Or were you just going to let this secret die with you?”
“I didn’t want to hurt you. It was just a mistake. And I thought that I could handle it,” he said.
“Handle what?” I asked, my voice breaking.
“How long has this been going on?”
And then the truth came spilling out. Jack admitted that he had been living a double life for the first five years of our marriage.
“On a business trip, I met Imogen and I fell in love. It was instant.
But I didn’t tell her that I was married. So, we carried on meeting every time I was in her area. Not long after, she told me that she was pregnant.”
“I can’t take this,” Michael said.
“I refuse to listen to this. I’m going for a walk.”
“Look, both the kids don’t have my name on their birth certificates, but they are living in my uncle’s estate. I had to provide for them.
But Imogen died a few years ago. The kids live with her parents on the estate, but that’s about it. This suitcase is a reminder of a part of my life that I had control over, but I chose to keep hidden.”
I had nothing to say.
There were no words that would make the truth easier to comprehend.
“The anniversary of Imogen’s death is coming up, and I think that I was just thinking about it before I fell asleep,” Jack said.
That explained the talking in his sleep.
After that, I decided to choose Michael and myself. And I filed for a divorce from Jack. Michael refused to have anything to do with his father, and I had to side with him.
He hadn’t lied to me about anything.
Jack didn’t even put up a fight.
What would you have done?
