One More Tale To Tell

O.k., I have unloaded a LOT of stuff here in the short time since I opened this blog. I kind of feel like I've said almost all that I can for right now. Unless something changes, I plan on taking a break from spending so much time on this for a while. I've worked through a lot on my own just by having it so close to the front of my brain. It's time to let what's left simmer on the back burner of my subconscious for a while and devote my full attention to the present.

Before my hiatus (or whatever it ends up being), I have another story to tell.

I was almost at the end of the first trimester of my pregnancy. I was home one day, and the phone rang. It was a local number, but not one that I recognized. The man on the other end announced that he was the SlutChild's current boyfriend. He claimed that he was calling because he was trying to break up with her and (SURPRISE), she had gone nutsos. He was (also) married, and the SlutChild was basically stalking his wife. He was calling me to beg for advice on how to 'handle her'. I was sick. How did he even know who I was? Well, he said that she loved to brag about how awful she had been to me - apparently using my name all the while - so he had simply looked me up in the phone book.

SERIOUSLY?! And he wanted me to give him advice? Um, no. At this point, we were less than a year out from the end of the affair, and less than 6 months out from the last time she had invaded our lives. There was NO way that I was going to give her any reason to waltz back in. This dumbass was the same kind of dumbass that The Man had been. That meant that he was completely snookered by her manipulations. This also meant that if I said anything against her, there was a 90% chance that he would blurt out exactly what I said and that it was me who had said it to him. No way.

I told him 'Nobody handles her. She is her own woman. When she decides that she's done with you, she will leave.' Since I was paraphrasing things that she had previously screamed at me, I figured it was safe to say them... and say them I did... over and over. He was devastated that I wouldn't say more. 'Please, just tell me how you got rid of her!' I simply repeated my new mantra. He grabbed at another straw - 'We have a lawyer and we're building a legal case against her. If we need you to testify in court, will you do it?' 'Absolutely not. If your attorney needs something, he can call my husband. I will not speak directly to you again.'

It was surreal. I hung up and stayed on the floor in child's pose until the world stopped spinning and my breathing slowed down to normal. I just held my baby in my arms, heart and mind's eye until things felt real again.