He Cheated With My Friend My Parents Helped Chapter 37
Two years later, the project I was leading secured long-term funding.
The day I signed the documents, I used my portion of the divorce settlement to establish an emergency assistance program.
It would provide short-distance transportation and temporary companionship for women who had to go to medical appointments alone.
A staff member asked me why I had chosen that specific focus.
I thought of the 911 call I’d made before passing out, of the hospital calling my emergency contacts over and over, with no answer.
“Because when someone needs help the most,” I said, “she shouldn’t have to rely on luck.”
The program ran under the institute’s name, not mine.
I didn’t need anyone to know what had happened.
After the launch event, my lawyer contacted me one last time.
“Gabriel sent a letter. He hasn’t violated the protective order; it was forwarded through his firm. Do you want to read it?”
I stood by my office window.
The ice on the river had melted, and runners were out along the banks.
“Is there anything in it that requires legal action?”
“No.”
“Then send it back.”
My lawyer chuckled softly.
“Understood.”
When Gabriel received the returned letter, he didn’t send another.
Inside the envelope had been a copy of my hospital discharge papers. The original had gone to my lawyer during the divorce proceedings, but this copy still showed the date of the procedure.
He had once treated that piece of paper as the only proof our child had ever existed. He had probably imagined that seeing it again would hurt me the way it still hurt him.
But he didn’t understand. I no longer needed him to remind me of what I’d lost.