Because of her
944 Words
Brooke POV
"Why do you have to do this, Nathan? Did I do something wrong?" The words come out broken, tangled in my sobs.
Nathan stands across from me with the papers in his hand. His face is unreadable. It always has been, even to me.
"Are you seriously asking me that, Brooke?" The surprise in his voice is genuine, and somehow that stings worse.
It is the next day. After finding the divorce papers the night before, I could not get much sleep. I lay in the dark telling myself it wasn't real, that I had misread something, that there was an explanation. Nathan did not come home at all. I knew exactly where he was.
"All I have done for the past three years was try to be the perfect wife to you," I say through tears. "Hoping that one day you would see it. That you would understand that I love you."
He groans in frustration.
"Besides, you're the one cheating. With her. With that... w***e, Keren." The name comes out with more disgust than I intend, but I mean every syllable of it.
"No." His voice sharpens. "That is something you made up in your head. I never cheated. You are the one acting crazy because of her presence."
Keren. The girl he brought home from college, the one he stood in front of his family with and said he intended to marry. I remember how that felt like the ground had shifted beneath me. I had spent years believing he would come back. That he was mine in some unspoken, certain way. And then he walked through that door with her.
His father had intervened. Both families had always wanted to strengthen their ties. They did everything in their power to make sure Nathan ended up with me instead. Jennifer was pushed out, no one would hire her, no one would give her place to rent. She left the city eventually. Nathan knew his father was behind it. And for a while, I told myself that meant something.
It didn't.
A few months ago, Nathan found a way to bring her back. He runs the family business now. His father has retired. And apparently that means he gets to rewrite everything.
"All I ever wanted was your love, Nathan." My voice cracks. My knees hit the floor before I even realize I have sunk down. "I love you. I can't live without you. Please... don't leave me."
I look up at him. I remember the boy who used to walk me home. who chased off every bully. who came near me. who sat beside my bed when I was sick and read stories aloud until I fell asleep. That Nathan existed. I know he did.
"No, Brooke." He shakes his head. He pulls his hand from my grip and steps back, putting distance between us like it costs him nothing. "All you have done is trap me in a loveless marriage for your own selfish interests. But that's over now. I don't need anyone telling me what to do anymore. I am the boss now."
I sit on the floor and let the sobs come. The divorce had been a recurring threat. especially this past year. But I never truly believed he would go through with it. Not all the way. Not like this. I kept thinking if I held on long enough, something would shift.
"Where is the Brooke I used to know?" he asks, narrowing those blue-green eyes at me. "The girl who was independent. Strong."
"I am still her," I say. I look up at him and try to make him see what I mean, try to put everything into my eyes. "You just choose not to see me. You only see her."
He scoffs. "Fight for my love? By confronting an innocent girl and threatening her? I don't know much about love, but I'm pretty sure that wasn't it."
"I had to do something. I had to protect my marriage."
He lets out a short, humorless laugh. "Why would you want to protect something that was never there? This is one-sided. I do not feel that way about you. I never have. So please stop making this harder than it needs to be and just sign the papers."
Then he is gone. Heavy footsteps down the hall, and the door slams so hard I feel it in my chest.
I stayed on the floor for a long moment.
He has already signed his name. Only mine is missing. One signature to make it real.
He says I have changed. That I have become someone unrecognizable. But I look at him and think. He is the one I no longer know. The boy who protected me. The same boy who made me laugh when I was miserable. The boy who smiled at my daydreams about us growing up and getting married. Where did he go? The man still provides for me. He never misses my birthday. He has never denied me anything material.
But his eyes are cold. Every gesture feels performed. Like he is working through a list of obligations and waiting to be done.
I wipe my face and get up off the floor. I walk to the bedside table and stand over the divorce papers.
Three years of marriage pass through my mind in fragments. the good moments I held onto, the cold silences I tried to fill, the versions of him I kept hoping would come back.
I stand there holding the papers, and I cannot bring myself to move. The flashback of our three years of marriage flashed before my eyes.
- Writer
