One year after my divorce, my ex-mother-in-law saw me at the clinic and smiled with that smug satisfaction I knew too well. She told me her son had been right to leave me and that he was now raising a daughter with my former friend. I stayed composed, smiled back, and said, “Is that what you think?” Then a man walked in, and every trace of color drained from her face.
A year after the divorce, my ex-mother-in-law spotted me in the waiting room of Westbridge Fertility Clinic in Denver.
Patricia Parker wore pearls, heavy perfume, and the same self-satisfied smile she had worn in court when my ex-husband, Ryan, claimed our marriage had been “emotionally empty.” I had not seen her since the divorce hearing, when she embraced Megan Ellis, my former best friend, right in front of me.
