I was buttoning up my scrub on Tuesday morning, preparing for work when Henry came to the house. My stomach churned as he walked into our bedroom, it was clear he had been with his mistress since Saturday when he got back from Washington. The conference ended on Friday.

“Hey,” he stood at the doorway with a hand in his pocket and in his hand was a thin folder.

“Hey,” I replied, giving him a once over. He was wearing a new suit, a deep mauve suit paired with a white shirt and black tie. It surprised me because I have always wanted him to include some pastel colors in his wardrobe. But he was always telling me that they were too soft, that he didn't like them.

“Where have you been?” I asked him angrily. “I know the conference ended on Friday.”

“I'm staying over at the company's guest house,” he replied offhandedly. “Really?” I retorted and he said nothing.

“When did you get that?” I pointed at his suit, breaking the little silence.

“They look good, right?” He gave a smile and fiddled with a button. “Nelly insisted I get them yesterday when we went shopping.”

“Wow,” I thought, feeling like he had just given me a jab by the side. The sight of him made my skin crawl.

“I think we should sit down. We need to talk, Kathy.” He said curtly. “I will wait for you in the kitchen.”

I followed him and we got into the kitchen at the same time. We sat down across from each other at the table.

“Kathy, I’m sorry you found out about Nelly and I the way you did.” He placed the folder on the table. “That wasn’t how I planned it. I was planning to tell everything on my return from Washington.” He said as if he was delivering a package instead of breaking apart a life we had spent building together. His demeanor was more like chatting with a business partner.

I said nothing. I only gave him a pointed look and crossed my arms over the table, trying very hard to hold back my tears. I didn't want him to see how badly his insensitivity was affecting me.

"I thought it’d be better to do this as fast as possible," he said. “These are the divorce papers. You just have to sign them and the process will start immediately.”

"Better for who, Henry?" I asked him with irritation. His jaw tightened slightly, but his composure remained intact. "For both of us," he said. “Our marriage can't work anymore. I know we signed a prenup. Don't worry, I will leave the house for you and also write out a generous check for you. I want to compensate you for your troubles.”

“Really, Henry?” I barked out a bitter and sharp laugh. “I ask you again, why are you doing this? Is sh…she better in bed than me?”

"Kelly and I used to be in a relationship like our families wanted,” he started. “Everyone had assumed we were going to get married. Her father was must father's most trusted associate; he was one of the executive directors and naturally she too started working in the company after she graduated college. My dad even gave her father considerable shares in the family business. But something happened along the line between our fathers.”

Henry took a deep breath before continuing. “Her father resigned abruptly and she transferred companies.” He shrugged, “as expected, our relationship took a burnt from all of that. Now that our fathers are late, she's back in town…in my life, and things just…" He shrugged.

“Your old flame?” I asked in anger. “She's back and you've already picked up from where you stopped.” I stood up, clapping my hands. “Oh my goodness, I just realized, Henry, I am just a stand-in- wife, right?”

“I'm sorry,” his eyes flickered with something…regret, guilt. It cleared off before I could decide on what it was. “I didn't plan for all of this and you are not a stand-in-wife. She’s back, and… we’ve rekindled. She's pregnant. I have to do right by her.”

“Pregnant!” A cold dreary slithered through me. “How…How Henry? You told me you didn't want a baby until after our third anniversary. But now you went ahead to impregnate your old lover the moment she walked back into your life.”

I stared at him, feeling the world tilt sideways. Tears welled up in my eyes, blurring the image of Henry, the man I loved, the man I had built a life with.

“No Henry,” I said, my voice creaking. “I don't want just a house and a generous check.” I gave a bitter laugh and sat down to look straight into his eyes. “Henry Scott, you are going to pay for this betrayal.” The stark reality of a child on the way felt like a physical blow. Everything was just making meaning for me at that moment. He was actually waiting for Nelly to come back. So that was why he didn't want us to have a baby before the third anniversary. He was still hoping she would come back to him.

“Trust me, you are going to pay for each day, each month, down to the last second of my life you have wasted, Henry Scott…”

“Don't be silly,” he stood up, hands in his pockets. “You can't do that. We signed a prenup. You shouldn't be greedy.”

A wave of hot and fierce anger threatened to consume me as I listened to his wicked words. I wanted to scream, to throw something, to demand how he could say these things with such clinical detachment.

I saw another Henry that I have never seen before. The man standing before me was nothing like the man I fell in love with and got married to.

I stood up and asked him to leave. I told him my lawyer will get back to him.

Henry stood, his calm facade cracking for the first time. "Kathy, let’s not make this uglier than it has to be. Otherwise, you will lose everything.”

I stepped closer to him, my voice cold and steady. "Oh, it’s already ugly, Henry. Just get the hell out of here!”

