He Cheated With My Mother

My husband cheated with my mother. Then I found out her three-year-old might be his.

I arrive early to my mother's Halloween masquerade and accidentally wear a mask almost identical to hers. Apparently, so identical that my husband comes up behind me, kisses my neck, calls me Mona, and whispers exactly where they're meeting later.

He thinks I'm her, but I'm Monica, his wife.

By morning, my four-year marriage is over. I think I know the worst of it until Brick tells me the affair started the night before our wedding, and my mother's little boy is three. I can't help running the numbers. Suddenly, every time my husband told me he wasn't ready for children looks very different.

Brick thinks I'll forgive him. My mother thinks everyone is overreacting. Neither of them understands that the people they've used for years are finally comparing notes, and nobody intends to keep protecting them from the consequences.

Especially not Ellis Brownsville. My mother's brother-in-law has no business being the man who catches me when everything falls apart. He's older, divorced, uncompromisingly decent, and smart enough not to make a move while I'm still married. I'm starting to find that unfortunate because once the divorce is final, I wonder what might happen if I finally choose a man who actually chooses me back.