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My Husband Needed Paternity Leave for His Mistress, I Was His Boss
Novelix
new
Completed
On my first morning as general manager, I approved my husband's paternity leave. I hadn't given birth. He didn't know I was his new boss—or that I'd discovered his mistress wearing my bag and my daughter calling her Mommy. While I paid our mortgage, he built another family with my money and fake company invoices. At his son's celebration, he thanked his “beautiful wife.” I took the microphone: “I'm his boss. I'm also his wife.” Now I'm filing for divorce, reclaiming my money, and bringing my daughter home. His excuses won't save him.
Chapters (2)
Chapter 1
On my first morning as general manager of our Denver office, HR asks me to approve twenty extra days of paternity leave for my husband.
I haven't had a baby.
"Ethan Cole," Laura says, setting the request on my desk. "Our sales manager. His wife had a difficult delivery. He's asking for an extension."
I read the name again.
Ethan Cole.
Then the sentence beneath it.
My wife needs additional support following the birth of our son.
Our son.
I move the cursor over the approval button.
Click.
"Approved," I say. "He should be with his family."
Laura smiles. "He'll be grateful."
I transferred back from headquarters to surprise my husband.
He beat me to it.
"Before you go," I say, "tell me about him."
"Ethan?"
"What's he like?"
"Oh, you'll love him. One of our strongest sales managers. Everybody knows him."
She lowers herself into the chair across from me.
"And such a good husband. You don't see that much anymore."
I pick up my pen.
"What makes you say that?"
"He brings his wife to everything. Holiday parties, team dinners. Won't let her carry her own coat, let alone open a door."
My pen stops moving.
"His wife comes to company events?"
"All the time."
"I don't think I've met her."
"Hang on. I have a picture."
She scrolls through her phone, then holds it out.
Ethan stands in the center of a group outside a restaurant.
His arm is around a pregnant woman in a white dress.
One hand rests on her stomach.
He's looking down at her.
I know that look. He used to give it to me.
"What's her name?"
"Brianna. Brianna Lane. She teaches dance."
I enlarge the photograph.
A luxury bag hangs from her shoulder.
My bag.
I bought it on a work trip to New York last month. Before I had a chance to carry it, Ethan told me he needed a gift for a client's wife.
Big account. Important birthday. He'd forgotten until the last minute.
"Please, Nat. You'd be saving my life."
He promised to replace it when his bonus came through.
In the photograph, Brianna is holding the chain with both hands.
"Beautiful bag," Laura says. "He bought it for her because pregnancy's been so hard on her."
I hand back the phone.
"Would you send me that team photo? I'm still putting names to faces."
"Of course."
"Thank you. That'll be all."
The door closes.
For several seconds, I stare at the wood grain.
My name is Natalie Bennett. I kept it when I married Ethan seven years ago.
Corporate HR knows we're married. Before approving my transfer, they arranged for his performance reviews and disciplinary matters to stay with the regional sales director.
Routine requests for extra leave still come to the local general manager.
To me.
Ethan began his leave before I arrived. My formal introduction to the staff is scheduled for Friday.
I was going to tell him about the promotion over dinner.
Instead, I open Laura's photograph again.
My husband.
His pregnant girlfriend.
The bag I paid for.
I call him.
He answers after six rings.
"Hey, babe."
"Where are you?"
"With a client. Why?"
"What client?"
"The new account I told you about."
He hasn't told me about a new account.
"I'm coming home tonight."
A pause.
Then, "Tonight? Seriously?"
"Yes."
"You should've said something. I would've picked you up."
"I have a car."
"Well, come hungry. I'll make those short ribs you like."
He sounds pleased.
Warm.
Exactly the way a husband should sound when his wife comes home.
A baby starts crying.
Close to the phone.
I hear fabric rustle.
"Ethan?"
"Babe, I need to go."
"Was that a baby?"
"See you tonight."
The line goes dead.
On my computer, his leave request now has a green check beside it.
Twenty extra days.
I hope he enjoys them.
Chapter 2
Maya answers on the second ring.
"Tell me you're back."
"I'm back."
"Finally. Dinner tonight?"
"Ethan has a baby."
Silence.
Then, "What?"
"I just approved his paternity leave."
"You approved his—"
She stops.
"Oh, that son of a bitch."
I send her the photograph.
"That's Brianna Lane. Apparently, everyone here thinks she's his wife."
"Does he know you're the new boss?"
"No."
"Good."
"Maya."
"I'm not doing anything. Yet."
"I need to know where she is."
"Give me a minute."
Maya and I have been friends since college. She knows what Ethan looked like when he proposed. She helped me zip my wedding dress.
She was the first person to hold Lily after our parents.
I don't have to explain what this costs me.
At six, I pull into our driveway.
Ethan opens the door before I get out of the car.
