YT YouTube2Text

YouTube2Text → Transcripts → My Husband Brought His Pregnant Mistress To Thanksgiving — My Parents Set Her A Plate

My Husband Brought His Pregnant Mistress To Thanksgiving — My Parents Set Her A Plate — Transcript

by When Love Betrays · 5,262 words · 740 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

Open in transcriber Summarize with AI Download SRT/VTT

Full transcript

0:00My husband brought his pregnant mistress
0:02to Thanksgiving at my house, and my
0:04parents set her a plate. My mother had
0:06written the girl's name on one of the
0:08little cream place cards she makes every
0:10year in the same gold pen she used for
0:12everybody else. She put it between my
0:15husband's chair and hers. Nobody eats
0:17alone on Thanksgiving, Cora, she said,
0:20while I was still holding the turkey.
0:22She had known for 11 weeks. Before the
0:25pie was served, she asked me to give the
0:27girl a job at my bakery so she'd have
0:29health insurance for the baby. What none
0:31of them knew was that the girl was
0:33already on my bakery's books and had
0:35been since July. My name is Cora Ashby.
0:38I was 35 that fall, living in the
0:41Clintonville neighborhood of Columbus,
0:42Ohio, and I owned a bakery called Second
0:45Rise on Third Street in German Village.
0:4712 employees, four ovens, 340 pies every
0:52Thanksgiving week. I get up at 3:30
0:54every morning and I weigh everything.
0:57Flour, sugar, butter, salt, all of it to
0:59the gram. People think baking is about
1:01love. It's about numbers. If your
1:04numbers are off by 2%, your bread
1:06collapses and nobody cares how much you
1:08loved it. I opened Second Rise when I
1:10was 28 with a small business loan and
1:13every dollar I'd saved since high
1:14school. The business was mine before I
1:16ever met my husband. I kept it that way
1:19on paper the way my first boss taught
1:21me. His name was Mr. Farkas, an old
1:24Hungarian baker on the East Side who
1:26hired me at 19. On my 23rd birthday, he
1:30gave me a jar of his sourdough starter.
1:32It was already 20 years old. He told me,
1:36feed it every day and it will outlive
1:38your mistakes. I named it Gus. I fed Gus
1:41every morning at 4:00 for 12 years. I
1:44grew up in Upper Arlington, the only
1:46child of Lillian and Dale Ashby. My
1:49father ran a small insurance agency. My
1:52mother ran everything else. She was
1:54famous at our church for her
1:55Thanksgivings. Every year she invited
1:58people who had nowhere else go. A
2:00widowed neighbor, a college kid who
2:02couldn't fly home, the new pastor's
2:05mother. She hand lettered to cream place
2:07card for every single guest in gold pen.
2:10Every guest but me. Your family, honey,
2:12she'd say. You don't need a card. When I
2:15was 16, there were 14 guests and 13
2:18chairs at the dining table. I ate my
2:20turkey at the card table in the kitchen
2:23next to the dishwasher while my mother
2:25toasted strangers in the next room. I
2:28told myself it meant I was safe. That
2:30family didn't need a seat because family
2:32was already home. My mother wasn't cold
2:35all the time. When I was eight, she let
2:37me stand on a chair in our kitchen and
2:39taught me to make her cinnamon rolls.
2:41She showed me how to roll the dough so
2:43the spiral stayed tight. She put her
2:45hands over mine and said, slow, Cora.
2:48Good things take time to rise. That's
2:50the first thing I ever baked. Every time
2:53she hurt me as an adult, I remembered
2:55her hands over mine on that rolling pin.
2:58I held on to that longer than I should
2:59have. I met Beckett Lowry when I was 30.
3:03He walked into Second Rise on a Saturday
3:05morning in a navy quarter zip and asked
3:07what I recommended. I told him the
3:09cardamom bun. He came back the next
3:11Saturday and the next. On the fourth
3:14Saturday, he asked if the baker ever
3:16took a day off. He was a regional sales
3:18director for a medical device company.
