I make this as public and painful as possible. I let a judge decide how to divide our assets, and I guarantee you it won't be 50/50. I lean forward. But more than that, Rachel, I tell everyone the truth, not your sanitized version where you were confused and made mistakes. The real truth documented and proven.
I let our friends and family see exactly who you are and what you did. That's blackmail. That's consequences. You want to move forward with Marcus? Fine.
Sign the papers and in 6 months you'll be free to do whatever you want, but you don't get to do it on my dime or with my reputation. You don't get to paint yourself as the victim of a bad marriage when you're the one who destroyed a good one. She picked up a pen with a shaking hand. I really did love you. I still do.
Then you have a funny way of showing it. She signed four places, her signature getting messier each time, her tears smudging the ink. When she was done, she pushed the papers back to me. I'll be out of the house completely by next week, she said. I'll just take my clothes and personal things.
You can have everything else. I don't want everything else. I want to split things fairly. This isn't about punishing you, Rachel. It's about ending this, honestly.
She stood up, looked around the dining room like she was seeing it for the last time. For what it's worth, I really am sorry. You deserved better than this. Better than me? Yeah, I said.
I did. She walked to the door, paused with her hand on the knob. The question yesterday about the illness. There really isn't one. No, go then.
Why? Because I needed you to feel what I felt when I found out. The fear, the uncertainty, the sick dread of knowing something terrible had happened. And not knowing how bad it would be. I needed you to run to a doctor and beg for tests and sit in a waiting room imagining the worst.
Because that's what I did, Rachel. When I found out about you and Marcus, I went to a clinic and got tested for every STD they offer because you'd been sleeping with me and him and I had no idea what I've been exposed to. I met her eyes. I wanted you to feel that just for a few hours just to understand. She pulled it.
Did you? Were you? I'm clean, negative for everything. But I had to live with that fear for a week while I waited for results. And you should know what that feels like.