The next day, I delivered the deed and bank records to Paul to keep my premarital house protected and ensure the unauthorized signature was properly investigated. Although Brett called me twenty-three times in two days and sent a message claiming he never meant to hurt me, I replied once to say that his actions were a conscious choice and directed all further communication to my lawyer. Meanwhile, Tori informed me that Courtney had grown furious upon learning that Brett’s accounts were under review and that he could not afford the apartment he had promised her for nearly five years. Tori also discovered that Judith had been making small payments to keep Courtney away from our house, leading to a heated confrontation about how Judith had bought silence while allowing me to serve as her caretaker. Remembering his old fertility results and recalling that Courtney had announced her pregnancy right after he returned from a three-week work trip, Brett began to doubt his paternity for the first time and demanded a formal DNA test. Despite Courtney’s anger at his sudden hesitation after four years of raising the boy, they took Landon to a verified laboratory where standard samples were collected. Three days later, the official results confirmed that Brett was not Landon’s biological father, forcing Courtney to admit that she had been seeing an ex-boyfriend when their relationship began and had simply let Brett believe what he wanted.
Hearing the news did not bring me joy, because my first thought was of an innocent four-year-old boy with a fever who did not deserve to be caught in the middle of adult lies. Judith broke down crying at Tori’s house when she saw the test results, finally realizing she had destroyed a real family relationship to protect a false blood bond. A few days later, I met a thin, exhausted Brett at a coffee shop for thirty minutes to sort out legal documents, and he hoped that sharing his own pain over Courtney’s deception would convince me to take him back. I calmly explained that Courtney’s lies did not erase his years of infidelity, his decision to hide his medical records while his mother blamed me, or the unauthorized signature on the loan application, and I wished him good health before saying goodbye for good. Once the separation was finalized, Brett turned in his keys, my house remained solely mine, and Judith apologized in tears at my front door when she came to collect her last medications before moving in with Tori. Months later, with my mother’s help, I painted the living room, gave the old couch to a young couple with a new baby, and began enjoying Sundays with my friends while taking care of my health for my own sake. Looking back, I realized that love without truth becomes a cage, and when I finally turned off my bedroom light at night, I slept alone by choice rather than abandonment.