3:21He traveled three weeks a month and
3:22could talk to anyone about anything. My
3:25mother adored him from the first dinner.
3:27She said he was the first man who had
3:29ever made me look up from a mixing bowl.
3:32We married eight months later in the
3:34bakery after closing with string lights
3:36over the ovens and 40 guests eating cake
3:38I'd baked myself. My mother gave a
3:41toast. She talked for four minutes about
3:43Beckett, how charming he was, how lucky
3:45I was, how he'd finally got me to take
3:47off my apron. She mentioned the bakery
3:50once as something he'd have to put up
3:52with. Everybody laughed. I told myself
3:55it was just her way of welcoming him.
3:57Beckett moved into my little brick house
3:59in Clintonville. He helped me with the
4:01bakery's books on Sunday nights because
4:03I hated spreadsheets that weren't
4:05recipes. I made him an authorized signer
4:08on the business account so he could pay
4:10vendors when I was buried in orders.
4:12Seemed like a kindness. Seemed like
4:14marriage. My parents treated him like
4:16the son they never had. Dad took him
4:19golfing. Mom called him to ask what I
4:21wanted for my birthday instead of asking
4:23me. Every Christmas she asked when we
4:26were going to give her a grandbaby. I
4:28always said after the bakery's fifth
4:30year, then the sixth. Eventually she
4:33stopped asking me and started asking
4:34Beckett. Every year I hosted
4:36Thanksgiving at our house because I had
4:38the double oven and because mom said her
4:40knees couldn't take it anymore. She
4:42still brought her place cards. She still
4:44didn't make one for me. Beckett used to
4:47laugh and say, you're married to that
4:49bakery. He said it at parties. He said
4:52it to my mother. She always laughed too.
4:55Once in our second year I came home and
4:57found my starter jar in the kitchen
4:58trash. Beckett said the smell made him
5:01sick and he'd figured I could just buy
5:02more. I fished Gus out and washed the
5:05jar in the sink at midnight. I didn't
5:07say a word. I should have heard what
5:09that told me. Last June Beckett went to
5:12a medical device conference in
5:13Indianapolis. He came back with a new
5:16cologne and a habit of stepping onto the
5:18back porch to take calls. Over the
5:20summer Indianapolis became his favorite
5:22city. Three trips in July, two in
5:25August. In September he started saying
5:28he'd stay over Friday nights because the
5:30Sunday flights were cheaper. When I
5:32asked him to come to the bakery's
5:33seventh anniversary party in October, he
5:36said, Cora, you're married to that
5:38bakery. You don't need me there.
5:41He left before the cake was cut. In
5:44October my mother started calling me
5:45less and calling Beckett more. Once I
5:48walked into the kitchen while he was on
5:50the phone and heard him say, thanks,
5:52Lil. I'll tell her soon. He hung up and
5:55said mom was asking about Christmas
5:56presents. I believed him because my
5:59mother had been asking Beckett about my
6:01Christmas presents for five years. A
6:03week later she called me at the bakery
6:05during the lunch rush and asked a
6:07strange question. Does Second Rise offer
6:10health insurance to part-time people?
6:12She said, asking for a friend at church.
6:15I told her yes, anyone over 20 hours a
6:17week. She said, good, that's good to
6:21know, and hung up before I could ask
6:23which friend. I wrote it on a sticky
6:25note and forgot about it. That's what
6:27November does to a baker. Then on
6:30November 9th, my bookkeeper flagged
6:32something. Delores Kaminsky was 64, did
6:35the books for six small businesses in
6:37German Village, and could find a missing
6:39nickel in a stack of receipts from
6:41across the room. She came in early that
6:43Monday, set a printout next to my bread
6:45scale, and tapped it twice. Whose SP
6:48Designs? She asked. I didn't know. She
6:51showed me seven payments from the
6:53bakery's business account between July
6:55and November to a company called SP
6:57Designs LLC. Each one was labeled menu
7:00board design and signage, $14,700
7:04in all. Every payment had been approved
7:07by Beckett. I looked up at the
7:09chalkboard menu behind the counter. I
7:11had written every word on it myself in
7:13white chalk in the spring of 2021.
