Your Lie Cost You Me Chapter 10
Mom’s face hardened, and she tried to shut the door. “You’re the last person I wanted to see.”
Ben stuck his foot in the doorway, stopping her from closing it. “I know you were at the wedding. Noelle asked you to go, didn’t she? Where is she? I need to see her.”
Mom planted her hands on her hips and scoffed. “You mailed the invitation to my house, so of course I went to watch the show. Noelle isn’t your pet. You don’t get to call her over when you want her and throw her aside when you don’t.
“Why don’t you go check on Jean and the baby she tried to pass off as yours? Weren’t you counting on him to take care of you when you got old?”
Mom had always been patient and kind to Ben. She had never spoken to him that way before.
He stood there in stunned silence.
Mom laughed in his face. “Let me guess. You’re here to tell me you mistook Jean for Noelle because of your amnesia, and that Noelle is the one you’ve loved all along. Do you really think we’re stupid enough to buy that, Ben?”
The guilty look on his face gave him away.
Mom rolled her eyes and tried to shove Ben out the door. “Get out of my house. Now!”
As they struggled in the doorway, Dad came back with the groceries. The moment he saw Ben, he dropped the bag, grabbed him by the shoulder, and punched him in the face.
“You ungrateful bastard! How dare you come looking for Noelle after what you did to her? I’ll kill you!”
Ben didn’t fight back. He stammered, “Jean tricked me. I just want a chance to explain myself to Noelle.”
I was afraid Dad might lose control and beat Ben to death, so I spoke up before he got himself into serious trouble.
“Dad, that’s enough. Just call security and have them throw him out. There’s no need to make a scene in front of the neighbors.”
Plenty of them had seen Ben before when I brought him home.
Ben finally snapped out of it and snatched Mom’s phone from her hand. “Noelle, just let me explain—”
I looked at him through the screen, calm and expressionless, and cut him off. “There’s nothing to explain. Jean may have misled you, but you still made those choices yourself.
“You pretended to have amnesia and lied to me. You kissed her right in front of me, carried on with her, slept with her, and even threw me out of our own home.
“Ben, this is the last time you come to my parents’ house and harass us. Try it again, and you’ll regret it.”
I threw his own warning right back at him.
The day I walked out of the house we shared, I made myself a promise. No matter what Ben said or how he tried to explain himself, I would never let myself soften toward him again.
I had shed enough tears. It was time to rise above it all.
