Every Road Leads Back to You

When One Door Closes, Another One Opens

"Betty, honey, hurry up! Polly's already in the car!" Alice called up the stairs to her five-year-old.

"Sorry, Mommy. I wanted to tell Caramel goodbye but she was under your bed." Betty walked down the stairs with a pout on her face. "I miss her when I'm at Daddy's."

Alice grabbed hold of the little girl's hand, slinging her miniature duffle bag over her shoulder and trying to ignore the way her daughter's innocent words felt like a knife through her heart.

"Caramel will be here when you get back, baby." Alice tried consoling her as she pulled the door open and ushered her to the car.

"I don't get why she can't come with us when we go to Daddy's. Or why Daddy can't just come here, then I wouldn't have to leave her." Betty complained.

Alice pulled the car door open with a sigh and dropped the bag in the floorboard, turning around to lift Betty up and into her car seat.

"Daddy can't have pets in his new apartment, honey." She smoothed a fly away from the little girl's ponytail down, letting her palm linger on her cheek for a moment. "And he can't stay here anymore because we aren't really getting along right now. I know it's hard for you to understand baby, but we both still love you and Polly so much." Alice added with a loving glance across the seat to her other daughter.

Betty nodded and Polly, far too wise her 6 years, gave her mother a smile and reached over for her little sister's hand. Alice kissed Betty's forehead and took a step back, swinging the car door shut before swiping at a tear that hadn't fallen yet.

The separation was proving to be difficult for them all. Alice and Hal had been so careful not to explicitly fight in front of the girls that they had been blindsided when they told them. But they hadn't been happy for years, and when Alice found out about Hal's ongoing affair with Penelope Blossom, she just couldn't pretend anymore. She couldn't live a lie for someone who didn't respect her. She wouldn't act like the perfect Northside stepford wife for someone who had spent their entire marriage trying to change her, not when he didn't have the decency to keep it in his pants.  But the girls didn't know any of that. And she would do everything she could to keep it that way. Hal was a lying cheat, but those little girls looked at him like he was a superhero. She couldn't take that away from them. 

They listened to the radio as they made the trek across town, to the small apartment complex just down the road from the Register. Alice winced as they passed the building. She hadn't been to work in weeks and it was taking a toll on her. She loved writing for the newspaper. It was the one unexpectedly good thing about marrying Hal. Journalism wasn't a career she'd ever had planned for herself. Hell, when she met Hal, she didn't really have any career plans. But journalism brought out a passion in her that she never expected. Still though, it was Hal's. It didn't matter that she wrote their most popular articles, the searing exposés that doubled sales after they took over from his parents. It was still his. She got the house. He got the Register.

Alice tore her attention from her lost job prospects and pulled into the apartment complex.

"Here we are, girlies." She turned around to see them unbuckling their car seats, eager to see their father. They were on the classic every-other-weekend schedule. Alice loved those little girls with all her heart, but doing it on her own was weighing on her. The weekends alone weren't much better though. Physically chasing after Betty and Polly had proven to be better than mentally chasing after her thoughts when she had enough time to think.
She stepped out of the car and pulled the door open for the girls, grabbing their bags and starting up the stairs. Hal opened the door before they even made it all the way up the steps. He must have seen them pull up, Alice thought.
The girls were running up the last few stairs and barreling towards the man as soon as they saw him.
"There my little princesses are!" He exclaimed as they wrapped their little arms around his legs. He chuckled, dropping down to their level. "I missed you both. Go run inside for me. I got some new things for your room."
The girls squealed excitedly and ran inside, to the room they shared on their weekends here. Hal stood up, looking at Alice awkwardly as she made her way to the door.
"Thanks for dropping them off." He said, taking their bags from her.
"No problem." Alice looked down at her feet. This was always the worst part. They could pretend for the girls, but when they weren't around to watch them, keeping everything in was so much harder. "I packed the Children's Tylenol just in case. I know you were out last time."
"I picked some up. Thank you though." Hal tried not to take offense to her comment, knowing she had doubts about his competency. Alice nodded.
"And please don't forget Betty's Adderall. She's impossible to get down for bed when she hasn't had it." She added, unable to help herself.
"It was one time, Alice. How many times are you going to remind me?" Hal snapped back.
"Once was enough to throw her sleep schedule off for a week, Hal. I'm not doing this right now, just don't forget." Alice waved him off and turned around to leave. She could hear him scoff but whatever he had wanted to say must've died on his lips.
That had been another issue with their marriage. Every little mistake that Hal made with the girls felt like the end of the world to Alice. She knew she spent too much of their marriage overreacting. But every time he was late for a feeding or put a diaper on backwards or dressed the girls in clothes that weren't warm enough, Hal's words echoed through her mind ironically.
"You'd be a terrible mother, Alice."
**
"Viv, honey, hurry up! If we're late for the meeting with the social worker, it's not going to look good!" FP called up the stairs.
"Coming, coming." Vivian came barreling down the stairs, her heels clicking furiously as she clipped her earring in. "I changed three times."
FP chuckled as he looked her up and down.
"I told you last night to go with the blue, which I see you did." He kissed her cheek as she rolled her eyes.
"I know, blue is a trustworthy color, counsellor. I don't doubt your lawyer skills. I just wanted to look like a mom." She assured him, pulling her coat on and grabbing her purse.
"You look like a mom, a hot mom, but a mom nonetheless." He smirked, watching the flash of insecurity across her face.
Her not being able to get pregnant had devastated them both, but where it made FP willing to consider other options, it left Vivian feeling inadequate. All their friends had babies. Girls she knew in high school had teenagers for god sakes and no jobs to take care of them. It didn't seem fair. Her and FP were good people, with good jobs. They had the means to give a child a wonderful life, and it didn't seem right that they couldn't do it on their own.
"Hey, it's going to be okay. They'd be crazy not to think we'd be amazing parents. Let's show that adoption agency how much we want a baby." He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and led her out the door, toward their future.