7:17It hadn't changed since. That night,
7:19after Beckett fell asleep, I searched
7:21the Ohio Secretary of State's business
7:23filings. SP Designs LLC had been
7:26registered in June. The registered agent
7:29was a woman named Skylar Penn. The
7:31address was an apartment in the Short
7:33North. I didn't know a Skylar Penn. I
7:36printed the filing, the seven payments,
7:38and the invoices Beckett had uploaded to
7:40our bookkeeping software. Every invoice
7:43had the same cute hand-lettered logo.
7:45Not one of them listed a single sign
7:47that had ever been delivered. I put
7:50everything in a manila envelope and
7:51handed it to Delores. I told her not to
7:54say anything to anyone. Not even your
7:57husband, she asked. Especially not him.
8:01She nodded once. I'll keep it in the
8:03safe, she said. I decided to deal with
8:06it after Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving week
8:08at a bakery is not a week. It's a war.
8:11I had 340 pies to bake, two crew members
8:15out with the flu, and a walk-in cooler
8:17that chose that Tuesday to die. I slept
8:194 hours a night. I didn't have the space
8:22in my head for anything else. I thought
8:24I had time. On Thanksgiving morning, I
8:27was up at 3 as always. I fed Gus,
8:30roasted a 22-lb turkey, and set my
8:32dining table for nine. Mom had called
8:35the week before to say she'd invited one
8:37more guest, a young woman from church
8:39with nowhere to go. That was my mother
8:42every Thanksgiving. My parents came at
8:44noon. Mom carried her box of place cards
8:47like a sacred object. She went around
8:49the table setting them out while I
8:51basted it. Beckett had texted at 10 that
8:54his flight from Indianapolis was
8:55delayed, and he'd come straight from the
8:58airport. At 2:15, I heard his car in the
9:00driveway. Then I heard two car doors.
9:04He walked into my kitchen with his arm
9:06around a young woman in a long camel
9:08coat. She was maybe 26 with honey-blonde
9:11hair and a clip and a round,
9:12unmistakable stomach under a cream
9:14sweater. 5 or 6 months along. Cora,
9:18Beckett said. His voice was very calm
9:20like he'd practiced in the car. This is
9:23Skyler. I think it's time we were all
9:25honest. Skyler Penn. I had just lifted
9:28the turkey onto my grandmother's
9:30platter. I was holding it with both
9:32hands. I didn't drop it. I held on very
9:35carefully the way you hold something
9:37hot. My mother came in from the dining
9:40room. She didn't gasp. She didn't ask
9:42who the girl was. She walked straight
9:44over to Skyler and kissed her cheek.
9:47There you are, sweetheart, she said. Let
9:49me take your coat. I've got you right
9:52next to Beckett. I followed her into the
9:54dining room still carrying the turkey.
9:57There it was, a cream place card in gold
9:59pen set between Beckett's chair and my
10:02mother's. Skyler. Eight chairs had
10:04cards. Mine didn't. Mom, I said. Nobody
10:08eats alone on Thanksgiving, Cora, she
10:11said. You know that. I set the platter
10:14down in the middle of the table. My
10:16father was already sitting down.
10:18He looked at the gravy boat. Let's just
10:21get through dinner, he said. We'll talk
10:24after. The other guests were Beckett's
10:26brother and his wife and two elderly
10:28neighbors from my street, Mrs. Pruitt
10:31and her brother, whom my mother insisted
10:33I invite every year. They stared at
10:35their napkins. Beckett's sister-in-law,
10:37Renee, looked at me across the table
10:40with an expression I'll never forget. It
10:42wasn't pity. It was horror, the kind you
10:45feel watching someone get hit by a car
10:47in slow motion. Mrs. Pruitt, who was 81,
10:50put down her fork, said she'd forgotten
10:52to feed her cat, and left before the
10:54stuffing went around. She squeezed my
10:57arm on the way out and whispered, I'm
10:59sorry, dear. She was the only person at
11:01that table who said it. I could hear the
11:04oven fan humming in the kitchen.
