When my ex-wife invited me to their wedding, I knew exactly why I wanted our son there. What I didn’t expect was how far I would go to prevent him from humiliating us again, or that the woman I hired for a fake night would see through the whole moment we arrived.
When Monica’s message lit up my phone, I stopped breathing for a second.
I was standing in my kitchen, rinsing the spaghetti sauce of a plate while my ten-year-old son, Liam, sat at the table with his homework scattered around him. My phone buzzed again. His name stayed there on the screen, bright and ugly.
I opened it.
There she was. The real reason.
“I would like to invite you to my wedding. Bring our son with you. It would mean a lot if we could show everyone that there is no bad blood. How am I going to look in front of my fiancé’s family if my own son is not with me, right?
I read it twice.
There she was. The real reason.
Not Liam.
Not me.
“She loves us at her wedding.”
How will I see myself?
Liam looked up from his math sheet.
“Was that mom?”
“Yes,” I said.
“What does she want?”
“She loves us at her wedding.”
He didn’t ask if he missed him.
He looked at me.
“Why?”
“Because she wants to look good in front of people,” I said.
He looked down on his worksheet.
“That’s silly.”
“Yes,” I said. “It is.”
I thought the hard work could fix anything.
He didn’t ask if he missed him.
I stopped asking that years ago.
Monica and I got married right after college.
Back then, I thought that love meant choosing and keeping that promise.
I thought the hard work could fix anything.
I thought loyalty was obvious.
She was a month old when Monica packed two suitcases and left.
I come from nothing. There’s nothing real. The guy his parents count cash in on the kitchen table before deciding whether food or electricity bill matters more that week. The guy where new shoes mean someone worked overtime or left.
After college, I worked all the jobs I could get. Warehouse shifts, deliveries, weekend landscaping, night inventory. I slept four hours a few weeks.
Then Liam was born.
She was a month old when Monica packed two suitcases and left.
“How could a woman like me stay with someone like you?”
Liam asleep against my chest. Monica by the door with a coat too expensive for our hallway.
“Mónica, please,” I said. “Whatever it is, we can fix it.”
She look at me like I track haded mud across her floor.
“No puedes arreglar ser tú”.
She gave a brief laugh.
“You are ruined. Look in the mirror. How could a woman like me stay with someone like you?
I should have told you no and block the number.
For the next ten years, I raised Liam for myself.
Debería haber ignorado su invitación de boda.
Debería haberle dicho que no y bloquear el número.
Instead, I made the mistake of imagining that day. Monica greeting us in front of her fiancé’s family. Looking over me. Seeing my old truck. Seeing the suit I only worn to funerals and job interviews. Seeing Liam beside me and like acting she had always a mother.
Podría sobrevivir a Mónica haciéndome sentir pequeña de nuevo.
I hired an actress to pretend to be my wife.
I couldn’t survive Liam seeing it happen.
That night, after Liam went to bed, I sat alone on the couch and did something I never thought I would do in my life.
I hired an actress to pretend to be my wife.
Two days later, Susan came to my house.
“Then,” she said, lowering her purse, “tell me about the ex-wife.”
“What is his full name?” She asked.
“I think I’ve heard that name before.”
“Monica.”
His pen stopped.
She looked up.
“Monica? Is this your last name?
“Yes. Why?”
She hit the pen once against the page.
She froze when she saw her.
“I think I’ve heard that name before.”
Entonces llegó Liam.
He froze when he saw her.
Susan stood and stand out here hand.
– Soy Susan.
Él la miró a la mano, luego a mí.
Susan did not blink.
“Is she the fake wife?”
Susan didn’t blink.
“A temporary role,” he said. “Under budget. Emotionally demanding.”
Liam stared at her in another second, then shook her hand.
“It’s okay.
Susan sat down again.
Ten years ago, Monica told me she couldn’t fix it by me.
“You want to ask me something?” She said.
Se encogió de hombros.
“Can you act like you’re like my dad?”
She smiled.
“I don’t think that part is difficult.”
Ten years ago, Monica told me she couldn’t fix it by me.
“He is protective of you.”
Susan had just made it look like being me wasn’t broken.
Susan saw him go.
“He’s protective of you.”
“He shouldn’t have to be.”
“But he is,” she said quietly.
The wedding was in a country club outside the city, the kind of place with white stone columns, cut hedges and people who smiled at you while you decided your value in less than five seconds.
“If you leave now, you’ll think about it for years.”
I almost turned the truck around in the parking lot.
Susan me tocó el brazo.
“Si te vas ahora, lo pensarás durante años”.
Liam se inclinó entre los asientos delanteros.
“We’re going to end this.”
So we went in.
She was standing near the entrance with her fiancé. Then he saw Susan.
Monica saw us before she arrived in the main hall.
She was standing near the entrance with her fiancé and some relatives, already dressed, already with that polished smile she wore when she wanted something. Then he saw Susan.
Her smile changed.
She approached, kissed the air near Liam’s head without actually touching him, and then looked straight at Susan.
“My God,” she said out loud. “Daniel, how did you get someone so beautiful? You still take her to McDonald’s for dates and take her in that old van of yours?
Then Susan took me by the hand.
Some people close to me laughed.
I felt Liam stay by my side.
I should have answered. I should have said something. But I was back in that hallway ten years ago, holding a baby while Monica looked at me as if she was soft that she had intervened.
Then Susan took me by the hand.
He did it gently, but there was nothing unsafe about it.
And suddenly I knew that Susan knew more than she had said.
“Actually,” he said, smiling at Monica, “I’ve always found the reliability appealing.”
Monica’s mouth tightened.
Then Susan bowed her head.
“Are you still acting, Monica?”
Monica’s smile slipped for half a second.
And suddenly I knew that Susan knew more than she had said.
