Broken Promises

Chapter 17

Opening the door a stale smell hit Sophie's nose, the same smell houses always have when no one has been there for a few days, dust and sweat.

'Urgh, the bin needs emptying for a start,' said Sophie pushing the door closed behind them. A pile of letters had built up on the mat, mostly junk and a few utility bills. Sophie tried to ignore the wave of nausea that hit her thinking about all the things that would need sorting, mail redirecting, accounts changing. House, money, divorce, furniture thank god they didn't have any children she thought to herself.

'So, plan of action?' asked Janet, Sophie frowned and surveyed the situation,

'Well kitchen is always a good place to start, then bathroom. Then start sorting stuff in the rooms, oh we need boxes dammit,' said Sophie,

'I'll pop out and get some if you like, while you start on the kitchen, anything else we need?', Sophie rummaged through the drawers in the kitchen,

'Bin bags!' she replied, 'And milk?' Janet chuckled and headed out. She returned a little while later with a bulk pack of flat-pack boxes, a roll of bubble wrap, a new roll of brown tape, milk, chocolate and some bin bags.

'Fantastic, thanks mum! I've sorted the kitchen except the bin of course, I've put everything I want to take on the top ready to pack,' Sophie gnawed open the top of one of the bars of chocolate and took a bite.

'Ok, shall I give the bathroom a once over then?'

'If you don't mind, thanks mum! I'll get packing!' As Sophie began to pack up her share of kitchen utensils and crockery into boxes she realised that she would probably give it all to the charity shop and start again when she got her own place. Janet finished the bathroom in no time and they started to sort through the lounge starting with the dvd's on the rack.

'This one?' asked Janet holding up a DVD box for Operation: Classified

'Definitely mine,' replied Sophie, she took the box from her mum and stared at the cover. Will's crystal blue eyes stared back at her, dressed in black holding out a revolver she had always thought he looked so sexy on the cover. She smiled to herself and put the DVD in the box beside her.

'Stuarts I take it?' said Janet, the DVD box held a Kung fu movie with subtitles,

'Urgh yes,' said Sophie, recalling the time he had made her watch it, that was an hour and half of her life she was never getting back. Janet placed the DVD back on the shelf and continued racking through the titles. An hour later everything in the lounge belonging to Sophie that wasn't furniture was carefully packed into boxes to keep or boxes for the charity shop. They started on the dining room next.

'Are you ok with all this Sophie?' Janet asked her as she wrapped a small frog ornament in bubble wrap.

'I actually am mum, I'm not even sad, I just feel angry at the moment, angry and let down. I trusted him,'

'I know, if you're sure, this can always wait,'

'No, the more I pack the better I feel, hey look at the time,' said Sophie checking her watch, it was nearly 19.30, the chocolate a distant memory,

'Let's order a pizza,' said Sophie.

The doorbell signalled the pizza's arrival and they downed tools to eat. The boxes ready to go were neatly stacked in the corner of the lounge for them to pick up the next day. They sat on the sofa munching pizza and drinking some of Stuarts beer left in the fridge. Sophie couldn't remember when she had seen her usually quite prim mother looking so carefree, drinking beer straight from the bottle, but it suited her.

'Shall we head back when we've finished this?' she asked Sophie,

'Yes, I think so. Probably need to open a storage locker tomorrow too to put all this stuff in it!' said Sophie, Janet surveyed the sea of boxes and concluded that was probably a good idea,

'Yes, I don't think my house is big enough for all this!'

Sophie chuckled, she did seem to have a lot of stuff although they had filled several bin bags with things to go to the charity shop.

'What we'll do,' started Janet, 'Is come and fill the car up first thing, then take it all with us to open the storage locker, then our first load is done already!'

'Good idea mum, I'll check what paperwork I need to open one actually,' said Sophie, she pulled out her phone and checked the website.

'Thanks mum, I couldn't do this without you,'

'Yes you could, I just make it a bit easier, you're far stronger than you give yourself credit for,' she said placing a hand on her daughters arm,

'Love you mum,'

'Love you too poppet,'

'Sophie Bennett?' said the woman, her crisp grey suit appearing in the doorway,

'Yes, hi,' said Sophie, getting up and proffering her hand to the woman,

'Amanda Evans, nice to meet you, do come in,' she ushered Sophie into her office and towards a chair,

'Now I understand you wish to begin divorce proceedings against your husband,' she checked the paperwork in front of her, 'Stuart?'

'Yes that's correct, he cheated on me and got another woman pregnant,' replied Sophie,

'Fantastic, men do like to make my job easy, any children?' she asked,

'No, none,'

'Perfect, this will be a very simple process Sophie, is there anything you wish to gain from the divorce, do you want to press for damages for his behaviour?'

'I just want it simple and down the line 50/50 all the way. I'm an accountant so I have extensive records of all financial transactions through our joint accounts and mortgage over the course of our marriage,'

'Excellent Sophie, this is confirmation of the charges we discussed on the phone,' said Amanda pushing a piece of paper towards Sophie, 'Are you happy to proceed?'

'How long did you say it may take?' asked Sophie,

'Well providing there is no contention from the other side, it's a simple case even with the house involved, we should hope to gain degree nisi in 4 months and decree absolute, 2-4 weeks after this,'

'Fabulous, let's do it,' said Sophie smiling broadly.