* Patrick's POV *
I walked into the livingroom as a flood of memories hit me. They weren't all pleasant.
"So....." I started "You decorated?"
"Of course I did, Patrick. Why would I want a reminder of you every day?"
Nice. I knew this would be delightful.
"Yeah" I responded, standing sheepishly in the center of the room. This needed to be simple.
"What do you want?" she asked me, crossing her arms and pouting. I sighed.
"I need to know if you signed" I tried to blurt out but she interrupted me
"What?!"
"If you signed the papers, Elise." I finished.
She glared at me, an icy cold stare that burned to the bone.
"After all this time... " she began. I looked to the ground as I fought to not fight back.
"You refused to answer my calls." I explained to her, in a whisper.
"No, Patrick. You refused to meet me for the papers!" she yelled as her eyes were getting wide with anger
"The lawyers told you, Elise. No contact. Just to sign them and mail them. What did you expect me to do?" I snapped. I wasn't going to let my ex-wife control me, or try to intimidate me.
"Pfff. You're pathetic." she said as she sat down and looked up. "Why do you care now?" she asked.
Uh-oh.
"It needs to be done. We're not married and we won't ever get that again if you kept the papers" I didn't want to reveal (Y/N's) existence.
"Who is she?" she got straight to the point
"What are you talking about?" I tried to hide my engagement ring, which I stupidly forgot to remove.
"I'm not stupid. Who is she?" she quizzed me again, still holding her ice stare.
"None of your business" I grumbled. "Now are you going to tell me if you signed and sent the papers, or do I have to get the lawyers involved again?" I didn't want to hang around any longer than I had to.
"Maybe. Maybe not" she sniggered, smug as ever.
"Elise!" I yelled, and she startled at the sound of my voice. "Stop being awkward!" I told her.
"Why? All you ever were with me was awkward!" she was opening an old wound. I stood there, silent, brazen and outraged that she was still holding on to something that was broken from the start.
She looked down and opened the drawer next to her sofa. She turned around and stood up, handing me a binder of paperwork. It was crisp and uncrinkled; it looked new.
I grabbed the binder and flicked through the pages.
I hung my head in panic and defeat.
"We're still married..." I groaned as I came across the page that had only my signature.
"Yup" she said softly as she grabbed the papers from me, and sat back down. She looked calm, but I knew her; and I knew it was the calm before the storm.
"Thanks alot, Elise. That's really fucking great." I stood still as I watched her aggressively sign the papers. She stood up and threw them back to me with a temper.
"I'm ready to let you go. So take these, fuck off, and never come back here ever again." she snarled, pointing to the door and crossing her arms.
"With pleasure!" I straightened out the papers and turned to the door. "Have a nice life" I barked and left the house of a thousand bittersweet memories that died many years ago. It felt great to know this was over, but a cloud of agitation and horror hovered over me as I knew the divorce wasn't complete.
Shit. Now I need to see my lawyer. How long is this going to take to finalise?
