Skip to content 
By the end of it, we agreed the marriage was over. What I did not tell him was that Vivian had already drafted the papers.
What I did not tell him was what those papers said about the apartment. What I did not tell him was that I had already spoken to a financial adviser, already moved certain accounts, already done every quiet, careful, necessary thing.
I had loved Derek with everything I had, but I had also always known, somewhere deep and certain, that I could not afford to love anyone more than I loved myself.
I don’t know exactly when Derek told Gloria. I suspect it was within the hour.
Because 24 hours after our kitchen conversation, Gloria called me. Not to offer sympathy. That would require a level of humanity she had never extended in my direction.
She called to gloat. She didn’t use that word, of course. She dressed it up in concern.
Dominique, she said, voice sliding with artificial warmth, I just want you to know that I hold no hard feelings.
These things happen. Derek will always care about you. I let her finish. Then I said, thank you, Gloria, and hung up.
Simone, when I told her, nearly choked. She called to gloat within 24 hours and led with no hard feelings?
She really did. Dominique, that woman has been waiting 6 years to make that call.
She wasn’t wrong. And what came next proved it. 3 weeks after Derek and I separated, he moved into Patrice’s apartment, which told me that situation was far more established than 7 months.
Gloria threw a party. I’m not being dramatic or embellishing for effect. The woman threw an actual gathering at her home, invited family and close friends, and the occasion was, thinly veiled, the celebration of our divorce.
Derek’s cousin, Teresa, a decent woman who had always been quietly kind to me, texted me a photo from inside the party with a single message.
Ah, I’m so sorry. I thought you should see this. There was a cake, a white cake with flowers.
There were people I had sat across from at Christmas dinners, people I had cooked for, people whose children I had bought birthday gifts for, laughing, eating, toasting with wine glasses.
I stared at that photo for a long time. And then, something inside me went very quiet and very clear.