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The Day I Erased My Husband
Novelix
Completed
My daughter Sophie hasn’t heard from her father in a year, so during summer break, I take her to the city where my husband, Nate, supposedly works. Outside his luxury building, a café owner mistakes Sophie for another little girl, and I quickly learn why: the girl looks just like her, has Nate’s eyes, and her mother is living the life he promised me. While I survive on eight hundred dollars a month caring for his sick parents, Nate spends thousands on his secret family. But when Sophie gets hurt and Nate chooses them again, I stop begging. I gather evidence, file for divorce, and make him lose everything he built on my sacrifice.
Chapters (3)
第1章
One day, my daughter asks me, “Mommy, is Daddy dead?”
I freeze.
That’s when it hits me: for a whole year, Sophie hasn’t gotten so much as a call or a card from her father.
So when summer break starts, I take my daughter to the city where he works.
We’ve barely stepped past the brunch café on the ground floor of his building when the owner looks up and smiles at Sophie.
“Well, look who it is. Hey, Bella.”
Then he turns to me.
“Small iced latte with oat milk, light ice — the usual?”
I stop dead.
Sophie and I have never once set foot here.
Before I can answer, a woman walks into the café, holding a little girl’s hand.
“Marco, small iced latte with oat milk, light ice. You know me.”
She calls out with the ease of someone who comes here every day.
Marco looks from the little girl beside her to Sophie, and his face changes.
He slaps his forehead, sheepish.
“Oh God, I mixed you up. The girls look so much alike.”
“Same card on file? The Visa ending in 1803?”
“Yep. Put it on Nate's tab.”
A chill goes through me.
Nate. That’s my husband’s name.
The card ending in 1803. That’s my husband’s card.
The woman follows Marco’s gaze to Sophie. Her eyes widen.
“Oh my God, Bella, look. She looks just like you!”
I look at the little girl holding the woman’s hand.
About the same age as Sophie. And those eyes... those are Nate’s eyes, exactly.
“Bella?” My voice shakes. “That’s your daughter?”
The woman doesn’t notice my expression go cold.
“Mm-hmm.” She smiles brightly. “My little girl.”
Then she’s already sliding into a booth with her daughter.
Without even looking at the menu, she calls out, “Marco, two seafood Benedicts, please.”
I glance up at the menu on the wall.
Fifty-eight dollars each.
Marco nods cheerfully, then turns to me.
“And for you and the little one, honey?”
“Just a plain bagel, please.”
The cheapest thing on the menu. Four dollars.
He blinks. “Just the one? Nothing for you?”
I shake my head. “I’m not hungry. Just for her.”
I’m starving. I just can’t make myself spend the money.
Nate sends me eight hundred dollars a month. That’s it.
Back home, his father is dying of stomach cancer, and his mother has been bedridden for years.
Every dollar has to stretch. I'll spend ten minutes in a grocery aisle comparing prices on eggs, milk, whatever vegetables are on sale.
I stayed up nights for a whole month making handmade earrings to sell on Etsy, just to scrape together the money for the bus tickets that got Sophie and me here.
The woman pulls a pack of Wet Ones from her Birkin, wipes down the table, then flashes me a warm smile.
“Hey, if you don’t mind, want to share the table? The girls seem to be getting along.”
Sophie sits down and shyly points one small finger across the booth.
“Mommy, that girl’s dress… it’s just like mine.”
I look. Both girls are wearing the same pink floral sundress.
Except her dress is crisp and structured.
Sophie’s is pilled and wrinkled.
The woman notices too. Her hand flies to her mouth, delighted.
“Oh my God, it really is meant to be!”
“My husband ran all over Paris last month hunting this dress down for Bella. Limited edition Bonpoint, almost a thousand dollars.”
“Where did you get yours, hon?”
My chest tightens until it hurts. I got Sophie’s on SHEIN. It was twelve dollars.
And last month, Nate really did go to Paris.
Before he left, I was frantic. Sophie’s daycare was calling about overdue tuition.
I called him and begged him to send an extra two hundred.
His voice was full of irritation.
“Money again? Chloe, I’m on a work trip. Do you think I’m made of cash? Can you cut me some slack for once?”
And then he had no problem spending a thousand dollars on a dress for his other daughter.