11:06Somewhere down the street, a football
11:08game was on too loud. I didn't scream. I
11:11don't know why. Maybe because I'd been
11:13awake since 3:00 and had baked 340 pies
11:16that week, and I didn't have anything
11:18left for screaming. Maybe because I'd
11:20spent my whole life learning that
11:22Thanksgiving belonged to my mother. My
11:24father said grace the way he did every
11:26year.
11:27He thanked God for the food, for our
11:29health, and after a small pause for new
11:31beginnings. Skylar whispered Amen. My
11:34mother squeezed her hand. I carved the
11:37turkey. My hands didn't shake until the
11:39fourth slice. Halfway through dinner,
11:42Skylar reached for the cranberry sauce,
11:44and my mother passed it to her. Skylar
11:46said, Thank you, Lil. Lil. My mother
11:50lets three people in the world call her
11:52Lil. Later, while I was cutting the
11:54turkey's second breast, Skylar leaned
11:56toward me and said very politely, Lil
11:59says you make the best pie crust in
12:00Ohio. Would you ever share the recipe? I
12:04looked at her for a long moment. She
12:06meant it kindly. She had no idea whose
12:08kitchen she was sitting in. Cold butter,
12:11I said, and don't overwork it. She
12:14smiled and thanked me. My mother beamed
12:16at both of us like we were becoming
12:18friends. Before the pie, my mother set
12:21down her fork. I know this is a shock,
12:24said, but we have to think about the
12:26baby now. Skyler's a freelancer. She
12:29doesn't have insurance. She's due in
12:31March. She looked at me. You have 12
12:34employees in a group plan, Cora. Put her
12:37on the payroll. 20 hours a week at the
12:39front counter. She's wonderful with
12:42people. Beckett nodded. It would be good
12:44for everyone, he said. My father reached
12:48for another role. It's the decent thing,
12:51he said. It's the baby. I looked at
12:53Skyler. She looked back at me a little
12:56frightened, a little hopeful. She had no
12:58idea her name was already sitting in an
13:00envelope in my bakery safe. How long
13:03have you known, Mom? I asked. She didn't
13:06even hesitate. Since September. Beckett
13:09came to me first. He wanted to tell you
13:12gently. I went with Skyler to her 12
13:14week scan. 11 weeks. 11 weeks of phone
13:18calls about Christmas presents. 11 weeks
13:21of my mother sitting in a doctor's
13:22office holding my husband's girlfriend's
13:25hand. I stood up and went to the
13:27kitchen. I came back with the first pie,
13:30a bourbon pecan with a lattice crust,
13:32and set it in the middle of the table.
13:34Have her come in a week from Saturday, I
13:37said. 6:00 in the morning. We start
13:40early. My mother clapped her hands
13:42together once. See, she said to Skyler.
13:46I told you. Family. She meant it. That
13:49was the worst part. She truly believed
13:52she just given me something. After
13:54everyone left, I washed every dish by
13:56hand. Beckett stood in the kitchen
13:58doorway. Thank you for being so mature
14:00about this, he said. How long? I asked
14:04without turning around. Since June.
14:07Indianapolis. She was there for a design
14:09conference. Is it yours? Yes. Were you
14:13going to tell me before the baby was
14:15born? Your mom thought Thanksgiving
14:17would be easier. Everybody together. She
14:20said you'd never make a scene in front
14:22of guests. I turned off the water. She
14:25was right, I said. I didn't. He seemed
14:29relieved, even smiled a little. I'll
14:32stay at Skylar's tonight, he said. Give
14:35you some space.
14:36Take a bag, I said. Take a big one. He
14:39took two. At the door he turned around.
