Chapter Three
Stephanie POV
An hour later, I woke Zoë from her nap. If I let her sleep too long, she wouldn't sleep tonight and we had a busy day tomorrow, filled with lots of changes to her routine. I knew I had to keep it together for her when I really just wanted to fall apart and take to my bed. Though the bed had to go. I could never sleep on that thing again. Who knows how many times that asshole husband of mine defiled our marriage bed.
At least I had a plan. Tomorrow I'd drop off Zoë for preschool, then go in to talk to my boss. I knew Sheila would give me the time off. She had gone through her own divorce in the past two years, and she was a nice woman anyway. Luckily, this wasn't the busy time of year for her as an accountant.
I set up Zoë with a colouring book and crayons on the coffee table while I turned on the Discovery Channel app on the TV. I tried not to let Zoë watch a lot of TV, but animal documentaries and educational shows were one of the few exceptions I made. I was lucky she didn't want to watch a lot of TV anyway, she preferred it to be background noise while playing with something or doing an art project.
I brought out a pad of paper and pencil, along with a cup of tea. I made a lot of lists, and my favourite way to do so was in an old-school analog way with a pen and paper. There's something so satisfying about crossing off an item from a to-do list. I wrote out everything I needed to do on the first page, then flipped it up and started a second list on the second page. On this list, I wrote out things like find shark of a lawyer, make sure to get child support and alimony, figure out if I should stay in New York.
I worked on my lists for another thirty minutes, then spent the following thirty minutes researching New York divorce laws. One thing I was relieved about was Richard insisting on keeping our finances separate, right from the beginning. We handled our own expenses and transferred a percentage of our money to a joint account used for household expenses like rent, insurance, and the like. He also insisted we keep any assets or debts separate, which meant I was not on the hook for his exorbitant student loans for university and law school, but it also meant when he started pulling in the big bucks, I wouldn't get part of that either. Money doesn't mean much to me, so it didn't bother me. As long as I wasn't homeless and starving, and Zoë had what she needed, I was fine. We had just paid our rent and our joint account had just enough to cover the few bills coming out in the next week or so, and I only had a couple of thousand in my own account. I didn't make a lot of money, but it was enough to cover our agreed-upon division of expenses and to save a little too.
With a sigh, I put my phone down and went into the kitchen to start making dinner, trying not to think of how much my entire life had changed during one single afternoon.
After I put Zoë to bed that night, I decided I'd sleep on the couch. It wasn't the most comfortable thing to sleep on, but I could handle it for one night. I made it up with sheets and a blanket, and I snagged my pillow from my bed. I lie down on the couch and turned on the Netflix app on my phone. I browsed through their offerings until I finally settled on watching stand-up comedy. I watched a special by a female comedian I had never heard of before, but she was hilarious and didn't talk about men or sex, so it was perfect for my mood.