My eyes drop to Sophie’s wrinkled little dress. I make myself smile.
“Just something I picked up.”
A moment later, Marco brings the plates over.
One heaped with smoked salmon and poached egg. One lonely plain bagel.
Sophie is so sweet. She tears off a small piece and holds it up to my mouth.
“Mommy, have some too.”
I shake my head. “Mommy’s not hungry.”
The woman glances at the suitcase beside our booth and sighs.
“Where’s your husband, if you don’t mind me asking? Why are you doing this alone?”
“He… he’s very busy with work.” I look down.
“No man's ever too busy to show up for his own kid.” She purses her lips.
“Look at my husband. He’s swamped at work, but he’s home every night on the dot to be with us.”
“He always says work is supposed to give us a better life. What’s the point of making all that money if you lose sight of what actually matters?”
I listen quietly, and swallow the ache in my throat.
“You’re lucky,” I say. “He must really love you.”
“Oh, he does.” Her face lights up.
“He used to travel constantly too. But ever since we moved to this city three years ago, everything changed.”
Three years ago was exactly when Nate got “relocated” here.
Sophie was two.
He held me tight at the airport, his voice breaking.
“Chlo, once I get on my feet out here, I’ll bring you and Sophie out. I swear.”
“I’m going to give you the life you deserve.”
I believed him.
So I stayed in our little Ohio town, day and night, caring for his father, his mother.
I waited three whole years.
And what do I get in return?
He has built another family. In another city. With another woman.
第2章
Sophie is so hungry she eats every last bite of her bagel, even the crumbs.
Across from us, Bella takes one bite of her poached egg and throws a tantrum.
“Mommy, this is gross. I want cake!”
The woman sighs and pulls out her phone.
“Okay, okay, I’ll call Daddy. He can grab something on his way home.”
Nate hates being interrupted at work.
Once, during an ice storm, Sophie’s fever shot up to 104 degrees. I was sobbing on the phone, begging him to come help me get her to the ER.
I called seventeen times. He hit “decline” seventeen times.
But now, the phone barely rings once before he picks up.
“Hey, baby, what’s up? Missing me already?” Nate’s voice comes through soft as a lullaby.
She tells him what cake she wants in a sugary little voice, then hangs up and covers her mouth, giggling.
“He’s getting one for each of us. He insists on spoiling me like I’m the kid too. Honestly, what am I gonna do with him?”
Sophie coughs. Her little face goes red from the effort.
That night in the ice storm, Sophie didn’t get treated in time. By the time I got her help, it had turned into pneumonia. It left her with permanent scarring in her lungs.
I rub Sophie’s back gently and feel something cold settle in my chest.
“That must be nice,” I say.
The woman’s smile widens.
“With all that luggage, are you staying in this building too? ”
I stammer.
“I’m meeting someone. Waiting for him to get off work…”
“Oh, so maybe we’ll be neighbors!” She lights up.
“I’m actually waiting on my husband too. Why don’t we let the girls play in the courtyard while we wait together?”
Every part of me wants to run from this table.
But Sophie doesn’t want to leave. She’s staring, wide-eyed, at Bella’s bubble wand as shiny bubbles float all around them.
Sophie hasn’t had a real chance to play in so long, and I don’t have the heart to pull her away.
A few minutes later, the woman leads us out of the café and into the building’s courtyard playground.
The two girls hit it off instantly.
She tells me her name is Tiffany and drops onto a bench, patting the spot beside her.
“God, this sun is brutal.”
She fluffs her hair, complaining, her chrome nails catching the light.
Then her eyes land on my hands, folded in my lap.
“Oh my God, what happened to your hands?”
I look down at my hands. Rough, sun-darkened, and scarred, with split knuckles that never seem to heal.
“Housework,” I say flatly, tucking them into my sleeves.
“If your family lives here, they can afford help. Have your husband hire you some help already. Mine hired two people, one to cook, one for the kids.”
“Runs us about five grand a month, but it’s worth every penny.”
My eyes sting. My chest goes tight.
His father needs medications ground and mixed twice a day.His mother, paralyzed after a stroke, has to be turned and bathed.
I once asked Nate if we could hire a home health aide. In our town it was only fifteen hundred.
He shut me down flat.
