Twenty minutes after they had arrived at Andrews, Jack and Madison were airborne on their way back to West Palm Beach. The much smaller military jet had few of the comforts of Air Force One but it didn’t matter. Both of them were overwhelmed by their encounter with the president and hardly in the mood to discuss it any further.
Madison finished the last sip of her sparkling water and then asked, “How long ago was your divorce?”
“I don’t recall mentioning I’ve ever been divorced.” She looked at him as if he were trying to persuade her the world was flat. He shrugged and said, “Nine months ago.”
“Any children?”
“I have a five-year-old daughter.”
“What’s her name?”
“Annis.”
“Pretty. Do you see her often?”
“Four times.”
“A week or a month?” she asked.
“Since the divorce. My ex-wife’s French. She had an excellent attorney who persuaded the judge to allow her to move back to Paris. So, since our divorce, I’ve made two trips to France, and twice, Nicole’s brought Annis to New York.”
“Which one of you wanted the divorce?”
“I’d say we both did.”
“That’s crap. It’s always one person who wants out more than the other. Let me guess. You were never home and when you were, you had your head glued to your computer screen writing a paper or another chapter for the latest textbook in neurology. Your wife was going through life alone, you were insensitive to her needs and you had long forgotten how to enjoy your marriage.”
“That…and Nicole was sleeping with her boss.”
Madison chuckled but quickly covered her mouth. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t laugh. It was just the way you said it. How did you find out?”
With a slight head shake, he asked, “Are you sure you want to hear this?”
“Pretty sure.”
“We used to eat out a lot, but every Thursday we would stay home and order pizza. Well, I had just finished my third slice and was working on my second glass of Chianti when Nicole took my glass from me and set it down. I thought she was going to tell me how much she adored me but, instead, she used the tender moment to inform me she had never really loved me the way a married person should. Before I could get a rational explanation, she confessed she’d been horribly lonely for a long time and that she was in love with someone else.” He spun the ice cubes in the bottom of his empty glass before going on. “She then told me the best thing for the both of us would be a divorce. The whole thing was very well prepared and took all of two minutes.”
“You really had no clue how unhappy she was?”
“Nope. I guess she viewed being married to me as a little bit worse than residing in the seventh circle of Hell.”
“Did you know him?”
“Her boss?”
“Yeah.”
“No, and, not that it’s important, but him was a her.”
“Actually, that makes things a lot easier. You had what my laser club calls a no-brainer divorce.”
“What’s your laser club?”
“A group of my friends, mostly doctors, one of whom is a plastic surgeon, get together every couple of months for dinner at somebody’s house. We spend the evening bitching, drinking margaritas and lasering off anything that might make us look older.”
“And the no-brainer divorce?”
“Simple. Once you had the information about your wife, you had to get a divorce. You didn’t have to waste six months beating yourself up wondering why your marriage failed or how you could have saved it.”
“Why did you get divorced?” Jack asked.
With a bemused grin, she said, “I guess I finally figured out he just wasn’t worth fighting for.”
“Any kids?”
“Only him. Our breakup was one of the great legal olympiads in modern history. The worst part was that a couple of months into it, we talked seriously about reconciliation. By an incredible act of stupidity, I got pregnant. Two months later, I lost the baby. I always blamed it on the stress.”
“What did you do?”
“After a few months of self-loathing, I went into a complete emotional free fall. I wound up taking some time off and getting a lot of help.” She sighed and added, “It was a struggle but I finally put my life back together.”
“I…I’m sorry. I wasn’t really trying to…”
“No need to apologize, Jack. People recover. It was a long time ago and I’m fine now. It doesn’t matter what happens to you or who’s to blame. If you can’t figure out how to get comfortable in your own skin…well, life winds up being intolerable.”
Jack was surprised how candid Madison was being with him. It was the human side of her he hadn’t seen a particle of until this moment. Nothing further was mentioned about either of their divorces. Instead, they covered a host of much less depressing topics. He enjoyed speaking with her and it made the rest of the flight seem like it only lasted a few minutes.
It was just after eleven when their driver pulled up to the hospital. Instead of heading back to his hotel, Jack decided to stop by the ICU to check on Tess and Isabella. Finally seeming like a mere mortal, Madison told him she was too exhausted to join him and would meet him first thing in the morning in the ICU.