exit I didn't deserve
1175 Words
Nathan POV
I answered on the third ring. It was clear she wasn't going to stop.
"Keren, why do you keep calling?" I didn't bother softening my tone. I was still sitting with the weight of everything. The empty side of the bed. the ring on the table. The silence where Brooke's voice used to fill the house whether I wanted it to or not.
"Did I call at a bad time? I'm sorry, Nathan. I just couldn't wait to tell you. I got the job at the library." Her excitement came through the phone in a rush. "Thanks to you. I finally have something to do in this city. I'll be able to start paying you back for everything."
"You don't have to do that," I said. "You got into that situation because of me. The least I could do was make things easier for you."
"We should celebrate. My place tonight. I'll cook. Or we could go out, whichever you prefer."
I sighed. My eyes had drifted back to the papers on the bedside table without me deciding to look at them.
"Not today. I have things to get done."
"It's Saturday, Nathan. Come on. This is exactly the kind of thing weekends are for."
"I have to take the divorce papers to court. Get everything finalized."
A beat of silence. "Oh." Her voice dipped. "Does that mean you've both signed?"
"Yes."
"Then we have two things to celebrate." She pushed, bright again.
"I'm sorry, Keren. Not today. Maybe another time." I ended the call before she could work her way around me.
I showered, changed, and made myself eat breakfast even though I wasn't hungry. Then I took the papers and drove to the courthouse.
After I dropped them off, I sat in the car for a while before I could make myself drive to my parents' house. The whole way there I was running through how to say it. How to explain it in a way my father might actually hear. He was not going to take this well. He never takes anything well when it involves a plan he put in motion himself. But he needed to hear it from me. That much I was certain about.
When I turned into the driveway, I noticed a car I didn't recognize parked outside.
Then I saw them at the front entrance. My parents, standing together and a figure I knew immediately, even from behind.
Brooke.
My mother's eyes were wet. She had been crying. My father had his hand on Brooke's shoulder. and from the way they were both positioned, the conversation had been going on for a while. Brooke was facing away from me. I couldn't read her face.
She got here first.
I got out of the car slowly and walked toward them, catching the tail end of what my father was saying.
"Since you made the decision, I'm sure you thought it through. You're a smart girl. I've always known that." He paused. "This is mostly my fault. I should have let you both decide for yourselves rather than assuming I knew what was best."
I stopped walking.
She told them it was her decision. She let them believe she chose this. That she walked away on her own terms. She gave me an exit I hadn't earned and didn't deserve, and she did it without asking for anything in return. No blame, no scene, no making me look like what I actually was in all of this.
I didn't know what to do with that.
"Thank you, Uncle. Thank you, Aunty." Brooke's voice came out steady, just slightly uneven at the edges. "I'll take my leave now. Goodbye."
She turned and walked to her car. She passed within a few feet of me and did not look at me once. Not a glance. Not even the flicker of acknowledgment she used to give me even when she was furious. Just nothing. Like I was a part of the scenery she had already decided was behind her.
That had never happened before. In all the years I had known her, Brooke had never ignored me like that.
"Hey, Brooke." I said it before I thought about it. "I tried calling you."
"I changed my number."
She got into the car. The driver pulled away.
I stood at the entrance of my parents' house and watched until the car disappeared. I couldn't explain what I was feeling because I didn't have a word for it.
***A month later.***
"Miss Turner said thank you for the copy of the divorce certificate." My family's driver reported.
I leaned forward slightly. "What else?"
"That was it, sir." He paused. "Although, the Turner house seemed busy. I noticed boxes being carried out."
"Alright. Thank you."
He left, and I sat.
Boxes. She was packing. Or they were. Moving, maybe.
A month of silence. No calls, no messages, no secondhand updates through mutual connections. No retaliation, no attempts to reach me. nothing that resembled the Brooke I had known for the better part of my life. I had sent two texts the morning I woke up to an empty bed and had not heard back. She had changed her number without telling me what the new one was.
This was not the Brooke I knew. And I couldn't decide if that unsettled me. Because something was wrong, or because something had finally changed in her. something permanent and I was only now beginning to understand what that meant.
That Friday I made plans to meet Ryan and Matt at the club. We used to do it regularly, but with everyone taking on more at work and at home, the windows had gotten narrow. When they came up, we took them.
Before I left the office, a text came through from Keren.
I just got my first paycheck. I would love more than anything to go out together tonight. Please, Nathan. It's been a while and you're all I have here.
I read it twice. I had been keeping my distance from her since the divorce. Not deliberately, or not consciously, but the distance had grown regardless. She wasn't wrong that she had no one else in the city. That was partly my doing.
I felt guilty enough to text back and tell her to come along.
Ryan and Matt were already at the table when we arrived. Tucked into the quieter section off the dancefloor. We settled in. Drinks were ordered, and the club filled up around us the way it always did on Fridays. Noise building in layers until conversation required effort.
Matt had been watching Keren with a look I recognized. The look that meant something was clicking into place that he hadn't quite caught yet.
"Keren." It was Ryan who said it. "You look familiar to me. Have we met somewhere before?"
"I've been thinking the same thing," Matt said. "Since she sat down."
Keren laughed. a short, slightly too quick sound and reached for her drink.
I watched her face.
- Writer
