Destiny Rules: The Sequel

Chapter 36

"I'm not lying," his eyes poured deep into hers, "Why in the world would I ever lie about something like that?"

"What do you MEAN you filed for divorce?"

"Can I please come in so we can sit down and talk about this?" He pleaded softly.

She stared back at him with an annoyed expression, stepping to the side so he could walk past her through the door. As he did, she turned around, closing the door behind her and backing against it for support to face him again, "Go into the basement," she ordered.

"What??"

"The basement. Let's go down there."

"What for?" He asked confused.

"Lily is asleep, I don't want her to wake up or hear this, and I have the feeling some yelling will be required," she rolled her eyes walking past him to the lead the way.

Since he didn't have much say, he followed her down the staircase, taking a look around the finished space as she turned on all the lights. Framed Fleetwood Mac and Stevie Nicks records and posters lined one of the walls, a collection of blue lamps was spread around various tabletops, and small trinkets and candles filled every corner. She led the way towards a cluster of leather couches, sitting herself down on the arm of one and looking back up at him, as if giving him permission to speak again.

"What the hell happened in Vegas when I left your room?" She asked when he took too long to say anything. 

Taking a seat, he nervously played with his hands in his lap, "I spent the night convincing her I wasn't having an affair with some groupie, she demanded to go through my messages, which I let her obviously since I deleted all of ours."

"If only you'd deleted the photo too..."

"Apparently Lynn told her she'd seen me talking to some younger woman? I have no idea, anyway I got out of that, and then the topic of you came up again. She was obviously suspicious that you were coming up to my room. We fought about it again. We left early the next morning because she wanted to get back home, and then she seemingly just dropped the entire argument once we got there."

"Okay so what was the issue? I don't understand then...."

"The issue was I spent that whole morning on the way home with her completely furious and resentful. She pretended to believe the lie I told her, and then we went on tensely back to LA together as if nothing happened. And I decided I couldn't fucking do it anymore. I wanted to come to your room before we left that morning, but the truth was...I couldn't imagine facing you and telling you that it was all fine and we were in the clear again."

"Why?"

"Maybe because I didn't want to be," he admitted quietly. "I realized I wanted her to catch us. I wanted her to call me out on my lie. I wanted her to say this wasn't working and it was over. I can't fathom another ten years of doing this, Stevie. I don't want to."

"That's NOT FAIR, Lindsey!" She shouted, "You want both she and I to do the work and take the blame on this!"

"That's NOT TRUE, I don't want you to take any blame, okay? I never did. And you're right, I was waiting for her to make the difficult decision and start it. And I realized that. So I decided to take matters in my own hands and make the decision myself to walk away."

"For once in your life, gee how impressive." 

He sighed, "I'm not going to start a fight about that right now."

"So then what, you got home and suddenly told her you wanted a divorce?"

"No, I thought about it. Tried to figure out what that would look like, called my lawyer, asked some basic questions. And then I told her the other night that I can't do this anymore. It's over, I want a divorce. I'm in love with someone else, and I have been for the last 40 years of my life."