Chapter 4 - Celina Discovers the Man She Chose
I sent Celina the custody affidavit.
She called twenty minutes later.
“He told me Roger would stay mostly with you.”
I said nothing.
“He said we’d never interfere with that.”
Still nothing.
“He said the condo would just be his until the divorce settled.”
“Your initials are on the LLC.”
“I know.”
“My house is on the proposed loan.”
“I know.”
“And my son is inside a custody strategy.”
Celina started crying.
“You wanted my husband,” I said.
A pause.
“Congratulations.”
“Bernice—”
“Now meet him.”
Celina eventually turned over her phone.
Not because she became heroic.
Because she realized Gideon may have used her professional knowledge to commit fraud.
Their messages showed him asking:
“How difficult is remote notarization?”
“What if one spouse is unavailable?”
“Can title companies see who opened a file?”
Celina had usually answered with generic process information.
Once, Gideon wrote:
WHAT IF BERNICE IS WORKING?
Celina:
THEN SCHEDULE ANOTHER TIME.
Gideon:
HYPOTHETICALLY HOW DOES ID VERIFICATION WORK?
“I thought he was curious,” Celina told me.
“You thought a lot of convenient things.”
She had betrayed me knowingly.
She had not necessarily understood the loan scheme.
Both things could be true.
Nina made me live with that complexity.
Emotion wanted one grand conspiracy.
Evidence kept producing overlapping selfish decisions.
Celina also admitted Gideon often logged into my home computer when she visited.
“He said it was easier because your printer was connected.”
Bank accounts.
Mortgage statements.
Estate documents from Mom.
All accessible there.
Celina broke off the affair once she understood the custody plan.
Gideon responded badly.
He accused her of destroying the family.
She finally asked:
“You were married to my sister. How did she destroy us?”
He had no specific answer.
Celina was placed on leave while her employer investigated whether company systems or professional knowledge had been misused.
I did not celebrate.
Consequences were not reconciliation.
Roger began seeing a child therapist.
My rule became simple:
No adult would make him choose sides.
Not Gideon.
Not Celina.
Not me.
At the first supervised exchange, Roger saw his father and ran straight into his arms.
That hurt more than I expected.
Children do not stop loving someone because adults discover evidence.
Gideon hugged him and cried.
For several seconds, I almost saw the man I married.
Then Roger pulled back and asked:
“Daddy, am I allowed upstairs now?”
May you like
Gideon’s face collapsed.
The supervisor heard every word.
Related Stories
