Divorced! Now what?

Chapter 44

Bethany POV



It did not shock me that Cynthia would be waiting outside of Dino's, where Bret was meeting me. Cynthia would never be too far away from him; it was like a magnet; she seemed to be attracted to where he was nearly all the time. I am unsure if it was all on Cynthia's side, and she had Bret hoodwinked, or if they were in it together. He seemed to be shocked at the video, and Cynthia was her usual selfish woman. Theo saved me from further confrontation, which I know would have gotten a lot nastier if Cynthia could get away with it. I was surprised there was not a photographer hiding somewhere, or maybe there was, and I could not see them, but they had little to photograph.

The evening was okay. My mind was distracted for most of it, as Theo tried to take my mind away from the meeting with those two, and some of my sad past was revealed, yet Theo did not run. He stayed and was strong and very supportive, though no matter how hard he tried, he could not completely remove that sadness that seemed to be stuck in the back of my mind, a part of my wasted life that keeps raising its ugly head to remind me of the worst time of my life.

Theo left with promises of bringing his father over for sports day on Sunday. We had no plans for Saturday. Something about family day had to change to Saturday. Now, sports day would not be at the family home; his mother would cook and make a large meal for the family to meet up and chat about their week. I understood we had that, but it was more of a day for Cynthia to brag about her week. I hope his family day was better than any I had.

On Saturday, I was shopping for the ingredients and cooking the snack for tomorrow. I made a more extensive variety of snack foods, some that I knew my Dad loved and some I hoped the others would enjoy. All I had to do was reheat them in the oven. Theo said he would bring over the beer, but that did not stop me from buying extra. Dad was walking over, and if he got too drunk, I would make sure he got a taxi home or walk him back, most likely both of us singing along to one of the football clubs' songs.

I cleaned and tidied the penthouse and rearranged the seating to accommodate a sports day. That evening, I sat on the balcony, ate the leftover Chinese food, and watched the city come to life. It was becoming my favorite place when I was trying to relax and forget life's downs, meaning I was trying to put the meeting Bret and Cynthia out of my mind, but that was proving a little difficult. 

My phone ringing pulled me out of my spiraling thoughts. It was early, only eight o'clock, but still too late to receive a phone call.

'Hello.' I did not know the phone number and was a little cautious about answering it.

'Bethany Peterson?' The woman's voice asked softly as if trying not to be heard by someone.

'I am her.' I replied, waiting for the woman to identify herself.

'I am Cathy Simons. You do not know me, but I am one of your husband's wives.' What??!

'Where are you?' I asked. This was beyond belief.

'That does not matter; what does matter is the police have come over and told me that I was one of many who had been duped and that you were his first wife, so all the rest are not really married to him.'

'Are you sure you wish to discuss this on the phone?'

'Yes, I have two sons, to that son of a bitch. The police are going to arrest him and a few others who are all part of some elaborate scheme.' She sounded very angry.

'Did you divorce him?' I was still getting past the part where Bret has two sons.

'Yes, before I found out I was pregnant, he had the marriage annulled. I tried to get child support, but somehow, he managed to get out of that. He has two other children, with another woman, a girl and a boy. Do you have any children with him?'

'No, he never wanted children with me and said he was not ready. I was okay with that, as I was too busy with my career to bother with them yet.'

'How can I help you, Cathy?'

'Oh, I do not need help; I am doing just fine. I wanted to hear your voice. I don't suppose you want to meet his kids, do you? I know they are not related to you in any way, but you might be curious.'

'I agree that I am not related, and it would break my heart even more than it is already broken.

'How long were you married?' We talked for nearly an hour, and Cathy gave me all the latest on the case and about his other wives. It was an eye-opener, and I was sad in a way that I had to hear it from one of his wives and not from the police. They should have given me the heads-up, and I was a little surprised that she had my phone number. Cathy would not tell me how or where she got the number. I gave her only a little of my life information, just enough to get more. Somehow, I was still finding all of this unbelievable, and the less I talked about myself, the better. I let her ramble on about the others and herself.

When I hung up, I called the police to find out more.

'Hello, Bethany. How can I help you?' the detective asked.

'I have just hung up from an hour-long call. Cathy Simons told me about many weddings with Bret and that he has four children, and you are about to arrest him.'

'We are close to making some arrests, but he does not have four children, and we know no one by the name of Cathy Simons. I think someone had hoaxed you and was trying for information.'

'How would they know my number and about the case?'

'Leave that with me, and I will look into it. Do you have the woman's phone number?' I gave him the number, and we chatted a bit longer. I informed him that I had given the woman no new information and near to nothing about myself. He was pleased I gave nothing out and would get back to me.

This was starting to scare me a little, that someone could phone me out of the blue like that and have so much information about my life. Was it that easy to find out about someone? A good Google search can find almost anything if someone is good at investigating, but was my life that interesting that someone had bothered? The internet is a wealth of information. I had not thought of using it to see about Cynthia and Bret's marriage. Maybe they were stupid enough to post them, or the places where they got married had.

Is it worth my time to go hunting? 

It was in the past. 

Am I that interested?

NO. 

That is the answer. 

I cannot change the past, so why go looking for more heartache?

It was getting late, and it was time for bed. I had had enough to fill my head for one day. I took one last look at the lounge room and the sports pages waiting to be used tomorrow. I had highlighted all the relevant information, and we would discuss it before the game. I am sure Dad will bring tomorrow's papers with him, and I am looking forward to having a good time and losing my voice as I scream at the screen, trying to urge my team on. What that woman said was hard to hear, and not beyond probability, and that was even scarier, that I had no little about the man I was married to.

Chapter 45 - Divorced! Now what?