like real people do

i

"You are not selling the house," she shook her head, choking back the tears that were threatening to fall. "Was it not enough that you ruined our family, huh, William? You just have to take the house our kids grew up in away from them? If you need me to buy you out, then so be it, but you're not taking our home away."

His lawyer tried to refute, but Maddison (Lea's lawyer and friend) raised her palm, signaling him not to talk.

"I'm sorry," Will started.

"That you even thought of this is infuriating," she looked him straight in the eyes; the same ones that told of home and warmth were now unrecognizable, cold, dead, long gone.

It's as if they were different people now.

"Lei, I'm so-"

"I don't need your apologies," she cut him off.

He opened his mouth to speak, but she wouldn't allow him one more word. She closed her eyes, shaking her head furiously before grabbing her purse and walking out of the room. She was not going to give him the liberty of watching her fall apart. He's already feasted in her pain long before this meeting was scheduled.

And then Leanna was running. She ran as far as her feet could take her, and she found herself in the park she frequented when she needed to breathe-the environment quite literally produced the air she desperately sought for. She bent down, hands on her knees, catching her breath, stopping herself from toppling over the lagoon away's away from the courthouse.

How did she get here?

Her life was ordinary-as ordinary as an immigrant child's life could be. They were fortunate, though. She lived the so-called American Dream, grew up in a good school district then went to a highly renowned university. There was no lack of experience, no childhood trauma, no crazy passionate escapades, and she thought it would end that way, too. An unassuming yet joyful life; coming home to her family, finding solace in her kitchen (the rest of Plainsboro found this infectious warmth, too), growing old with him.

With the one man she was sure she'd marry. He wasn't the first man in her life, but he was her first love, and when she found him, she knew that it had been it. All the waiting was over. She found the man she wanted to spend the rest of her life with. When they married, she thought she'd defied all the odds, that forever was at arm's reach.

Until things changed. Until their dreams became hers alone.

He left her. First, it was weekly trips cross country. San Francisco, Seattle, Vegas. Then it was Europe for weeks at a time, and then it became more frequent as if coming home only to pack another bag for his next trip, and the next, and the next.

What he was doing was noble; he could have that by all merit. An environmental lawyer who was changing the game worldwide, speaking at the UN, going on strikes famished and barefoot. His intentions were pure, and perhaps it was the reason she stayed for so long. Because she believed in his why; because his heart was good-it was the reason she fell in love with him years ago.

There was no third party, no falling out. He loves her, and he loves their family, but he had dreams for the world that wouldn't allow him to express that love.

Because the manifestation of love that they needed was stability and that, he couldn't give.

How did she get here?

Somewhere between her husband missing Ryan's championship match and Valerie's first role in a musical, things stopped working. They slept in separate rooms in the short amount of time he was at home. And he conceded, waved the white flag, stopped doing anything about it, and let her be.