"Excuse the hell out of me, but do you mind repeating what you just said to me, Jacob? Because I think I heard you wrong." I turned out of the large window I had been looking out of for the last five minutes to look at my russet skinned husband of six years, who, fumbled into our bedroom blurting out some very upsetting and life changing news..
Jake lowered his gaze to the ground, and started kicking the ground like a little kid does when they are in trouble. "I slept with Leah."
"That is what I thought you said." I spat while I walked over to the closet and started to pull his clothes out, throwing some of them forcefully towards him, while my emotional tears started to stain my pale face. I grabbed one of his shoes, "SIX" and threw it at him, and it smacked him in the shoulder. I grabbed the matching shoe "YEARS" I tossed that one at him too, hitting him on the head.
"WASTED, all for my secretary?" I screamed at him, and in my rage I started shrieking and tossing wooden hangers at him.
"AGH!" I grunted with frustration. "Jacob I can't be near you right now, you need to be out of the house by tonight, other wise I am going end up slitting your throat. I would hate to have to explain to Austin why mommy killed daddy." I spat at him, and he visibly flinched.
Jake slowly stared gathering some clothes in his bag, pausing and looking up at me with a heart breaking frown upon his face. "But, I love you Bells." he all but whispered.
I was on my way out of the room and I had to stop, I couldn't even face him. " There is no way you could love me and fuck another woman. I am going out, you better be gone by the time I come home with Austin." I growled to him, slamming the front door on my way out.
I drove around the busy Seattle streets for nearly an hour, when a business caught my eye. Hale Divorce Attorney. I walked into the office and chatted with the lawyer, he was a very handsome southern gentleman with deep brown eyes and beautiful curly blonde hair. As I was leaving I grabbed his card and noticed a photo frame sitting right next to it. It had Mr. Hale, and a petite woman with short spunky hair, it looked like a wedding picture, and she looked like a ball of energy just from the picture.
"Thank you, Mr. Hale. I will be giving you a call within a few days to set an appointment." I stood to shake his hand.
"Your very welcome mam'" He drawled.
I turned to walk out of his office when something dawned on me. " You wouldn't happen to know Rosalie Hale, would you?" I asked casually.
A smile appeared across his face. "Yeah, she is my cousin. How do you know her?"
"She is my son's second grade teacher." I smiled at him, "Have a good day Mr. Hale."
As I sat in the school parking lot waiting for Austin to get out of Ms. Hale's class, I tried to think of how everything was going to pan out. I'd let Jake keep the house, it was too big for me and I had no attachment to it at all. I hoped he wasn't going to put up a huge fight over Austin, I am willing to work out a shared custody with him, he was an awful husband but a good father to Austin.
Things were never ideal for us, at least in my opinion. Jake had been my childhood best friend, and our families pressured us, or me, together. It felt comfortable to be with Jake, he was a good friend and generally a good guy, but things never felt right, I never felt 'head over heals' for him. Jake managed to convince me though at seventeen , that we belonged together, nine months later, our son Austin was born. Now I love my son to death, however, I felt like I was obligated to marry Jake, I've always been happy with Jake, but I always felt like I was settling with him. This is why I had no problem leaving him, it was my sign. It hurt to know I wasn't enough for him, but it gave me peace to know I was going to be free from an obligation to be with him.
"Hi mommy!" Austin greeted me as he opened the squeaky door to my rusty red truck. I looked at my son and let out a sigh, he was a perfect mixture of Jake and myself. Austin had my curly cherry brown hair, and my heart shaped face, but had the tanned skin, button nose, full lips, and deep black eyes of Jake.
"I sweetheart," I leaned over and placed a kiss on his little chubby cheek. "How was class today?" I turned the key, while he buckled up and I took off toward our house. "Good." He replied simply, while shoving his favorite veggie tales cd into the player. While he sang along to the tunes, I though about all the stuff I was going to have to do in the next few months, and I decided giving a call to Jake would be a good idea. We needed to figure out living arrangements, and when he would be aloud to see Austin. We pulled into the drive way, and thankfully Jake had left. Austin had noticed this as well.
"Where daddy go?" Austin asked, staring at Jake's parking spot like his car was going to appear out of thin air.
I sighed, "Daddy is having a sleep over with one of his friends baby, he wont be home tonight." I lied to him, not knowing how to tell my son that mommy and daddy are getting a divorce.
"Oh." he said simply as he walked into the house and immediately started playing with one of his hot wheels.
"Austin, you have a spelling test tomorrow. Please go and study before you play. I will be in shortly to quiz you on your words." I told him sternly, while he huffed a mumbled 'okay' at me.
I walked into the office/ library where I usually spent my time. All of the books in there I had spent my whole life collecting them, and I have read each and everyone of them. The only thing Jake owned that room was the very pristine desk, matching book shelf and décor, which he could keep. Everything in this house was decorated very extravagantly, not my tastes at all, Jake loved showing off his money, he some slightly vain tenancies, but that is how he always was.
