Chapter 5 Divorce

I decided to give this counseling thing a try for the sake of our marriage. We were going at least once a week and doing the exercises the marriage counselor had suggested. However I kept thinking to myself, can I really trust him again? What if he decides to have another office affair? Tell me what would you do in my situation? To answer my own question it is no. I don't think I will be able to trust him again.

So, I decided to make dinner one last time and set the table. I hear Gabriel come in, then I tell him to come into the dining room and sit down. Hmmm, something smells good honey. I made your favorite pot roast with vegetables. Oh! wow thank you honey. What is the occasion? Nothing really, I just wanted to talk to you. Okay, what is this about?

I have made a decision when it comes to our marriage. I could tell that he was getting nervous. What decision might that be? This marriage counseling is not working and I have been doing some thinking. Now I want a divorce.

“Can't we fix this, Maddie?” Don't call me that, you have no right to call me that nickname anymore. “Emily had come onto me first. How was I supposed to resist?” How were you supposed to resist? By looking at our wedding photo, you had on your desk and honoring our vows? And not thinking with your little pea sized brain. “You smashed our wedding photo.” You're darn right I did that, I was pissed off.

It's obvious that you did not care significantly about me, or you wouldn't have accomplished having an affair. “We are not getting a divorce.” “I will not allow that to happen.” “I'm sorry that my wanting to wait another year to have babies has ruined your plan.” Maddison, you can't do this to us, we love each other. “Do you love me at all, Gabriel?” If you truly had loved me, you would have considered that crucial moment, stopping the affair before it even began.

It is unclear to me why I had the affair, maybe it is because I felt lonely. How could you possibly have felt lonely when you had someone here to ease that loneliness? Gabriel, you could have come and talked to me about what you were feeling. “I loved it better when you used to call me Gabe. At least I know that when you did that you were happy.” Do I even look remotely happy now, Gabriel? No, you don't. I am not happy at all.

You seem not to understand that I am a man, and I was raised not to show my emotions. Don't give me that crap about being a man. Women love it when men show their emotions. It lets us know that you have feelings and that you fundamentally care. It makes you much stronger and more confident to know that men have feelings.

This divorce is still happening, whether you want it to or not. “Maddie, please, you don't have the necessary documents to divorce me.” I still love you. Why don't you want a divorce, Gabriel? Are you afraid that I will take you for everything that you have got? Remember, we both work and bought this house together. “It is not that, did you forget that you signed a prenuptial agreement?”

Oh, you mean this one right here. Well, this agreement states that I get half of everything if you have been unfaithful in our marriage. Gabriel, grabbed the paper, then tore it up piece by piece with his bare hands. “Now you will not be able to get anything.” I don't even know why you did that because essentially, you will be giving me half of everything. “I don't see how when I tore the agreement up.” Did it ever occur to you why it was so easy for you to tear up? No, it didn't occur to me how easy it was to rip. Let me enlighten you. The reason it was so easy to rip up was because it was a copy of our original agreement. “Where is the original?” I put the original in a safe deposit box in the bank.

“You're not going to get the original, either.”

Why?

Well, for one, you would have to have the passcode. Two, I had already sent the agreement to my Lawyer, just in case you didn't want to go through the divorce amicably. “Maddison, you know I love you.” “What's love got to do with it?” “Maddie, we just can't throw away five years of our marriage.” Why not, you did. We should try marriage counseling. You want to try marriage counseling. It's a little too late for that, don't you think?

In other words, shouldn't you have come to me and talked to me about counseling if you were having issues with our marriage? Then we could have discussed it in the counseling session, but no, you're too proud because you're a man, right? That is right, I am a man. Oh, that is rich coming from the person who threw five years of marriage down the drain. I am so done with you right now, and I'm going to my room now. You can see your way to the couch.

Two weeks later, we are in front of the judge since Gabriel did not want to go through with the divorce the easy way. It turned out that Gabriel had been hiding things from me, such as bank accounts, houses, and retirement money. It is no wonder he did not want to go through with it and was trying to keep me married to him.

I thought that I knew him throughout the fours of dating through college. It looks as if I was wrong about that too. I went up to Gabriel and confronted him about some of the things he was hiding. How could you hide all this from me, what were you thinking? Didn't think that I would find out, did you?

Well, guess what, while you were busy strutting around with your little toy? “Emily is not a toy, Maddison, she is a human being with feelings.” No, Gabriel, she doesn't have any feelings. If she had feelings, she would have understood that you were a married man and off-limits, so she's a homewrecker, along with you for not giving me a little more time with your impatient ass. Anyway, I hired a private investigator to see if you were trying to hide certain financial information from me, and it is good that he accomplished his job.

Now I cannot only get half of what was stated in our prenuptial agreement. I get half of everything you own, too. Maddison, can we discuss this somewhere else, people are staring at us? They are staring at us, Gabriel, they are staring at me, wondering how I could be so oblivious to someone having an affair. Someone who was supposed to love me with all their heart.

Excuse me, everyone, I just want to announce to those who that are staring at us why I am divorcing this man. You see, it is because of this young lady right here. She has decided that it would be good to sleep with a married man, my husband now she is pregnant with his child. “I am not a young lady, I am twenty years old.” A twenty-year-old who decided that she wanted to have an affair with my husband, who is nearing thirty as we speak right now.

There you have it ladies and gentlemen, a young woman, let me repeat a young woman who has not only destroyed a marriage but doesn't have any chance of getting anything from him because half of it is mine now according to Judge Harrison of Springfield County Courthouse. “Babe we need to go, she is humiliating us.”What is the matter, Emily? Afraid that you can't take the heat for your adulteress ways.”

“Maddison, leave her alone, she has nothing to do with what is going on between me and you.” That is where you are mistaken, Gabe. If it wasn't for her, you wouldn't be in the situation that you're in now.”Emily, can you go wait in the car, please?" Gabriel, I would rather not leave you here alone with your soon-to-be ex-wife. Don't worry, I will be fine, she and I need to talk a bit more. Alright, I will be waiting in the car. “Thank you, honey, I will be there in about ten minutes.”

Maddison, why did you have to put us on blast in front of everyone? I want people to know that you two are the ones who humiliated me and not the other way around. Do you know how it feels when our friends see me and ask me how I am doing? It sucks because I see the pity in their eyes, asking me how you could have not known he was having an affair? I looked at them and asked them, would you have known if it was your spouse? Then they just get quiet.

What if it were me who had an affair during our marriage with a young guy? Would you have been so forgiving? No, you would not have, especially if he was the one who got me pregnant. Tell me, Gabe, how would you have handled it? “I would be outraged if someone else got you pregnant besides me.” My point exactly. Don't stand there and expect me to be all lovey-dovey with that young woman.

Now I would need you to go home, pack your things, and move out of the house. That is, if Ms. Thing there can tear herself away from you for the next fifteen minutes wherever you have to drop her off. Just so you are knowledgeable once you are done packing your stuff. I am selling the house.