“How is it different? Admit it, it was easy to end the marriage knowing you’d have a plush income, a healthy war chest and another woman to keep you company!”
“And you’re deliberately pulling the rug out from under me as revenge!”
“You couldn’t be more wrong,” she said. “I’ve decided on a different and more satisfying life, just as you have. The only real difference is, you decided before you were divorced. At least I waited until after.”
“How am I supposed to get by?” he asked. “Come on, Justine, I’ve spent the last twenty years as a stay-at-home dad! Supporting your career! Raising our kids! You owe me support.”
“Are we really going down that path again? You could easily have taken on a full-time job—you do have a business degree, after all,” she added, mocking him.
“You were bored and you found a woman—a woman with a kayak shack in trouble. Was she about to lose it?”
“That’s none of your business, but in the spirit of cooperation I’ll just say that if anyone can turn that business around, it’s me.”
“That’s what I thought,” she said. “You’ve committed your nest egg to Cat Brooks and her floundering business. I wonder how long ago you decided.”
“You’re doing it again, making up some narrative that leaves you blameless in the divorce. You want everything to be my fault when you ignored me in favor of your prestigious job for years. And you made sure everyone knew you were the breadwinner, didn’t you?”
“You made a deal with a woman you’re having an affair with to give her money and help her get her business on its feet, though you have no way of knowing if you can. And now you need money. I think we are finished. Except for our kids, you and I have nothing more to say.”
“We have to find a solution to this together,” he said.
“We’re not a team anymore, Scott. You wanted to be free. You wanted your half of everything we’d accrued. I asked you several times if you were sure.”
“Yeah, but you tricked me!”
“No, I didn’t. I just got on with my life. It’s a different kind of life for me now. I wouldn’t have chosen it, at least not at this time. Later. I had hoped it would come later, after the kids were through college, when it was you and me. I had no idea you were planning something else.”
“And just what am I supposed to do now?”
“Gee, Scott. Do whatever you want. And good luck.”
And then she ended the call.
Chapter Eleven
Adele’s first appointment at Berkeley was with Dr. Hennessey, a young female PhD in the department of social sciences. They had a pleasant conversation about Adele’s change in direction and a new graduate program, and it gave her a chance to sing the praises of the reentry program where she worked.
There would be a boatload of work to do to complete an application—a mission statement, all her transcripts, including her original GRE test for graduate study. There would be a series of interviews and if all went well, she could be admitted as early as spring. Dr. Hennessy looked over course programs and saw that while there were a few courses she would have to attend, she could fill in with a few online courses and required papers. At first glance it looked as though it would be no harder than her original graduate program, and ironically, that psychology class she took from Hadley. Hutchinson would count toward her counseling degree.
Adele was able to forward copies of all her paperwork to Dr. Hennessey, and she followed up with another meeting a few weeks later. It was the first of October, back to school season was in full swing, the leaves on the California hillsides were changing color. It was a time of year that always filled Adele with a sense of freshness and energy. Her nieces were going to football games and a couple of high school dances, but what was interesting was that they continued to balance their time between Half Moon Bay and San Jose, spending more and more time in Half Moon Bay.