At that point, Charlie wasn’t the most levelheaded, easygoing, honorable man. She thought he had been when they first married, but maybe the marriage itself had changed him somehow. It was also pretty disconcerting to realize she no longer cared. He had ruined everything between them, not only ruined it all but killed it dead.
It was hard for her to find any regrets in the way their relationship ended. She could grieve for the man he had been, but that man had died a long time ago. She felt like a terrible person for even thinking along those lines, but, how else was she to take this, when somebody became the worst of the worst in front of you and then treated you like dirt right up to the end with no explanation? Well, except that maybe some blame had been involved. She didn’t understand that, but maybe Charlie blamed Daniela because she was alive and healthy, and he wasn’t. He never did voice that complaint or his anger and frustration as to why, but it had left her with a very bitter taste.
His affairs and complete lack of regard for her well-being had made life difficult. But she’d stuck by his side right to the bitter end. Maybe she shouldn’t have; maybe she should have taken Sari and run, but that wasn’t her way. Unfortunately it seemed to be the way of the world, but she didn’t have to sign up for being that way herself.
As she walked into the grocery store, she picked up a few things for Sari, wondering if Weston was serious about pulling up stakes. She added a few other items she needed for the house. As she pulled up to the checkout line, a woman behind her started talking.
“Daniela, I’m surprised to see you here.”
She felt something inside close down. It was Trudy. Another one of her husband’s wild flings near the end of his life. Turning, with a bright plastic smile, she said, “I don’t know why you’d be surprised. It’s the closest grocery store to my house.”
Trudy just shrugged, completely oblivious to the animosity Daniela was trying hard to keep tamped down. “How are you doing?” Trudy asked.
If Daniela didn’t already know about the affair, she might actually think Trudy cared, but Daniela did know because her husband was always extremely explicit about his antics. “I’m fine,” she said. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Well, after Charlie—” and she dropped her voice into a hostile whisper.
Several other people were around them, and Daniela could see their interested glances. She didn’t recognize anybody, but she could feel her temper spike. Why would this woman do this? How two-faced could one person be?
She smiled again at Trudy. “I guess I should thank you for giving him his little fling at the end of his life then, huh?”
Trudy’s eyes widened. Flustered, she said, “Sorry? I don’t know what you mean.”
“What do you mean, you don’t know? Come on, Trudy. Charlie was pretty desperate to try out a few other women before he died,” she said smoothly. “I understand you were one of them, so I guess I should say thank-you for helping him get through his last few days.”
Trudy’s face flushed bright red and then paled. She looked horrified. “I don’t know why you would think that.”
“Because he told me, of course,” Daniela said in a reasonable tone. “We went over the long list of what he considered his conquests. Didn’t he tell you what he was doing? That he was having his last little hurrah?”
Trudy swallowed hard, desperately trying to get out of the checkout line, now as even more people crowded around.
“I don’t know what you mean,” she said faintly.
“Well, shake your memory,” Daniela said. “Just like you shook your bootie for him.”
And, with a heavy gasp, Trudy turned and swung her cart away, racing down the aisle.
Wearing a smirk, even as she was admonishing herself for being such a bitch, Daniela turned to face the checker. But the woman had a commiserating look on her face, as did several other people in her line.
“That couldn’t have been easy,” the woman murmured, as she rang up the items. “But honestly, that woman is a menace.”
“Oh, her reputation precedes me, does it?”
One of the women farther down the line of shoppers said, “Absolutely. It’s part of who she is.”
“So maybe I really should thank her,” Daniela said with a laugh. “At least my husband died with a smile on his face.”
At that, the other people weren’t sure if they should laugh with her or be horrified at her comment. She gave a slight wave of her hand. “Don’t mind me,” she said. “I’m still adjusting to, well, to a lot of things.”
At that, they instinctively turned sympathetic and nodded. She paid for her purchases, and, with Sari sitting quite happily in the cart seat, walked back to her truck.
Daniela didn’t even know why she’d done it. She wasn’t someone who wanted the world to know about her dirty laundry. But something had been just so fake and so downright mean about Trudy’s original comment that Daniela couldn’t stop herself. It made no sense. Because she normally wasn’t that kind of a person, although maybe she needed to be. Maybe something about her husband’s about-face personality change made her stop and look at herself. She hated the idea she still had a lot of hurt she held inside. Hurt she needed to let go of, or it would ultimately hurt Sari too.
As soon as Daniela had Sari packed up in the truck, and she started the engine, she took several deep breaths to calm down. Then realized her hands were shaking. Tears came to her eyes, and she sat here for a long moment, listening to Sari babble in
