Mary listened in on the conversation between her father and Ann, feeling a mix of anger, hurt, and betrayal. How could he do this to Mom? And with someone she knew? Mary couldn't believe that her father could be so careless and selfish.
As she sat in her room, Mary felt a deep resentment towards her father. She had always looked up to him and loved him, but now she couldn't even bear to be in the same room as him. How could he expect her to pretend everything was okay, when he had hurt their family so much?
Mary wondered how long her father had been cheating on her mother. Was this a one-time mistake, or had he been lying to them for years? The thought made her sick to her stomach.
But as much as Mary hated her father in that moment, she also felt a twinge of sadness. She missed the way things used to be, before everything fell apart. She missed the way her family would sit around the dinner table and laugh, the way her parents would hold hands on the couch, the way her father would tuck her in at night and tell her he loved her.
Mary knew that things would never be the same again. But she also knew that she couldn't just give up on her family. She would have to find a way to forgive her father, for her own sake as well as his. But right now, that seemed like a long way off.
