After the Fact

What am I going to do, she wondered for the thousandth time. How am I going to fix this?

I have to call her. 

Don’t I?

“Of course I do,” she chastised. She just wasn’t sure she had the courage. 

She’d never thought of herself as lacking in courage before. She’d faced life, on her own since the age of seventeen, with a full-steam-ahead attitude. She’d moved three thousand miles away from everyone who cared about her, worked her way through college, bulldozed over other, brighter, executives on the way to the top of her chosen field, and crushed hearts like ants under her foot. 

If only I’d stayed away from that last particular heart, she thought as she wiped tears from her cheeks. But how was I supposed to know?

“Just do it,” she ordered. 

Easier said than done, she thought, her hand hovering over the telephone. After a few more minutes spent debating with herself, Elise picked up the phone and dialed the international number she had somehow memorized after only hearing it once. 

“Hello,” she heard whispered into the receiver, and knew the pain in the voice on the other end was all her fault.

“Hello, Claire,” she answered.

“You have some nerve calling me.”

“I need to explain,” Elise replied. “I had no idea. I didn’t know who he wa…”

“It’s a little late for that, isn’t it, Sis,” Claire hissed, talking over Elise. “The why doesn’t really matter after the fact,” she added. “It won’t make it hurt any less that you slept with my husband…”


I'm taking part in the A to Z Blogging Challenge. I'll be posting a story each day of the month, except on Sundays (with the exception of the first Sunday) that goes with each letter of the alphabet. I hope y'all enjoy the stories, and be sure to check out the other blogs listed on the A to Z website.