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ON THE EVENING OF MAY 27TH, the walker household was in chaos.
glass was strewn across the floor, picture frames were broken. it looked like a scene from a movie. what had began as a small argument, grew, and grew, and grew, until it erupted into something much larger.
matthew was home from work late again, and that came as a surprise to nobody. his dinner was cold, because everyone else had eaten, and that left him to be alone. jennifer was in her room, praying she had heard them wrong, and that none of it was actually true. max was in charlottes room, building a fort and making an effort to have some kind of relationship with his family since the accident. presley was taking a shower.
she stepped out of the bathroom, and heard the shouting, then dismissed it. she got dressed amidst the screaming, but ignored it. she opened the door to steal a pencil from max's room, and heard the accusations. this time, she listened.
glass shattered upon impact with the wall. the alcohol that had remained was now coating the wooden floor by the back door. presley stood on the stairs, still as a statue.
"you slept with her, and you ignored everything else in your life. you have children and a wife who love you, and you have a job and a house and a paycheck, and now you're going to throw that all away just because you couldn't control yourself around other women!" jennifer seethed.
"i still am in love with you, jen. i always will be." matthew whispered.
"you don't love me. you haven't loved me since the day you left the first time. you came back because you wanted to uphold your reputation. you don't love me. they were right! i was beyond stupid to allow you back into this family. they told me you were seeing other people, that you had racked up an impressive amount of lovers. i didn't believe them, of course. why would i believe in something that i knew was destined to break my heart, even if it all added up? even if all the evidence was right in front of me? but now i know, matthew. i know you don't love me. i can't believe i ever thought you did." she threw another bottle, glass shattering around matthew's feet.
he stood up abruptly, and for a quick moment, presley thought he was going to hit his wife. instead he pulled her in by the waist for a kiss. jennifer shoved him backwards, hard. matthew stumbled into the wall behind him, causing a picture to fall to the ground and shatter, and the back of his head to begin bleeding.
at this point, max and charlotte had gathered on the stairs with presley. max wrapped an arm around presley's chest, pulling her into him and charlotte. and there they stood huddled together. watching their entire lives unravel before their eyes, for the second time that year.
"shit jennifer! you're going to listen to them?! they don't know the first thing about me or this family. not a single one of them checked in when... with mandy. when we were going through a hard time, jennifer. you make me out to be this big bad guy in your head, acting like i haven't been back for years. acting like i haven't provided for this family. you try to find fault in every little thing i do, because you want me to be the enemy now. i regret my decision to leave in the first place! i came back because i wanted to fix things with you. i came back because i love you."