14:42Honestly, Cora, you're married to that
14:44bakery anyway, he said. You'll barely
14:47notice I'm gone. When the door closed, I
14:50didn't cry right away. I went into the
14:52pantry, sat down on the floor between
14:54the sacks of flour and pressed my back
14:56against the shelves. Then I cried so
14:58hard I had to put my fist against my
15:00mouth. I couldn't stop thinking about
15:03the card table by the dishwasher. 16
15:05years old, eating turkey in the kitchen
15:08while my mother toasted strangers in the
15:10next room. Nothing had changed. She just
15:13found a stranger she liked better than
15:15me. I didn't sleep. At 2:00 in the
15:18morning I drove to the bakery, turned on
15:20the ovens, and baked bread alone in the
15:22dark until my arms hurt. At 5:00 the
15:25back door opened. Dolores came in with
15:27two coffees, set one by my scale, and
15:30took off her coat. She didn't ask why I
15:32was there. She looked at my face, then
15:35at the office safe and said, It's her,
15:37isn't it? The SP girl. Skylar Penn, I
15:40said. She was at my table. Dolores sat
15:44down on an upturned bucket. Then we're
15:46going to need a lawyer, she said, and
15:49I'm going to need more coffee. At 9:00
15:51that morning my mother texted me, Thank
15:53you for being so gracious yesterday.
15:56Skylar cried in the car. She said you
15:58were kinder than she deserved. I read it
16:01three times. My mother had finally said
16:03something true, and she'd meant it as a
16:05compliment to herself. On Monday I met
16:08with an attorney named Corinne Tolliver
16:10in an old brick office near the Ohio
16:12State House. She was in her 50s, had
16:15silver-rimmed reading glasses and the
16:16slowest, most terrifying voice I'd ever
16:19heard. She read every page Dolores had
16:21printed while I sat in silence. Then she
16:24took off her glasses. Ohio lets you file
16:27for divorce on a lot of grounds, she
16:29said. But the affair isn't what's going
16:32to matter most here. The money is. Ohio
16:35law has a name for it, financial
16:37misconduct. If a spouse hides or wastes
16:40money, the court can make him pay for it
16:42in the property division.
16:44He paid his girlfriend $14,700
16:47out of my bakery, I said. Out of a
16:50business you owned before the marriage,
16:52she said. That makes it even simpler.
16:55Your company has a claim against her
16:57company for invoices that were never
16:59fulfilled. You can make a written
17:01demand. You could also go to the police.
17:04That's your choice, and you don't have
17:06to make it today. She went through the
17:08rest. Remove Beckett as an authorized
17:11signer on the bakery account immediately
17:13through the bank in writing. Don't touch
17:15the joint checking account except for
17:17normal bills. Change the passwords on
17:20the bookkeeping software. Don't threaten
17:22anyone. Don't post anything. Don't tell
17:25my mother. And the house, I asked. You
17:29bought it before the marriage? Two years
17:31before. Then most of it is yours. He'll
17:34argue the payments he made count for
17:36something. He may be right about some of
17:38it. Don't expect a clean number. She
17:41filed the divorce complaint on
17:43Wednesday. On Thursday, the bank removed
17:46Beckett from the business account.
17:48Dolores changed every password. On
17:50Thursday evening, Beckett came by the
17:52house to pick up more clothes. He walked
17:54through the kitchen and stopped at the
17:56counter where Gus was bubbling in his
17:58jar under a dish towel. You still have
18:00that thing? He asked, wrinkling his
18:03nose.
18:04He's older than our marriage, I said.
18:07He'll be here after it, too. Beckett
18:09laughed like I'd made a joke.
18:12He took his golf clubs in a box of
18:14winter sweaters and said he'd see me
18:15Saturday. He didn't know the bank had
18:18removed him from the business account
18:20that morning. He hadn' tried to log in.
18:23He never needed to check. He'd always
18:25assumed I wouldn't. Corinne sent a
18:27demand letter to SP Designs LLC at the
18:30Short North address, requiring repayment
18:32of $14,700
18:34within 30 days. She timed it to arrive
18:37Saturday afternoon. My mother called on
18:40Friday night. Skylar is so nervous about
18:43tomorrow, she said. I told her I'd come
18:45with her. Beckett's driving. Is that all
18:48right? Bring whoever you want, I said.
