Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 56606 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 283(@200wpm)___ 226(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56606 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 283(@200wpm)___ 226(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
“I know this may sound crazy, but Anna I got married to be a couple. I don’t want a contract marriage where we are legally married so you have benefits and can be entitled to my paycheck. I have made peace with the fact that we shouldn’t be together anymore. It’s been a hard road to go down, but we have both changed. We have grown apart. And we need to cut ties, not come up with an agreement on how to stay together without being together. I’m only staying here for Hollis until we can work out a joint custody agreement. North Carolina is very clear cut in the law, if I live, I’m giving up my rights until there is a court order in place for me to get my belongings and see my son. If you would sign the papers my attorney drafted, I would move out and we could get this process going a little bit quicker. We don’t work, Anna.”
She blinks at me with this blank stare like I have eight heads. “I disagree.”
Well, there is no shock there. Of course she does. She wants this contract thing because it benefits her. She keeps me paying for her insurance, she keeps access to my bank account, I pay all the bills, and she can go about her life fucking around and doing whatever she wants. All while I take care of her. What’s in it for me? Not a damn thing.
“Anna, this is my day off. A day I have planned to spend with my son. I get up to find you took him to Maritza at work before telling me. I came here to pick up his swim stuff and have a brief conversation with you about taking him to Maritza when I’m literally in the fuckin’ yard. Since that is not the conversation you are willing to have, I’m done talking. He’s waiting. In case you haven’t figured it out, or I didn’t make it clear enough, I’m done having this conversation. Not today, not tomorrow, not ten years from now. There is no need to bring up a contract again.”
She throws her hands up wildly, “because the almighty Dillon Jacoby says he’s done the conversation is over. Well, no. I am not done talking to you and about this! You will stop and listen to me.”
Keeping my temper at bay is a greater challenge by the minute. “Anna,” I warn.
“Don’t you Anna me. Everything I try to say you twist it. Stop gaslighting me!”
The bare thread I’m holding onto is threatening to unravel. “Gaslighting you? Are you serious? The truth is not gaslighting, Anna.”
“You think you know, but you have no idea!” She screams.
“First, I have not raised my voice at you, you don’t raise your voice at me. You want to have a conversation that means talking like a rational adult. Second, what I know is you got a damn DUI and hired an attorney to make it go away. Somehow, you have roped this man into some convoluted idea to represent you in a divorce but not an actual divorce. I’m not the one who started this, you did. I told you I’m not giving up my son. I’ve been sleeping in the fucking truck. I don’t bother you. I pay all the damn bills. You get your hair done, nails done, go tanning, and whatever the fuck else you want. You don’t work and I don’t push the issue. I’ve had enough.”
“You’ve had enough! You brought me to this God forsaken town. You made me leave everything I knew back home and now I’m stuck here.”
Fury runs through me. “I told you I’d get you a ticket home.”
“Yeah, without my son.”
I shake my head. “That is not what the fuck I said.”
“How is telling me I have to fix my shit and do what you say in order for Hollis to go with me, not telling me I’m leaving without him.”
“Anna, you go out every fucking night. You are drunk more than you’re sober. You are not taking my son out of this town much less out of the state until I know you can be responsible for him. Hell, since you got comfortable with babysitters, they have had him more than you do.”
She glares at me. “It doesn’t matter if I have him. I make sure he’s taken care of, that’s what is important. He is always safe and always cared for.”
“He needs a fucking mother, Anna!”
“Until you carry a child inside of you and rip your body in two in order to bring that life into this world, you don’t get to tell me I’m not a mom.”
This is useless. I shake my head. “You don’t see it. And I’m done trying to make you get it. Today is it. I’m going to take Hollis out like I planned. When I get back, I’m going to pack my shit from the garage. Tomorrow I’ll find a new place for me and Hollis to live.”