“It's perfect for them,” Mark reassured her. He described the grounds of The Cottage to her, and she cried as she listened. She knew she was going to be miserable without them, but maybe if they went to stay with Mark for a few months, they might ease into it when they got back. She hoped so. “I'll see what I can do when I go back, and I'll call you.” Both children pounced on him after he'd talked to Janet, and wanted to know what their parents had agreed on. “Nothing yet,” he said sternly to both of them, “we'll see what happens. I don't even know if I can get you back into school. And whatever happens, I want you to be nice to your mother in the meantime. This is hard for her too. She loves you.”
“If she loved us, she'd have stayed with you,” Jessica said bluntly with eyes full of anger. She was a pretty blonde teenager with a heart full of scars now. Mark just hoped he could minimize any future damage. He didn't want their divorce to destroy his children. That was the last thing he wanted.
“It doesn't always work that way, Jess,” he said sadly. “People change… lives change… you can't always have what you thought you would, or do what you said you would. Life throws curves at you.” But they didn't want to hear it. They were still furious with their mother, and her boyfriend.
He flew back to California that night, and spent the next week negotiating with their school to let them back in. They had been gone for less than three months, and they were in an excellent school in New York, so they hadn't lost any ground. And by the end of the week, their old school in Los Angeles had agreed to take them back. The rest was simple. All he had to do was hire a babysitter to keep an eye on them while he was at the office, and drive them to their after-school activities and sports. He didn't think that was going to be a problem, and he called Janet over the weekend.
“We're all set. They can start on Monday if they want, but I figured you'd want at least another week with them, to make your peace with them. It's up to you when you send them.”
“Thanks, Mark. Thanks for being so decent. I guess I don't deserve it. I'm going to miss them so much,” she said, and started to cry again. This whole chapter had been an agony in their lives, and now for their children.
“They'll miss you too. Once they stop being pissed off at you, they'll probably want to come back to school in New York after the summer.”
“I'm not so sure. They're pretty emphatic about Adam, and he has very definite ideas. It's hard for him to start parenting with teenagers, particularly since he's never had children.” From Mark's perspective, it sounded like a miserable situation, and he didn't envy Janet. He and the kids were calling the shots, and she was bouncing like a ball between them. She had never done well in stressful situations. He had always handled everything for her. Except her affair with Adam. She had managed that on her own, and screwed up everyone's life in the process.
She told the children on Sunday, and they didn't even have the grace to pretend they were sorry they were leaving. They both cheered, and Jessica started packing half an hour later. They would have gladly left the next day, but Janet insisted they spend another week with her. And she told them they would have to come home for the summer. She and Adam had already agreed to get married in July, when the divorce was final, but she didn't tell them that. She was afraid they'd never come back if she told them the news. She'd have to figure that out later.
It was an agonizing week for her, knowing they were leaving, and the following Saturday, she put them on a plane to California. Mark had decided not to hire a babysitter for them, he told her he had made an arrangement with his landlord's housekeeper. She was going to babysit for them. He was going to drive them to their activities himself, and shorten his workday if he had to. They were worth it.
Janet stood in the airport looking devastated when they left. They had hugged her before they left her, and Jason hesitated for a long moment. Even if he didn't want to stay, he felt sorry for her. But Jessica never even looked back. She just kissed her mother, said goodbye, and walked straight down the gangway. She could hardly wait to get to California, and see her dad.
And the scene at the other end was one of unreserved jubilation. Mark was waiting for them as they got off the plane, and the kids gave a whoop of joy. There were tears in his eyes as he held them. Things were finally beginning to look up for him. He had lost Janet irreversibly, maybe through his own fault, maybe not, but he had his kids back. That was all he wanted.
