This time louder, accusing me of throwing away a marriage over one stupid moment. I told her calmly that the moment was not the kiss. The moment was the lie that came after it. Then I stepped aside and waited for her to walk out. Jessica stood there for another 10 seconds like she was still expecting me to change my mind.
When it became obvious that I wasn't going to argue anymore, the anger came back again. She grabbed the first suitcase and dragged it across the floor toward the hallway. While she was doing that, she kept talking. Not really to me. More like talking at me.
She said I was overreacting. She said people in real relationships work through mistakes. She said throwing her out proved I had always been controlling. I didn't respond. The whole point of packing her things beforehand was to avoid turning it into a long emotional debate.
I had already made the decision. She hauled the rest of the bags out to the hallway muttering under her breath the whole time. At one point she turned around and said I was going to regret this once I calmed down. I told her calmly that I was already calm. That seemed to irritate her more than anything else.
A few minutes later she made one last trip back inside to grab her purse and jacket. She stopped near the door and looked at me like she wanted the final word. Then she said something about how a normal husband would have laughed about a drunk birthday kiss instead of destroying his marriage over it. I told her the marriage was destroyed the moment she lied about it and tried to turn it around on me. After that she finally left.
The door closed behind her and the apartment went quiet. I locked the door, picked up the spare key she had left on the counter, and put it back in the drawer. Then I sat on the couch for a while. Not to second-guess anything. Just to let the situation settle in my head.
The next morning I started the practical steps. First thing I did was call a lawyer. The consultation was straightforward. I explained the situation, the living arrangement, and the fact that we didn't have children or shared property beyond normal household items. By the end of the meeting the paperwork process for filing for divorce had already started.
Once that was done, I blocked Jessica's number. I blocked her on every social media account I had. As far as I was concerned, the situation was finished. For the next 3 months, I did not hear a single word from her. Then one night around 9:30, someone started pounding on my front door.
The pounding on the door was aggressive enough that it immediately put me on alert. Not a normal knock. It sounded like someone was trying to break the door down. At first, I assumed it might be a neighbor with some kind of emergency. So, I walked over and looked through the peephole.