18:52We open at 7:00. On Saturday, December
18:545th, I was at the bakery at 3:30 as
18:57always. By 6:00, the ovens were roaring
19:00and the whole building smelled like
19:02cardamom and browned butter. My morning
19:04crew was rolling croissants at the long
19:06steel table. Dolores sat at the desk by
19:09the office door with a cup of coffee and
19:11a manila envelope on her lap. At 6:02,
19:14the back door bust. My mother came in
19:16first, wearing her good red scarf.
19:19Beckett came in behind her, carrying a
19:21box of donuts from a chain store, as if
19:24he'd forgotten whose kitchen he was
19:25walking into. Skylar came last in a
19:28black apron she'd bought herself. She
19:30looked at the ovens and the racks of
19:32bread and said, Wow. My mother hugged
19:35me. I stood still. Thank you for doing
19:38this, honey, she said. You won't regret
19:41it. My father wasn't with them. Mom said
19:44he'd stayed home with a cold. I didn't
19:46believe her. I gave Skylar a clipboard.
19:49Every new hire fills out paperwork, I
19:52said. But before you sign anything,
19:54there's something you should see. I gave
19:57Dolores a nod. She stood up, walked
19:59over, and laid the envelope on the steel
20:01table between a tray of croissants and a
20:04bowl of egg wash. My crew kept rolling
20:06dough, but I could feel every one of
20:08them listening. I took out the first
20:10page. This is the business account for
20:12Second Rise, I said. Between July and
20:15November, seven payments went to a
20:18company called SP Designs LLC, menu
20:21board design and signage, $14,700.
20:25Everyone approved by Beckett.
20:28Skyler's face changed. Then I pointed at
20:30the chalkboard on the wall behind the
20:32counter, visible through the kitchen
20:34pass-through. That's the only menu board
20:36this bakery has. I wrote it myself in
20:39the spring of 2021.
20:41Nobody has touched it since. I laid down
20:44the second page. This is the filing from
20:47the Ohio Secretary of State, SP Designs
20:50LLC, registered in June. Registered
20:53agent Skyler Penn. The room went still.
20:56Even the mixer seemed quieter. Skyler
20:59looked at Beckett. You said these were
21:01real jobs, she said. You said the bakery
21:04was half yours and you were hiring me to
21:06redo the signs. You said you were a
21:08partner. Beckett went red. Sky, not
21:12here. You told me the divorce was
21:14already filed, she said. Her voice
21:17cracked. You told me she knew
21:18everything. I know everything now, I
21:21said. My mother put her hand on the edge
21:24of the table. Cora, this is between you
21:26and Beckett. You don't have to drag
21:28Skyler into Mom, I said quietly, she's
21:32on my books. Beckett turned on my
21:35mother. I don't think he meant to. I
21:37think he was just panicking, looking for
21:39somebody else to stand behind. Lil, you
21:42said she never checks the books at the
21:43holidays, he said. You said she'd be too
21:46busy with pies to notice anything until
21:49January. The kitchen went silent. My
21:52mother's face went gray under her
21:53makeup. I thought about the phone call
21:55during the lunch rush. Does Second Rise
21:58offer health insurance to part-time
22:00people? Asking for a friend at church.
22:02Dolores, behind me, set down her coffee
22:05very slowly. You knew about the money, I
22:08said to my mother. It wasn't a question.
22:11Lower your voice, Cora, she hissed. Your
22:14staff can hear you. They work for me, I
22:17said. They can hear the truth. She
22:19swallowed. I knew he was helping her,
22:22she said. I didn't ask how. A baby is
22:25expensive, Cora. You have so much. Then
22:28she said the thing she had been holding
22:30for 11 weeks. I'm going to be a
22:32grandmother, Cora. You were never going
22:34to give me that. I laid down the last
22:37page. This is a demand letter from my
22:39attorney to SP Designs for repayment of
22:42$14,700.
22:45You'll get your copy this afternoon,
22:46Skyler. And this is the notice from the
22:49bank. Beckett hasn't been a signer on
22:51this account since Thursday. And this is
22:54the divorce complaint filed Wednesday.
22:56Beckett stared at the papers. You filed?
