𝑻 𝑯 𝑬 𝑵 𝑨 𝑵 𝑵 𝒀 (18+)

two.

                                D O M I N I C

No one ever went into a marriage expecting a divorce. When I got down on one knee and proposed to my wife I expected that to be it. She was the last woman I was ever going to love and I was okay with that. I wanted my life to be merged with hers. Wanted to wake up every morning knowing I had eternity with the most beautiful—perfect woman in the world.

Love.

It was tumultuous and prickly like thorns on roses and it led me here. To a pretentious sky rise building mute of any colors with two lawyers going back and forth—debating my life and measuring it down to simple china and household items. I couldn't even stand to look at the woman sitting across from me because I did not recognize her.

Six months of meetings and back-and-forth phone calls and still, she wouldn't sign the damn papers. I was a pawn in a game only she wanted to play but the real victims here were our children. Two boys were a product of our disastrous marriage and it was already starting to take a toll on them.

Jamie cried for his mother constantly and Josh could hardly stand to be around me even though I was barely ever home. Sometimes the hospital felt like an escape and it was a terrible thing to say but it was hard being the enemy in your own home.

"They're too young."

"You can tell them when they get older," were all warnings given to me by my family but at what age was it appropriate to tell children that you failed them? At what age would it be appropriate to sit my children down and tell them that mommy and daddy just grew apart? That sometimes love came with arguing and it made the brightest eyes and purest souls ache with a deep-seated hatred.

At what age did I tell them that their mother wasn't there when they needed her most?

"I'm just not sure what else we're doing here. Mr. Gray has already offered her everything in the settlement. She doesn't want it that's fine but it's just downright evil to keep refusing to sign the papers." My lawyers' ramblings sounded so far away. It was almost as if I wasn't even in the room.

Stephanie's eye's pleaded with mine. Hoping, begging that I'd look into them and see a shred of what we used to be. That I'd take the papers I'd been forcing down her throat for months and rip them up only to take her in my arms to tell her everything was going to be okay. That this was all a bad dream and I would never leave her. Never abandon the home we worked so hard to build.

Sometimes I was scared I would see her dreams when I looked into her eyes. That somehow she'd cast the same spell she did all those years ago and rewrap me around her pretty little finger. A finger apart of a larger system I no longer wanted to worship. The feelings I had for my wife had shriveled into something almost unrecognizable. I became nauseous at the thought and it ripped me to shreds.

Our marriage was over. It had been long before I took that ring off my finger. It was time for her to see that too.

"My client is asking for a simple separation, just to consider the kids. She's done her programs and it seems rather unfair that she can only see her kids twice a week, two hours out of the day."

"Not my jurisdiction Jim and not what we're here to discuss. That's a family court issue. We are here to settle this divorce once and for all, Dominic do you have any comments?"

My phone buzzed and I pulled it from my pocket sighing at the name. Little Brooks Elementary. They had to be calling about Josh. He'd been acting up recently and I knew fuck all what to do with him. My mother said seven-minute time-outs would do the trick but I think they only made him angrier. He'd already driven the last three nannies out of the house with his behavior and I really wasn't looking forward to the next abrupt resignation.