“My parents trust you. No stranger’s going to be as careful as you are.”
“You handle them at home so I can focus out here.”
Tiffany catches the look on my face and tries to soften it.
“Honestly, my father-in-law has cancer, and my mother-in-law is bedridden after a stroke too.”
“But they’re the sweetest people! Told me not to worry, just focus on Bella and myself.”
“They said they hired a caregiver back home. Super efficient, apparently, and only about eight hundred dollars a month.”
“…A caregiver?” My hands go cold.
So his parents know. They have known about Tiffany the whole time.
Six years of caring for them. Six years on eight hundred dollars a month. And to them, I’m just the help.
“Chloe, listen, I’m gonna be honest with you,” Tiffany says, patting my hand.
“A woman’s gotta learn to look out for herself. You can’t be too nice. Follow a man’s money, and you’ll find his heart.”
I hear her words, and they feel absurd.
Follow a man’s money, and you’ll find his heart.
Right. Nate’s money has all gone to her and her daughter.
His heart left me a long time ago.
第3章
Before I can answer, a scream slices across the courtyard.
“You’re LYING! Nate is MY daddy!”
I whip around. Bella has both hands on Sophie’s chest. Sophie hits the pavement hard, wailing.
“Mommy, she said her daddy’s name is Nate, but Nate is MY daddy…”
I run over and scoop her up.
Tiffany rushes over too, grabbing Bella by the arm.
“Bella! Why did you push her?!”
Bella folds her little arms, looking completely sure of herself.
“She’s a liar! Her dress is fake, and her daddy is fake too!”
Tiffany looks mortified.
“God, Chloe, I’m so sorry. Kids say the wildest things. She probably misheard something.”
She sighs and smooths Bella’s hair.
“My husband spoils her rotten. Honestly, it’s his fault she’s like this.”
“He was there through the whole pregnancy. The birth too.”
“Since she was born, he’s done bedtime stories, doctor’s appointments, parent-teacher conferences, all of it. So now she gets territorial about her daddy.”
Listening to her, something inside me goes hollow.
When I was pregnant, I threw up until I coughed blood. Nate said the company was slammed. He came home maybe two days a month.
The day I gave birth, I hemorrhaged. They pumped me full of donor blood. I almost died on the table.
The nurse called him from my phone all night. He didn’t pick up once.
After Sophie was born, he was still gone all the time.
Her first time rolling over. Her first steps. The first time she said “Daddy.” He missed every single one.
He was absent so long that Sophie started asking me if her daddy was dead.
“Mommy, is my dress really fake? Is my daddy… fake too?”
Sophie looks up at me, eyes still swimming.
My chest feels raw. I stand up and take her hand.
“Tiffany, it’s getting late. My friend isn’t coming. We should go.”
Tiffany blocks my path.
“Chloe, don’t be mad, please. Let me apologize for Bella.”
“Come on, it’s kind of crazy that we ran into each other.Here, add me on Instagram. The girls can play again sometime.”
She pulls out her phone, thumb already hovering over the Instagram icon.
I am about to refuse.
Then my eyes catch her home screen. I freeze.
Her wallpaper is a wedding photo of her and Nate
“You two… had a wedding?” My voice shakes.
Tiffany smiles, a little sheepish.
“Last year. In the Maldives. Cost close to a hundred and fifty grand!”
Her tone shifts, wry.
“We’re not legally married yet, though.”
“There’s some dead weight back in his hometown. His family forced him into some marriage years ago, and she won’t sign the papers. Total leech.”
For a second, I can’t even breathe.
Back when Nate was broke and dreaming of starting his company, I gave him every cent my parents had left me when the drunk driver killed them.
Two hundred thousand dollars.
We couldn’t afford a wedding. He cried into my shoulder and swore that when he made it, he’d throw me the biggest wedding this town had ever seen.
Turns out, he really did throw a big wedding. A hundred and fifty grand of a wedding.
Meanwhile, six years of marriage gets me nothing but his parents ordering me around like hired help and eight hundred dollars a month to survive on.
And to him, I’ve become “dead weight.”
“That’s nice,” I say. I pull out my phone and follow her.
Tiffany follows me back right away, delighted.
“Oh — Chloe, is your husband really also named Nate?”
