over her mouth.
The photograph showed Tyler, Frank’s twenty-nine-year-old son, standing on my front porch with my husband’s girlfriend, Amber. In the picture he was holding a key. My key.
“I hired a private investigator two months ago,” I said into the microphone, “because my husband started hiding his phone. I expected to learn about Amber. I didn’t expect to learn that Amber and Tyler have been together for two years, or that Tyler copied our house key at my husband’s poker night.”
Amber started stammering that it wasn’t what it looked like. I took a second sheet out of the envelope: a printout of text messages the investigator had legally obtained from a shared cloud account Amber had foolishly left logged in on my husband’s laptop. I read one aloud. “Once he’s divorced and remarried, the house goes to me. Six months, then I file. Half of everything, babe.”
My husband, Gary, turned to Amber with his mouth hanging open. Tyler had stopped coming to family barbecues months ago. Now we knew why.
“The thing is, Gary,” I said gently, “the house isn’t yours. My father left it to me before we were married. It’s in my name only. So is the lake cabin. I had our lawyer confirm it on Thursday.”
Frank stood up and told his son, who wasn’t even there, exactly what he thought of him, on speakerphone, in front of thirty people. Amber picked up her purse and left in her red dress without looking back.
Gary sat down in his chair, and for the first time in thirty-four years, he looked small. He mumbled that maybe he’d been too hasty. Maybe we could talk about it at home.
“I’m sure you’ll find somewhere to stay,” I said. “I’ve already packed your things. They’re at Frank’s.”
Frank, bless him, nodded.
Then I asked the restaurant manager to cut my cake. My sister started clapping first, then my daughter, and then the whole room. It was the best birthday I’ve had in years.
The divorce was finalized in the spring. Gary got his car, his golf clubs and his pension. I kept the house, the cabin and my friends. Amber and Tyler broke up three weeks after my party.
