Chapter 7 - NIA AND I STARTED AGAIN AS STRANGERS

We co-parented for three years before dating.

Three.

Not three months.

We fought.

About bedtime.

School.

My travel.

Gifts.

Security.

Nia hated bodyguards near children.

I thought necessary due press.

We compromised.

Then one evening after school recital, Nia and I ate tacos in car because kids asleep.

She laughed.

It felt like old us.

Then stopped.

“What?”

“This is dangerous.”

“What?”

“Thinking familiarity means repair.”

She was right.

So we went to counseling before romance.

Odd.

But smart.

We talked divorce.

Infertility.

My cruelty.

Her anger.

She admitted one thing too.

After pregnancy, when my mother betrayed, she stopped trying to contact me partly out of pride/fear.

Could she have sued sooner?

Maybe.

She chose to protect peace.

That was her choice.

Not equal blame.

But honest.

Then I asked:

“Did you ever want me to find you?”

“Yes.”

“Then why Carter-Wells instead of hiding address?”

“I wasn't hiding from you by then. I stopped chasing.”

There.

Difference.

Then:

“Did you hate me?”

“Yes.”

“Now?”

“Less.”

Good.

Then first kiss happened years later.

No dramatic reunion.

Then children.

Theo disliked.

“You already messed it up once.”

Fair.

Eliana wanted wedding immediately.

No.

We told them adults dating.

Then Evelyn learned.

She cried.

Vanessa heard through public? No need.

Then Nia said:

“If we marry again, prenup.”

I laughed.

“Yes.”

Separate property.

Children trusts independent.

No merging because romance.

Then no proposal until another two years.

When I did, private kitchen.

No hotel.

No 200 guests.

Nia said:

“I am not marrying you because twins proved our marriage was supposed to work.”

Good.

“I’m marrying who you became after it failed.”

That was better.

We remarried small.

Theo and Eliana present.

Neither “gave away” mother.

Evelyn invited? Nia decided yes, limited.

Vanessa no.

Not cruel, just not appropriate.

Then at ceremony I did not make fertility vow.

I said:

“You were family before children.”

That mattered.

Nia cried.

Then:

May you like

THE BLIND GIRL WHO SEWED HER OWN REVENGE

“Who is going to believe that a blind girl made a dress like that?”” My stepmother asked the question while her daughter stood in...

My Wife Returned Our Children at Midnight—Then Demanded $200,000 to Tell...

At 12:17 a.m., my wife returned our two children like unwanted luggage. She stood in the rain with her arms folded, watching our...

My Wife Was Carrying Our Daughter When a Hotel Employee Slapped Her—Then...

The slap echoed through the hotel corridor just as my six-month-old daughter began to wake up. My wife, Nia, stood frozen beneath...

“I learned too late the first time.”

Now not.