of it settled before the baby’s born,” Coco said. But if she was two months pregnant, she’d be divorced a month before the baby was born.
“I’ll do my best,” he promised her. She knew she had some battles ahead with Nigel, and probably very nasty ones, and there was always the danger that it would leak to the press, particularly with those amounts, but she thought that her lawyer was the right man for the job, and Nigel’s had overshot the mark, possibly to his client’s detriment. Nigel had probably spurred him on in his unlimited greed and total lack of remorse.
After the first exchange between the lawyers, and several calls between her attorney and her trustee, Coco did what she’d been planning to do all week. She packed up every last shred of Nigel’s belongings, some personal files he had, his gym equipment, his clothes, the few things he had brought from his apartment. She boxed it up, hired a delivery service, and sent it all to her house in Sussex, where she knew he was living, until further notice. If they didn’t make the agreement he had suggested, she intended to evict him and put it up for sale. She didn’t want the headache of a country estate and didn’t need it. She hadn’t made a decision about the city house yet, and needed to think about what to do about the baby first, before she dealt with real estate. There was so much to think about. She returned his grandmother’s ring to her attorney to turn over to Nigel’s.
She didn’t miss their social life at all. She had stayed off that circuit since his first catastrophic indiscretion in September, and she had no desire to see any of his friends again. She was out of his life for good, and wanted to stay that way. Her only close friend in London was Leslie, and Sam in New York. She had lost touch with her school friends in New York when her parents died, and the last of them when she moved to London. The people she knew at Columbia had all graduated after she dropped out, and were scattered everywhere by now. She had meant to stay in touch with some of them, but hadn’t. Her life had changed too much after her parents’ deaths, when she’d moved to London for Time, and married Nigel. The currents of life had swept her along in one direction, and them in others.
* * *
—
It took her a week after she walked in on Nigel for the second time to call Sam. At first she was too upset and embarrassed by what had happened, again. She felt stupid for having given him a second chance, and it was all so sordid. Other people learned about cheating partners from others, or suspected an affair from lipstick on their husband’s collar. Instead she had had the privilege of walking in on him having sex with cheap women, twice, and the humiliation it had caused. She hated to tell Sam about it, but they hadn’t spoken since he got engaged, and she didn’t want him to think she disapproved of his engagement, although she did. She felt sorry for him and thought he was making a mistake, but she wanted to be supportive. He had sent her several texts asking if she was okay. She had responded that she was, which wasn’t entirely true. She had started getting morning sickness after her email exchange with Nigel about relinquishing his parental rights. She wasn’t sure if it was physical, or her upset over filing for the divorce. But either way, she threw up at least once every morning, and several times at night. It made eating anything a chore, and from both circumstances, she was losing weight, and had lost ten pounds. Already thin to begin with, she was looking gaunt, and Leslie was concerned about her. She hated what she was going through, and knew nothing about the pregnancy. If she kept it, Coco didn’t intend to tell anyone for a long time, until it showed. She needed time to adjust to it herself, and didn’t want advice or opinions, except her own.
She had gone to her doctor, who confirmed the pregnancy with a blood test. They had discussed the possibility of an abortion. The baby was due in August, her doctor told her, and Coco had to decide what she was going to do. They did a routine ultrasound,