22:59Cora, we could have worked this out. You
23:02worked it out in June, I said. You just
23:04forgot to tell me. I turned to my
23:06mother. You wanted me to put her on my
23:09payroll, mom, I said. Beckett beat you
23:12to it. Nobody said anything. Then Skyler
23:15took off the black apron, folded it, and
23:17set it on the steel table. Her hands
23:20were shaking. I didn't know it was your
23:22money, she said to me. I swear I didn't
23:25know. I believe you didn't ask, I said.
23:28She flinched, but she nodded. I took a
23:31white box from the rack behind me and
23:33put four cinnamon rolls in it, the good
23:35ones from my mother's old recipe with
23:37the tight spirals. I held the box out to
23:39Skyler. For the baby, I said. On the
23:43house. The money conversation goes
23:45through my lawyer. She took the box. She
23:48didn't say anything. She walked out the
23:50back door. Beckett followed her, still
23:53holding his chain store donuts. My
23:55mother stood alone in my kitchen in her
23:57good red scarf, surrounded by people who
24:00had just watched her get caught. I
24:02raised you better than to humiliate your
24:04own mother, she said. You raised me to
24:07eat in the kitchen, I said. I'm just
24:10finally done doing it. I opened the back
24:12door for her. She walked out without
24:14another word. At 7:00, I unlocked the
24:17front door. There was already a line
24:20down the block. I sold out of cardamom
24:22buns by 9:15.
24:24Tao, my head baker, who'd been rolling
24:26croissants 6 ft from my mother the whole
24:28time, came up beside me at the register
24:31and said only, morning, chef. Then he
24:33went back to the ovens. I've never loved
24:36a sentence more. Delores came up behind
24:38me at the counter and squeezed my
24:40shoulder once. Best opening we've had
24:42all year, she said. Then she went back
24:45to her desk as if nothing had happened
24:48at all. The divorce took six months.
24:50Beckett's lawyer argued that he'd
24:52contributed to the house and that the SP
24:55Designs payments were legitimate
24:56business consulting. Karen put the
24:58chalkboard in a photograph next to the
25:00invoices. That argument lasted about a
25:03week. At mediation, the mediator held up
25:06the photo of my chalkboard, then the
25:08seven invoices for menu board design,
25:11and asked Beckett's lawyer if he'd like
25:12a minute with his client. He took 20. In
25:16the end, the court counted the money
25:18Beckett had taken out of the bakery
25:19against his share of everything else. I
25:22still had to pay him some of his share
25:24of the equity in the house. Ohio is in a
25:26place where you get everything back just
25:28because you were wronged. When Karen
25:30finished the math, I had recovered
25:32$11,500
25:34of the $14,700.
25:374,000 of it came straight from SP
25:39Designs, which Skylar dissolved in
25:41January. The rest came out of Beckett's
25:43share of the house. I lost $3,200
25:47in a marriage. I kept my bakery and my
25:49home. Beckett lost his job in January.
25:53His company ran its annual expense audit
25:55and found 11 weekends of Indianapolis
25:57hotel bills he'd submitted as client
26:00meetings. I didn't report him. I didn't
26:03have to. The numbers did it for me.
26:05Skylar left him that same month. Beckett
26:08had told her he'd filed for divorce in
26:10June. The court record said I filed in
26:12December. She moved back to Dayton to
26:15live with her sister. In February,
26:18Beckett called from a number I didn't
26:19recognize. He said he'd made the biggest
26:22mistake of his life.
26:24He said he missed the house and the
26:25bread and Sunday nights with the books.
26:28You miss having someone to sign the
26:29checks, I said. He didn't argue. I hung
26:33up and went back to shaping baguettes.
26:35In March, Skylar had a healthy baby
26:37girl. Dolores heard it from a vendor who
26:40knew Skylar's sister. I was glad the
26:42baby was healthy. I meant it. In April,
26:45Skylar mailed me a cashier's check for
26:47$600 with a note. It's not much. It's
26:51what I can do. I'm sorry I didn't ask. I
26:54put it toward the bakery's flour order.
