Chapter 5

Before we went to the courthouse, I had everything ready.

The house had long since been transferred to my parents.

My savings had been moved, batch by batch, into Arlene's account.

The company shares were held under a proxy agreement, so on paper I was clean, nothing left to my name.

By the time she signed, I owned nothing.

Even if she changed her mind and wanted a share of the assets, there'd be nothing to split.

I had it all arranged, neat and tight.

There weren't many people at the courthouse window.

Leona sat across from me in an old jacket, her face bare.

She looked much older than before.

Fine lines at the corners of her eyes, her hair dry and dull.

The clerk handed her the divorce agreement.

She took it and read it from start to finish.

Carefully, word by word.

I was getting impatient. "What's there to read? Just sign it."

She ignored me.

When she finished, she looked up and asked one thing.

"The kids are mine, right?"

"Yours," I said. "They're all yours."

She nodded.

Picked up the pen and signed her name.

No hesitation, no trembling. The strokes were steady.

When she was done, she set the pen down gently and stood to leave.

She didn't look back.

I sat there, watching her back disappear through the doorway, and suddenly a strange feeling came over me.

Something was off.

She should have been wailing, begging me to reconsider, refusing to let it go.

But there was none of that.

She just walked away, calm and quiet.

The clerk handed me the divorce certificate, and it took me a few seconds to reach for it.

A little red booklet, gold-stamped letters.

Just like that, it was over.

Outside the courthouse, the sunlight was harsh.

I lit a cigarette and smoked it standing on the steps.

She couldn't pull anything off.

That's what I told myself.

An orphan, no money, no power, no family behind her, dragging two dead weights along. What could she possibly pull off?

The next day, Leona moved out with the two boys.

She took nothing.

Only the kids' clothes and textbooks, and a few old suitcases.

I stood on the balcony and watched her flag down a taxi downstairs.

Each boy carried a backpack and climbed into the car obediently.

As the car pulled away, Guy turned and looked back through the rear window.

I didn't wave.

I felt no reluctance either.

Relief.

That was the truest thing I felt in that moment.

This burden was off my hands. I could finally start a new life.