Something froze inside me.
No more doubts. No more doubts. I needed the truth, and I knew exactly how to get it.
‘Did you sleep well?’ asked Nate when I came out of the bedroom that night, pretending I’d just woken up from a nap.
‘Like a rock,’ I lied.
The next morning, as soon as Nate left for work, I rushed to the toy shop downtown. I bought a plastic baby doll that looked eerily realistic – about Caleb’s size. My plan seemed ridiculous, even to me, but it was the only way to find out the truth.
When I got home, I wrapped the doll in Caleb’s favourite blanket, put it in the pram and hid the little baby monitor under the soft toy next to it.
The real Caleb stayed with me, safely tucked away in our bedroom. Thankfully, he was already sound asleep when Nate came home and got ready for his usual walk.
He didn’t even look in the pram before he got out, just took it by the handle and headed out.
‘Have a nice walk,’ I called out.
He raised his hand in acknowledgement. ‘We always do.’
My heart raced as I waited five minutes and then followed him, clutching the phone in my sweaty palm.
They were sitting at the same table outside the café. A woman – beautiful enough to make my postpartum body seem foreign – leaned forward, her fingers intertwined with my husband’s.
I settled behind the nearest poster, turned up the volume on the handset and listened.
‘Are you sure you’re okay?’ Her voice crackled through the speaker. ‘I feel guilty.’
I held my breath.
‘Everything’s fine,’ Nate replied. “She doesn’t suspect anything. I told you…she’s too exhausted from the baby to notice.”
The woman sighed. ‘I just don’t want to hurt her.’
Nate laughed-the sound was so cold that I flinched. “Hurt her? She’s just my wife. We had to get married because of Caleb. But you’re the one I really want.”
My vision blurred with tears.
“And how long are you going to pretend to love her? Until Caleb grows up?”
“No, baby. Not until she gets her grandmother’s inheritance. Then she’ll give me some money for being a wonderful husband. See? I even walk the baby every night. I’m practically a saint!”
Something inside me clicked. The phone receiver fell out of my hands, I stood up, and my body moved on autopilot towards their table.
‘Just don’t stop on my account,’ I shouted.
Nate choked on his coffee. The woman’s eyes widened and darted between us.
‘MONICA,’ he hissed. ‘What are you…’
I threw back the blanket in the pram, revealing a doll.
‘What the hell is this?’ Nate stared at the plastic face.
‘Interesting question.’ I crossed my arms. ‘I was just about to ask you the same thing.’
The woman stood up. ‘Nate, you said she knew-’
‘Knew what?’ I turned to her. “That my husband was using our son as a prop to cheat on me? That he plans to milk the inheritance out of me?”
‘I can explain,’ Nate said, reaching for my hand.
I recoiled. “You were supposed to marry me? You were supposed to be a father? Is that what you told her?”
His face went pale and the woman looked sick.
‘Do you feel guilty?’ I asked her. “Good. Because that’s what you helped him destroy.”
I took off my wedding ring, a symbol of promises that had now turned out to be lies, and dropped it on the table with a final clink.
‘I hope you’ll be happy together,’ I said, lowering my voice to a whisper. ‘Because you just lost the best thing you had.’
I turned and walked away, head held high and shoulders back, each step leading me towards a future I hadn’t planned for but was ready to face.
‘Monica, wait!’ Nate called after me.
I didn’t look back.
The divorce went quickly, as if Nate knew he’d been caught so thoroughly that fighting would only make things worse. He didn’t contest custody or fight for the house. He signed the papers and disappeared without a word.
Three months later, I was spreading peanut butter on Caleb’s breakfast toast when the phone rang.
‘You won’t believe what I just saw,’ my friend Mia’s voice came from the speaker.
‘What is it?’ I clutched the phone between my ear and shoulder, wiping away Caleb’s sticky fingers.
“Your ex. Outside that café where you caught him. Do you know his girlfriend? The brunette?”
I paused. ‘What about her?’
“She’s engaged! To some financier. Apparently, Nate was a side piece the whole time. He was yelling at her in broad daylight and she just stood there looking bored. I took video of the whole thing.”
I should have felt vindicated. Instead, I was undone by a strange laugh.
‘Send it to me,’ I said, though I wasn’t sure I wanted to see it.
Later, watching the silent video of Nate gesturing wildly to a woman who clearly didn’t care about his feelings, I felt something unexpected: freedom.
Your dad thought he was so smart,’ I told Caleb as he played on the floor next to me. ‘But karma doesn’t need guidance to find people like him.’