With Love Comes Pain, but What About Forgiveness?

It’s been three long weeks since I received the text message from Nick. I didn’t bother responding to it; Joe thought I didn’t know owe him any sort of answer anyway, I agreed with him. Sure, Nick may be the father of Marie, but it wasn’t for his lie then none of this would have happened, right?

“Jewel, can I talk to you in the living room, please?” Nick asked me politely at the dinner table, we were having our weekly dinner with Joe’s parent’s and his brothers.

“I’m sure whatever you have to say to Jewel you can say it in front of everyone, Nick,” Denise laughed lightly as she took a bite out of her steak, “There’s no secrets in this family.” Yeah, I wish that was true.

Nick smiled at me evilly and begin to open his mouth, “I think Nick just wants to talk about something I told him earlier this week about Joe,” I said as I set my napkin next to my plate, “Something secretive that Joe can’t know about.” I laughed lightly to look less suspicious.

Of course, Joe knew exactly what was up but he knew that he needed to play along, “What are you hiding from me, baby?” he pretended to act curious as he looked up at me, “You know I’ll eventually find out anyway.”

I stood up at the same time as Nick and pecked Joe’s cheek, “Don’t worry about it, honey,” I said to him in sweet voice and then I immediately followed Nick to the living room, “What on Earth do you think you’re doing? You were about to open your mouth in front of everyone, how dare you.” My voice was low but it had venom in it.

“Why have you been ignoring me for these past few weeks, Jewel?” Nick asked me curiously as he crossed his arms in front of him, “If I didn’t know any better I would think you were hiding something from me. Is it about that text message about Marie?”

I grabbed his arm and pushed him further across the living room, “Yes, it’s about that,” I said to him, “Don’t be sending me those kind of text messages, what if Joe were to look at my phone, huh?” I went on, “Marie’s not your daughter, so, get that out of your little head; she belongs to Joe, okay?”

His face fell almost instantly, he looked so hurt, “Are you sure?” he asked me as I nodded my head quickly, I didn’t want to give him any sort of clues that I was lying, “I mean, she just looks so much like me, maybe we should get a DNA test, Joe doesn’t even have to know about it.”

“No!” I said quickly, I took a deep breath, “No, Nick, if someone saw us going into one of those places together it would ruin everything. I’m not willing to put my marriage on the line with Joe just because you have this crazy feeling where you think she’s yours when she’s not.”

He glared at me, “Then why was she born a month early?” he said to me with anger in his voice, “I’m not an idiot, are you telling me it’s just a coincidence that she happened to be born nine months after you and I slept together?”

“You’re obviously an idiot because not all babies are born at exactly nine months,” I said to him as I scoffed, I wish he would stop questioning me, it’s getting harder and harder to lie to him.

“Oh, really?” He asked as he threw his hands up in frustration, “Then tell me why none of the doctors said anything about her being premature when she was born? I was there the entire time and none of them mentioned a thing about her being a month early, explain that?”

“I don’t have to explain anything to you, Nick,” I told him rudely, “You lied to me, I made a mistake and believed the lie and acted on my feelings at the spur of the moment, it doesn’t matter though, because she’s not your baby, okay? Now will you just drop it; if someone even suspects something then you know your family is going to disown me and I don’t want that.”

“I swear to God, if I find out that that baby is mine, I will take you and Joe to court, I don’t care if it tears my family apart,” he said with hate in his voice, it shocked me, I didn’t think Nick was ever capable of saying something so coldhearted, “I mean it, I’ll be damned if I let Joe have something else that I love.”

My heart skipped about two beats, “What do you mean ‘something else that you love’?” I questioned him curiously, “What else does he have that you love, Nick?” I anticipated the answer, but then I realized what he was referring to; well, who he was referring to, “…me?”

He took a deep breath and nodded his head, “…Yeah,” he said slowly as I gasped, “Look, I’m sorry; okay… it’s just…” I didn’t even want to hear anymore, I threw my hands up, shook my head and walked back to the dining room.

I practically ate my dinner in silence because all I could think about was what Nick had just confessed to me. It’s really hard to hear that your husband’s brother is in love with you and he also just so happens to be the father of your baby as well.

Joe and I left shortly after dinner and of course as soon as we stepped into the car I told him what Nick had said. We promised each other that we were going to tell each other everything from now on and I wasn’t about to break that promise.

“I can’t believe this,” Joe said as he sighed deeply, “Who would have thought that all of this drama would happen as soon as I got married?” My heart sank and my face fell, he must have noticed because he added to his previous comment, “I don’t mean that I regret marrying you either, I don’t, you’re the love of my life and I still stand by that marrying you was the best choice that I’ve ever made in my life. I love you.”

I smiled, “I know,” I said to him with a warm smile, “I love you, too, and I’m sorry, I mean, because of me this whole thing is happening,” I told him truthfully, “I wish I could go back in time and do things differently.”

He smiled at me sympathetically and pressed his lips against mine, “I know, it’s okay though, we’ll make it through it, okay?” he told me reassuringly, “We’ve got each other and that’s what important, nothing else matter from here on out, except for you, me, and Marie.”