Invisible String

Chapter Two- Were There Clues I Just Didn't See?

Bradley

"This doesn't have to be complicated. We can keep it out of court, Ab, and you know it."

In a twist of perfect timing, the gray sky sets the tone for the day. He's turned on just about every light in the house and still, nothing can permeate the bleakness. The walls are bleeding with it.

He tries his best to ignore the stacks of boxes that the movers are set to come pick up within the hour. He also tries to ignore that they represent the beginning of life on his own and really, he has no one to blame but himself for it.

Abby's exasperated, her hands coming to rest on her hips and the gesture's become such a default that it doesn't even register as anything anymore. She's been exasperated with him for the better part of a year now and again, there's no one else to blame.

Letting go of Abby isn't the struggle he'd thought it would be and that's only because they let go of each other a long time ago. Separate beds, separate relationships with their son, separate lives. Two strangers, living in the same place, until she'd decided that enough was enough.

He wasn't shocked, exactly, when she asked him to move out. Taken aback, yes, but that was mostly because he'd been so wrapped up in writing the script the entire world could have been crumbling in front of him and he would've been oblivious to it.

So, while he completely understands her frustration and agrees that it's one hundred percent warranted, he also can't grasp why they have to bring lawyers and outside people into what they decide to do about arranging custody. He sure as hell isn't going to keep her from their child and he'd like to think, knowing the kind of person she is, Abby wouldn't either. He may have been a shit boyfriend, but he was a damn good father and she can't refute as much.

"No, we can't," she tugs at her short bob, newly shorn last week. It's ironic, the things he notices now that they're not together. "We need to have something legal...something that's binding. All of my friends have told me the same thing. It isn't that I don't trust you, c'mon, don't look at me like that. Having lawyers negotiate everything will just make it easier."

"Is it about child support? Because you know I'll make sure he has whatever he needs when he's not with me, Abby. He's never wanted for anything and that won't change."

"Of course not," she sighs, covering her eyes with the shield from a palm. "That isn't what this is about, Bradley. Stop making yourself a martyr, like I'm coming after you or I'm doing any of this to take Griffin away. I'm doing this to protect both of us... and Griff."

Once upon a time, they were going to get married and finally, he'd have the family he'd longed for. Life made sense back then.

It was an illusion. He and Abby worked far better as friends, as co-parents and even though there was love there for one another and an immense, indescribable love for the child they'd created, that was it, they weren't cut out for anything sustainable. Abby just had the courage and grace to admit it before he did.

That wasn't to say he didn't have regrets. On the contrary, he regretted how married he was to his career, that he didn't take the time to nurture his relationship before things took a turn south. His career only added to the distance between the two of them. He'd take off for a shoot and Abby would be left to hold down the fort and the resentment from both sides kept growing and growing until it choked the space of every room they were in together. He wanted what his parents had; a death til' you part love, the kind that seemed to only exist in movies. His mother had relayed, over the years, that his father hadn't been the easiest man to live with. He could be cantankerous and stubborn and they took turns driving each other crazy at various points in their marriage, but he also knew that she had loved him beyond scope. She'd never remarried, never so much as gone a few casual dates after he died and Bradley can still hear the wistfulness for the past whenever she talks about him.