Everett replied, “I’m doing what I can. I couldn’t just throw her out.”
I stared at those words.
He’d convinced another woman he was generously supporting me.
Meanwhile, I had been paying household expenses and spending my savings improving his house.
“Did you know any of this?” I asked Nina.
“No. He told me he was paying for practically everything.”
I closed my eyes.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I should’ve insisted on talking to you.”
“Yes,” I replied. “You should have.”
She accepted that without arguing.
Then she said something unexpected.
“Everett told me his mother never liked you because she thought you were taking advantage of him.”
I sat upright.
“What?”
“He said their argument started because Beatrice believed you were using him.”
That wasn’t the story I’d heard.
Everett had always claimed his mother couldn’t accept him moving forward because her own marriage had ended badly.
