Taletaps
"Let's divorce," he said quietly, so softly I almost didn't hear it.
I wasn't surprised. Deep down, I had known it was coming. Those quiet nights when he didn't come home, those long days when it felt like everything between us was slowly drifting apart. The only surprise was the timing-that he asked me a week before our third wedding anniversary.
I set my chopsticks down and looked at him. The meal had been eerily quiet, and now his words cut through the silence like glass shattering.
"I'm done. Thank you for the food."
I stood, pushing my chair back, and walked toward the living room.
I needed to escape-because if I stayed any longer, I knew I would beg him to take his words back.
After a while, he followed.
I was sitting on the sofa when he appeared, an envelope in his hand. Without a word, he sat across from me, placed it on the coffee table, and pushed it toward me. His movements were slow, deliberate.
I picked it up and slid the documents out.
Divorce Agreement.
My chest tightened.
I set the papers down, then rose and walked to our bedroom.
At my vanity, I pulled open the drawer and took out a pen-the same pen I had used to sign our wedding certificate.
My hand didn't even shake.
When I returned to the living room, I stopped mid-step.
He was crouched forward, elbows on his knees, his hands clutching his hair.
The last time I had seen him like that was in college-when he ended our four-year relationship.
And here he was again, in the same broken posture, ending our three-year marriage.
I moved past him and sat back down on the sofa.
I opened the documents and uncapped my pen.
But before the ink touched the paper, my hand froze.
"Am I that easy to dispose of?"