You're dead to me!

Skylar’s POV

The next day is a blur as I busy myself cleaning the whole house and take care of Jared as I anticipate a particular mail. However it isn’t until three days later that the contract comes in. I read through the contract and angrily call up Jason.

“You can’t do this, Jason! I’ll put up with you divorcing me and whatever else you want to do but you can’t take my son away! I refuse to let you do that!” I yell out the minute he answers the phone.

“You signed the papers Skylar. The contract states that you’ll willingly sign your parental rights over to me when the baby is weaned. You can’t back out now.”

“I don’t know anything about this contract! Why are you being so cruel to me? What did I do to deserve all this?” I ask him, shocked that the Jason I trusted and was friends with will do something like this.

“Have you signed the papers? I’ll be bringing my girlfriend over later today to get her acquainted to Jared. I don’t need you lashing out or causing a scene, understand?” And with that he hangs up. I spend the rest of the time crying, feeding Jared and wondering who his lover is.

Towards the evening, Jason arrives to the house. With his best friend, who happens to be a model. When they step through the front door, she gives me a smile like she wasn’t about to wreck my life.

“Skylar, I’m sure you’ve met Alexandra already. She’s my girlfriend.” Jason states. Alexandra stretches out her hands to shake me as she speaks.

“It’s nice to formally meet you Skylar. I’m terribly sorry we had to put you through all this.”

I don’t say a word to her as I hand Jared to Jason and leave for the kitchen. I can hear the click of heels as Alexandra follows me but I’m too distraught to give her the time of day. When I step into the kitchen, I’m suddenly grabbed by the wrist.

“Listen, you have to understand why this had to happen the way it did. Jason and I have been together for six years now but he wouldn’t marry me because I can’t have a child of my own. You should know how much of a family man Jason is considering your earlier friendship. Every other surrogate I’d tried had tried to take him from me and I couldn’t have that. You were our only chance at this.” She tells me and I suddenly burst out in anger at her story.

“And so you lied to me? You deceived me? You cheated me? I get that I was desperate to please my parents and still have a choice in my marriage but…couldn’t you two just come talk to me about this? Did he have to pretend he was ready to give a life with me a chance?” I ask her feeling so betrayed.

“I love him! I’ve loved him since college and I would’ve put my life crisis aside to help you guys if you guys were just honest with me!”

“Then if you love him so much you’ll do this for him. You’ll leave if you really love him. He isn’t in love with you and he’s not happy in this marriage. You can’t provide him with the love he needs.” She calmly states and leaves the kitchen.

I spend an hour and a half mulling over her words and when I step into the living room, I’m faced with the harsh reality. Jason looks so happy with Alexandra, conversations flowing easily between them. And he smiles. I’ve never seen him smile that way except on the day Jared was born. I watch them play with Jared for a while as I make my decision.

I suddenly realize that he’ll never love me. He never did. And I can ignore that fact and fight for this loveless marriage, or I can leave and let them get their happily ever after. Jared will need a stable family too and it pains me to walk away from the man I love and my son, but I want what’s best for them just as much.

With this in mind I walk into the living room. “Uhmm… I’ll be visiting my parents for a while.” I inform them and leave without waiting for a reply.

I take three buses to my parents house since Jason house is close to the outskirts of the city. My parents and I haven’t talked much since I got married because I refused to extort money from my husband other than what was necessary.

I mentally brace myself for their reaction to what I’m about to tell them. I step into the store and say a brief hello to Nancy, the worker at the counter and then head to the back of the store. I see Dad head up the stairs and Mom’s voice sounds distant.

“Hey Dad!” I call out to him. He stops in his tracks and turns to look at me. Then he sighs and continues up the stairs gesturing for me to follow him. When we walk through the door at the top of the stairs, he calls out to my Mom. “Your prodigal child is here!”

“Who? Skylar is here? What does she want?” I’m suddenly very uncomfortable at the lack of a warm welcome. She sits on the couch in the average sized living room, a cold look on her face. My Dad joins her and I’m left standing by the side of the couch. I finally take a seat opposite them and wring my fingers as we quietly stare at each other.

“Well? What are you here for? And where is that husband of yours? I have an investment I’d like him to support me with.” My Dad starts, muttering to himself towards the end but I still catch on to what he says.

“I’m getting a divorce.” I tell them straight up. It’s quiet for a while and then my mom gets up. She turns to my dad and starts yelling.

“I told you we shouldn’t adopt this one and you went against me! Now look… we spent years training her and she goes against all our wishes. She refuses to marry who we picked for her and now she wants to disgrace us by getting a divorce. I don’t know about you, but as long as I’m alive, I won’t be letting this disgrace of a child return to my house.”

Then she turns to me and I’m momentarily scared of the expression she makes. “if you leave that man’s house don’t you think of stepping foot in this house. Leave my house right now!” With that she leaves the living room.

“Dad… I don’t have anywhere else to go. If I could prevent this I would but Jason is the one that wants the divorce and he plans on taking Jared too. I need your support right now…please..” I tell my step Dad but he only drags me through the front door and then down the stairs, out of the convenience store.

“I’m not your father! You’re dead to me!... pathetic!” I’m left all alone in the street with no family and no friends to turn to. I had never been the type to keep friends and the ones I had made while I was working, I had to leave because Jason didn’t want me working or seeing them.