"There's my girl."
He takes my suitcase.
Reaches for my waist.
I turn to lock the car.
His hand falls away.
Inside, the table is set for two.
Short ribs. Roasted potatoes. Green beans.
He's opened my favorite wine.
"Sit down," he says. "You must be starving."
I sit.
He fills my plate, then watches me take a bite.
"Well?"
"It's good."
He grins.
"Still know how to make you happy."
I set down my fork.
"Where's Lily?"
"With Mom."
"Where?"
"Aunt Carol's. That anniversary party."
"I didn't know there was a party."
"I told you, Nat."
He pours himself wine.
"You've had a lot going on."
I look at our daughter's chair.
Her purple cup sits beside the sink.
Six years old. She still likes drinking from the same cup she used when she was three.
"When are they coming back?"
"Soon."
"I want to talk to her."
"You can call later. Let the kid have fun."
He reaches across the table and touches my hand.
"Tell me about Seattle."
For two years, I've worked at headquarters while Ethan stayed in Denver with Lily and his mother.
The promotion nearly doubled my salary.
We agreed I'd go first. Get established. Help him find a position there.
Then we'd be together again.
Every time an opening came up, he found a reason to stay.
His clients needed him.
His team depended on him.
Lily liked her school.
His mother hated Seattle.
"Why should we both start over?" he asked. "You're doing so well. Give me a little time."
I gave him two years.
Paid the mortgage.
Paid for preschool.
Sent money when he said his commissions were late or his mother needed something.
Now he asks whether my hotel in Seattle has finally fixed the elevators.
I've been renting an apartment there for eighteen months.
"They're fine," I say.
After dinner, he clears the plates.
I watch him wash them.
This is the man who held my hand through contractions. The man who cried when Lily was born.
The man in Laura's photograph.
He dries his hands and sits beside me.
"Bad timing, but I have to leave tomorrow."
"Where are you going?"
"Client trip. Could be three weeks."
"Three weeks?"
"Maybe less."
Twenty extra days.
He looks apologetic.
"I hate leaving right after you get back."
"That's okay. I'll be working, too."
His shoulders relax.
"Knew you'd understand."
He leans toward me.
I stand before he reaches my face.
"I need a shower."
In the bathroom, I lock the door.
Maya has sent a link.
Brianna's account is public.
Most of the early photographs show only pieces of him.
His hand across a restaurant table.
His watch beside two drinks.
The back of his head on a beach.
The first one is nearly three years old.
Then the pregnancy photographs begin.
Finally, a newborn.
Daddy's whole world.
I open the next post.
A wide sofa. Floor-to-ceiling windows. Flowers on the coffee table. A bassinet beside the bed.
The caption thanks Ethan for arranging a private night nurse and "a whole month of being spoiled."
She's tagged the apartment building.
Maya calls.
"It's one of those luxury serviced places downtown," she says. "I looked up the address."
I play the video again.
My mother-in-law walks through the background carrying a bowl.
"That's Diane," I say.
"I saw."
"She told me she was taking Lily to a family party."
"Nat. Don't go there tonight."
I lean against the sink.
"Tomorrow."
"I'm coming with you."
Ethan leaves the next morning with a suitcase.
He kisses the top of my head.
"Love you."
I wait until his car disappears.
Then I call Maya.
We're in the apartment building's lobby when I see Lily.
She comes out of the small market next door, holding a bag of cookies.
My mother-in-law follows with a grocery bag.
"Come on," Diane tells her. "Your brother's waiting."
Your brother.
Maya catches my eye.
We follow them toward the elevators.
Lily is busy trying to open the cookies. Diane is looking at her phone.
Neither turns around.
Upstairs, they walk to a suite near the end of the hall.
Diane opens the door and props it with her foot while Lily goes inside.
"Get the other bag, sweetheart."
I stop several feet away.
Close enough to hear Ethan.
"There's my big girl. What did you get?"
"Cookies."
"Did you get enough for Daddy?"
Lily giggles.
Diane carries the groceries into the kitchenette, leaving the door ajar.
I move closer.
Brianna is sitting on the sofa in a pale blue robe.
Ethan is beside her with the baby in his arms.
Diane picks up a bowl and sits on Brianna's other side.
"A little more soup," she says. "You need your strength."
When I came home from my C-section, Diane told me I was lucky she'd made pasta.
When I asked Ethan to take Lily for an hour so I could sleep, he told me he had work in the morning.
Now he shifts the baby carefully against his chest.
"Need anything, babe?"
Brianna smiles.
"I'm good."
He kisses her forehead.
"You've done enough. Let us take care of you."
I grip the strap of my bag.
Lily climbs onto the sofa.
She leans against Brianna as if she's done it a hundred times.
"Mommy?"
Brianna looks down.
"Can I hold my little brother?"