I pulled out my phone and called his number, after the third ring he picked up. "Bella?" he said in a hopeful whisper.
"Jake, please don't get your hopes up, I simply can't do us anything, that was just the tip of the iceberg for me. I am calling to let you know, I already have a lawyer. You get the house and everything in it, the only things I will be taking with me are the books, my computer, my family heirlooms, and Austin." I paused to see if he had anything to say, after a second of silence I continued, "I am willing to work out a joined custody if you are nice, otherwise, I will go for full custody. I am about to start searching for an apartment. I want this to be easy Jake, so please do not make the situation any worse then it has to be." I breathed out.
There was a long silence on the phone, and I could hear Jake's saddened breaths on the other end. "I can't say this makes me happy Bells, bu.." He started to say but I cut him off
"If it doesn't make you happy, the you shouldn't go fucking random women when you are married." I spat at him.
I heard him growl in frustration at my outburst.
"Jake, you have NO RIGHT to be angry with me." I was not going to allow him that emotion, he was the one who betrayed me.
He let out a sigh, "I am sorry Bella, you are right. This is all my fault." he admitted.
"I'll make this as easy as you want Bella, but if you fight for full custody, I will fight you twice as hard." he warned.
"Well, lets hope we don't have to put Austin in the middle of this." I added solomly. "I'll be in touch with you when I make an appointment with the lawyer. I'll let you know when Austin and I move so you can come back to your house. Bye Jake." I hung up the phone before he could add anything else to the conversation.
I walked into the kitchen, to find my adorable son, eyebrows knit together, sitting at the kitchen table with a pencil in one hand, scribbling furiously while the other one is holding the paper down.
"Hey sweetie, you ready to be quizzed on your spelling?" I asked while I walked passed him, running my hand through his unruly curls.
Austin looked up at me with wide eyes, "Not yet momma! I need more time!" He said in a panic.
"Okay, okay let me know when your ready, I'll be getting dinner ready for us." I laughed as I kissed the top of his head.
"M'kay."Austin went back to furiously scribbling on the paper.
I walked over to the fridge and pulled out the hamburger meat I set out to thaw this morning, and started to brown it in the skillet, I didn't know what I was going to do with the meat this morning, but now I figure tacos would be a good and easy dinner for the two of us tonight. I finished browning the meat just as Austin was done studying his words, I quizzed him. He missed two of the ten words.
"alright baby, we will eat, but after we eat I want you to practice writing the words you missed ten times each, and I will quiz you on those last two words, and then we will be done, okay sweetie?" I said as I put the finishing touches on our dinner and made our plates.
"'Kay" he said as he eagerly took a big bite out of his taco.
The boy could eat a lot, but that was good, because he was growing and I love to cook. We finished our dinner, and I quizzed him some more, and released him to play when he got the two words correct.
"YAY!" He yelled as he went into the living room constructing ramps for his mass collection of hot wheel cars.
I chuckled and went to clean up, and put away left overs. It was still fairly early, only six o'clock, so I decided to make the call to Jasper to set an appointment this week. I got his answering machine, I expected that much, I left him a message and made a mental note to call him in the morning, when I got into the office. Working tomorrow is something I was not looking forward to. I had to face Leah, my brand new 19 year old secretary that my husband found the need to have sex with. I may feel happy to be free of Jake, but that doesn't mean it doesn't make me feel like I was not enough for him. It made me feel like I had been doing something wrong, and obviously I had if he felt the need to turn to her, and her young, very fit body. Granted I wasn't large by any means, I took care of myself and worked out to get rid of my baby fat, but I still had the very curvy figure of a woman who has given birth. I also had some stretch marks still that haven't gone away and that made me feel self conscious. I bet Leah's beautiful tan skin had no flaws. I sighed, the only thing I could do is make work a living hell for her and hope she quits, I had already planned on firing her, I had a new very promising person lined up for the position, but I didn't want to make it look like I was firing her for having an affair with my husband.
The night passed by quickly, and it was time to make Austin shower and get ready for bed. As I was tucking him in, he decided to ask me 'when will daddy be home?'
"Sweetie, that is a difficult question to answer. Your daddy and I are not getting along." I said.
Austin's bottom lip poked out and his eyes started to water "He isn't my daddy anymore?"
"No no no! Baby, no. He is still your daddy. We are just going to be sharing you now, you and I are going to move soon, But I promise you he will still be your daddy and I will always be your mommy."
He looked at me like I was crazy and I was talking gibberish. "I don't get it."
"It is difficult to explain, you will understand eventually sweetheart. For now though, I want you," I said as I gave him a playful grin, while grabbing his knee "To get some sleep you little goober" I started to tickle him.
Austin's little giggles filled the air and soon both of us where laughing so hard we were crying. I hugged him and kissed his head. "Okay baby, you need to get to bed. I love you so so so much." I said as I tucked the covers in all around him.
"I love you too mommy." I smiled, with his eyes slowly drooping. I flicked the light switch as I walked out of the room, leaving the monster truck night light glowing in the room.