26:56I didn't write back, but I didn't tear
26:58up the note either. Renee Beckett,
27:00sister-in-law, came into the bakery that
27:02spring. She bought a dozen cardamom buns
27:05and told me she'd stopped speaking to
27:07Beckett after Thanksgiving. She'd also
27:09told the story to half of my mother's
27:11church at a Christmas potluck. She said
27:13she hadn't meant to. She just got into
27:16the part about the place card and
27:17couldn't stop. My mother wrote me a
27:19letter in May, three pages in gold pen.
27:23She said she'd only been trying to make
27:25sure nobody was left out. She said the
27:27baby deserved a grandmother. She said I
27:30had always been so self-sufficient that
27:32she didn't think I needed her the way
27:33Skylar did. On the last page, she asked
27:36if she could come for Thanksgiving. She
27:38said she'd bring her place cards. I
27:40wrote back one line. You never made one
27:43for me, mom. Then I put the letter in a
27:45drawer. My father never called, but in
27:48June, Dolores came into my office with a
27:50printout and an odd look on her face.
27:53Every Saturday since Christmas, someone
27:55had placed an online order for one loaf
27:57of sourdough, paid in advance, and never
28:00picked it up. The name on the order was
28:02D.
28:03Ashby. I looked at that printout for a
28:06long time. Then I told Dolores to give
28:08the bread to the shelter on Parsons
28:10Avenue every Saturday, the way we did
28:12with all our unclaimed orders. I didn't
28:15call him, but I didn't cancel it either.
28:18That November, my mother's famous
28:20Thanksgiving for people with nowhere to
28:22go had nobody at the table but her and
28:23my father. Renee told me I hosted
28:26Thanksgiving again too, not for my
28:29family, for my bakery, 12 people, Mrs.
28:32Pruitt from next door, who brought her
28:35own cranberry relish and told everyone
28:37she'd walked out of my last Thanksgiving
28:38to feed a cat she didn't own. My morning
28:41crew, two of their kids, Dolores and her
28:43sister, and a 20-year-old dishwasher
28:46from Venezuela who had never had an
28:48American Thanksgiving in his life.
28:50Nobody had anywhere better to be, and
28:52everybody brought something. I bought a
28:54box of cream cardstock and a gold pen. I
28:57wrote a place card for every person at
28:59my table. I wrote them slowly, the way
29:01my mother used to, in my best hand. The
29:04last one I wrote was my own, Cora. I set
29:07it at the head of the table in front of
29:09the chair closest to the oven, and I sat
29:11down. That morning, before anyone
29:14arrived, I'd fed Gus at 4:00 the way I
29:17had every day for 13 years.
29:19He'd outlived my marriage just like Mr.
29:22Farkas promised. The bread on the table
29:24came from him. Halfway through dinner,
29:27the dishwasher from Venezuela stood up
29:29and asked if he could say something. He
29:31held up his place card. Nobody ever
29:34wrote my name for dinner before, he
29:36said. Everyone laughed and clapped, and
29:39I had to look down at my plate for a
29:40second. My mother always said nobody
29:43eats alone on Thanksgiving. She was
29:45right. That year I didn't, and for the
29:48first time in my life, there was a card
29:50with my name on it at my own table.

About this transcript

This page contains the full transcript of My Husband Brought His Pregnant Mistress To Thanksgiving — My Parents Set Her A Plate by When Love Betrays, generated from the public captions YouTube serves with the video. The transcript has 5,262 words across 740 segments, with the original timestamps preserved so you can click any line to jump to that moment in the embedded player.

What you can do with it

Use the transcript to take notes, quote the speaker, build a study guide, generate a summary with ChatGPT or Claude via the YouTube Summary tool, or export it as a timed subtitle file with YouTube to SRT. You can also re-open it in the transcriber to choose a caption track available on the video.

Free YouTube transcript tool

YouTube2Text is a free YouTube transcript generator — no signup, no daily limit. Paste any YouTube link and get the full transcript instantly, with timestamps, click-to-jump, caption language selection, AI prompts for ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, and exports to TXT, SRT, VTT, or Markdown.