I owed them an explanation, but also knowing that I would have to repeat everything with the twins—but with Craig’s point of view too. No other option existed. I had to trust my two youngest with feelings I couldn’t fully explain because some of them weren’t well-defined by words.
Bella cried. Finn showed no emotion.
“Now what?” Bella asked, wiping her eyes.
“Well, I don’t know for sure. We might have to sell the house, but we won’t do it until you’ve moved to college.”
“So … you’ll what? Live together—divorced—until Bella graduates?” Finn asked, eyes squinted.
“No. One of us will move out. Maybe rent something close until she graduates.” I shook my head slowly. “Or maybe we’ll both stay in the house. I … I don’t know yet.”
Because the straw broke, and I didn’t have time to plan cleanup of the collateral damage.
“Well, it should probably be you who moves out since Dad paid for the house.”
I blinked at Finn several times. “Wow. I thought I taught you better than that.”
“Jeez, Finn. Don’t be such a sexist pig. Mom works. She just doesn’t get paid. But she contributes, and that means she should get half of everything.”
Finn’s head jerked back. “Whoa … half? For staying home?”
“Dude … you are such an idiot!” Bella barked at him.
“Bella … Finn …” I rubbed my temples. “Don’t. Please. Just … don’t. We will make sure your lives are disrupted as little as possible. But you’ll feel it, the tension. For that, I want to apologize. Bella, I’m incredibly sorry you had to hear us arguing earlier. Twenty-two years of marriage doesn’t end without hurt feelings and anger. We’ll work through this, and we’ll make sure you don’t feel like you have to take sides or worry about who lives where or who gets what. Okay?”
They nodded.
Everything would be okay. The hardest part was over. We’d tell the twins later. We’d work through the anger and make the divorce amicable for the kids. Craig and I would be bound for life by our four children. Eternity was a long time to hold a grudge. I refused to do it.
Later that day, the kids headed off to be with friends. I considered calling the twins, Chase and Linc (Lincoln), but I thought it would be best to let Craig in on the conversation after he cooled off.
However, he didn’t come home that night. Only one other time in our marriage did he leave and not come home until the next day. It was when we had a fight over him losing his temper with Bella when he caught her vaping late at night in the front yard with friends. She’d just turned fifteen, and I wasn’t happy either. We simply disagreed on the appropriateness of making a huge scene in the front yard, embarrassing her in front of her friends, and waking up the neighbors and all dogs in a mile radius.
“Stop telling me how to parent my child! I don’t tell you how to discipline the kids!”
I replied with, “Take a breath, Craig.”
He sped off in his truck, spent the night with Leroy, his buddy from college, and came back the next morning with his head hanging and a much calmer demeanor.
So I wasn’t surprised when the “ending our marriage” announcement didn’t bring him back home the same night.
“Are you worried?” my friend, Amie, asked as we chatted on the phone around one in the morning. We’d been best friends since fourth grade and still lived in the same town of Epperly. She was a chiropractor and my most trusted sounding board. Asking Craig for a divorce wasn’t a surprise to her, just the timing—on the cusp of Christmas.
“He’ll come home. He’s impulsive and his ego gets bruised easily, but he loves his kids. I know he’ll want to plead his case or make his feelings known to them. I just hope it doesn’t involve throwing me under the bus. We really need to be civil about this. I refuse to let this turn into a taking sides situation.”
“That’s very mature of you. I think a lot of couples try to be mature at first, but when it’s time to discuss splitting assets and sharing kids, things get messy. You remember how it was with Travis and me. And we only had a dog and some furniture to fight over.”
I sighed, leaning back on my bed and picking at the frayed hem of my long-sleeved tee. “I’m going to move out and let him stay here in