My Son Invited My Ex-Husband Home, So I Cut Him Out of My Life

1.

On the day the house was to be signed over, my son sent me a message.

"Mom, in a little while I'm going to bring Dad over too. The three of us can be a family again, just like before."

He couldn't hide the excitement in his voice. But my chest gave a sudden, hard twist.

"I divorced your father more than twenty years ago."

He sighed. "Mom, now I've got to say something. You're too proud. You hold on to things too hard."

"Dad was wrong to cheat back then, sure. But if you'd been willing to swallow a little of your pride, wouldn't I have had a whole family?"

"This time Dad's the one making the gesture. Don't be stubborn about it."

I didn't say anything else. I just hung up and posted the announcement to the whole family in the group chat.

"As of today, I am formally cutting all ties with Denys Fox."

Let him weep his eyes out a few months from now, when he's staring at that thirty-million-dollar redevelopment agreement.

...

Within seconds, the family group chat exploded.

The screen filled up with question marks.

"Have you lost your mind? Cutting ties with your own son? Are you so angry you can't think straight?"

"The boy doesn't know any better. You talk to him, that's all. How could you take it this far!"

"Did Denys upset you? Cool down first, don't do anything rash!"

Someone even sneered: "See? Everyone says Hester James's so good to her son, but really she just can't bear to sign the house over."

"If you ask me, if you can't bear to give it away then don't play the big spender. Careful you don't break your son's heart, or one day he won't take care of you in your old age."

I'd barely finished when a call cut in, sharp and furious.

Two words flashed on the screen: My Son.

I stared at them and felt nothing but the irony of it. I took a deep breath and pressed answer anyway.

Denys's roar came through the second the line connected.

"Mom! What the hell are you saying in the group chat!"

"After that, what are all the relatives going to think of me? Do you have to stir everyone up until nobody has any peace before you're satisfied!"

There wasn't a trace of guilt in his voice. Just righteous, indignant blame.

In that instant, my heart went cold as ice.

"I wasn't making anything up."

My voice was flat, flat as still water, not a ripple in it.

"Denys, I'll say this to you one last time."

"If you insist on bringing that father of yours over here, then from now on, you are not my son."

"And you can forget about this house too."

On the other end, Denys's voice shot up, shrill and grating.

"Are you serious?!"

"All I did was bring my dad over! It's been more than twenty years!"

"He doesn't even hold it against you anymore, and you're still throwing a fit over here!"

"He doesn't hold it against me?"

I laughed out loud, and the laugh came out of me bitter and furious, more than I could hold down.

"Hold what against me? What right does he have to hold anything against me?"

"Denys, have you forgotten!"

"He was the one who couldn't keep it in his pants, who went out and had an affair with some other woman!"

"He was the one who walked out on you when you were five years old, cleaned out every cent in this house, and ran off with that woman!"

"In all these years, did he ever give you a single dollar of support? Did he ever call once just to see how you were?"

My voice shook with the force of it, every word torn straight out of my chest.

"Just like before? I can't do it! Denys, I'm laying it out for you right now!"

"Either you send him away, this second, right now!"

"Or whatever's left between us as mother and son ends here!"

I didn't wait to hear whatever Denys wanted to accuse me of next. I hung up with a slam and sat there gasping, so angry it took me a long time to come back to myself.

And right then, my phone rang with a number I didn't know.

I picked up, and on the other end was the voice I knew better than any other, the voice I'd hated to the bone for over twenty years.

"Hester, still got that same temper as ever, huh?"

"What happened before was my fault, I owe you for that. And Den, he only wants what's good for this family. Couldn't you... forgive me just one more time?"