He walked out, banging the door after him. My heart aches with a dull, throbbing pain. I broke down in tears and crumbled to the floor in the middle of the kitchen.

After my shift ended at 3:00 pm I walked slowly to the staff car park. Henry's words had not stopped echoing in my mind since morning, “Nelly is pregnant.”

Those words were running around my head as I carried out my duties. The matron had to ask me twice today if I was okay. I only told her I was fine and tried to concentrate as much as I could. Heaving a sigh of relief when the end of the shift came. I quickly signed off, and picked my bag and left the ward.

A single tear escaped, tracing a path down my cheek. I didn't know how to make the cold sharp pain stop as my tears continued to flow. After I could control myself, I decided to drive to my father's. I needed to talk, to let the pain out, and the only person I coukd do that with was my father.

We didn't exactly have the normal father-daughter relationship, but he was the only family I had left apart from my step siblings and their mothers.

But before that I drove to the nearby shop to get him some groceries like I usually do whenever I was visiting him. The smell of cigarette smoke and stale beer hit me as usual when I opened the door.

“Hey dad,” I greeted and went to the kitchen to set the shopping bags I was holding on the kitchen counter.

He was already standing at the kitchen doorway by the time I turned around. His signature scowl on his face; my father wore his grumpiness like a badge of honor.

“How was work today?” he asked with his arms folded in front of him. “Fine,” I said tartly.

“What happened?” he asked, eyeing me suspiciously as he leaned back against the doorframe.

“Henry… he wants a divorce,” I whispered, my voice barely audible as I walked out into the living room. “His ex is back. She is pregnant already.” I babbled on.

He followed me and said, “you women always forget how to keep a man once you’ve got him. Bet you stopped doing the little things, huh? Let yourself go? That’s how his ex got back in, I’m sure. Men need to feel wanted all the time.”

His words hit me like a slap, each one stinging worse than the last. My stomach churned with a mix of anger and regret. “I shouldn't have come here.” I thought to myself.

“Dad, you know that's not true,” I retorted. “You know me very well. You can't accuse me of that. I have never changed towards my husband in any way after we got married.”

I plopped down on the couch, crossing my legs and he sat across from me.

“Then why don't you beg him? Let him know you love him.” He sat upright and looked all serious. “He's a man. You make him keep the ex as a mistress and you can continue to be his wife. That will make everybody happy.”

“What Dad?” I shouted. I couldn't believe what he was saying. “Why would I beg him?”

“Don't be arrogant,” he blew out a long puff from his cigarette. “All you women are, you don't want to accept that one woman is not enough for a real man.”

“That is bullshit,” I spat back at him. “It’s nonsense, why would I want to beg Henry?”

“Because you still love him.” He rubbed his hand along his pants legs. “That's why you are so miserable, Kathy. Go and beg Henry.”

“I'm miserable because he betrayed me, Dad.” I uncrossed my legs. “I don't love him anymore…I can't love him again with the way he had betrayed me. He didn't even love me in the first instance.”

“That's the lie you women tell yourselves.” He rubbed on the stubble covering his jaw. “The whole lot of you like to throw unnecessary tantrums.”

“Dad, you’re unbelievable,” I spat, rising from the couch. “I came here to find some comfort, but here you are giving me the opposite. Why Dad?”

“You want me to pamper you?” He laughed. “You of all people know that I don't sugar coat; I say it as it is.”

I walked to the door. His laughter followed me out: cruel and hollow. I slammed the door shut behind me with my anger and practically ran to my car, tears blurring my vision.

I blamed myself for coming over as I backed out of his driveway. “What do I expect from a man with six children from five women, anyway?” I asked myself as I drove away.

I missed my mother in moments like this. She would have known what to say, how to pull me out of this pit of despair. My father was hardly a beacon of wisdom on relationships.

When I pulled into my driveway and turned off the car engine, I just sat there, staring at the house Henry and I had lived in together for Twenty-eight months after our wedding and seven months prior.

My mind wandered back to the night I first set my eyes on him.

Henry was rushed to the hospital when he had an accident on his way home from work during my entry year as a registered nurse. I had just started working in Oasis General Medical Center.

He didn't sustain any serious injury, but Dr. Daniel insisted he must stay overnight and I was the one attached to him for his care. It was during the night that we got talking before he slept off.

In the morning, he insisted on having my phone number and promised to call me. I wasn't even thinking about him after he left. I never thought I would see him again since he already made it clear he was going to be using his family hospital after his discharge.

But he did call me two days after he was discharged and I was pleasantly surprised. He asked me out to dinner, and I turned him down, but he was persistent and I agreed after three weeks. The rest is history now, as they say.