My Saving Grace

Chapter 52

It'd been nearly six months since Antonio and I separated. The court would be finalizing the process in the coming two weeks, making me an official divorcée. I never thought I'd possess that title in my lifetime—certainly not before hitting thirty—but as I'd painfully learned, marriages didn't always turn out the way you expected them to.

We hadn't spoken to each other since that night, which was for the best. If things had ended differently, who knows, we could have remained friends, or at least, acquaintances. I decided that I would be civil towards him, though, in the case that we ever ran into each other again, which I highly doubted would happen.

But, all that aside, I truly hoped he had a nice life.

Breaking the news to my dad and Nick had been hard because they'd both loved Antonio like family. Out of respect for their close relationships with my ex-husband, I'd started out by telling them that they could still keep in touch with him if they wanted to.

But both father and son had immediately swept my offer under the rug once they'd heard everything. Well, 'everything' as in the events which happened after my miscarriage. They couldn't believe he'd cheated on me, especially the timing of it, which had been plain despicable.

I'd intentionally left out our issues prior to my miscarriage. I didn't tell them about Antonio's jealousy or his short temper. And certainly not that traumatizing night he'd read Chase's letter. Those details just felt too...personal. And I wasn't quite ready to dive into the details of my sacred friendship with them yet. 

My father was upset I'd never confided in him about any of my marriage woes—from his perspective, I'd had a perfect marriage. For the most part, I hadn't wanted him to worry about me. After all he'd endured after losing my mom, I only ever wanted him to be happy. But, the other part of me had honestly thought that given time, I could fix things with Antonio.

In the end, though, he was proud of me for putting myself first. That's what Chase had made me promise him as well. And boy, was I glad I had.

I had waited a month before telling Alexa, and she'd immediately flown in to spend an entire week with me. She'd also returned to her old ways of referring to Antonio in conversation as "douche," "dick," or "asshole."

We'd gone shopping, clubbing, and stuffed ourselves with junk food while watching chick flicks. And she'd offered her shoulder for me to cry on when I needed to. Mostly, I'd cried for myself. For allowing myself to suffer for the longest time. God knows Antonio didn't deserve my tears—he was dead to me.

On the bright side, Alexa had disclosed that she and David had set their wedding date for the second Saturday in May. And of course, I'd be her maid of honor—a dream of mine since we'd befriended each other all those years ago.

Speaking of couples, Ella and Peter were still going strong. In fact, Peter had proposed to Ella over the holidays while they'd been in Paris. Ella had told me all the romantic details during our first half-apps date after the new year. It made me happy seeing two of my dearest friends so happy and in love.

As for me, I'd been spending the majority of my weekends at Nick's house, playing with my nieces. I was also the honorary babysitter whenever he and Alyssa went out.

In November, the admissions office at UCLA had invited me to interview with a representative for their MBA program, and a little over a month later, I'd received the formal acceptance letter. It was an incredible feeling, and Nick had taken me to dinner to celebrate. I couldn't wait to start classes in the fall. The part-time program I'd be enrolling in would take twenty-seven months to complete, with many slots for electives of my choice.