She hadn’t even considered the fallout for their daily life. How could she have?
But there was Chloe…
She wouldn’t let this hurt her relationship with Chloe.
Finally, it was time. Time for her to get in her lame-ass SUV and make her very last road trip. From this town house she was renting to the place she had lived with Will for all those years. The place where they had raised their children. She drove slowly, taking in the familiar sites, consciously looking at everything through new eyes.
She drove slowly down their street. She hadn’t been on the street in four months.
The street that had been part of her every day. It felt weird to be here.
Slowly, very slowly, she turned into the driveway. Then she got out of her car, walked to the front door and unlocked it. She laughed when she walked in and saw it looked like they’d never left.
Like nothing had changed.
Everything had changed.
It was a good house.
It had been a good life.
But it wasn’t hers. Not anymore.
It had only taken one cruel summer to unravel all of it.
One cruel, devastating, necessary summer to make her see that what she’d thought was happiness had been her own stubbornness. Had been denial. Had been fear.
She was standing there in the center of this room that had been her life, when the light suddenly flicked on, and she turned to see Will standing in the doorway.
She waited. For a kick of excitement. For attraction. Something.
It was just Will. One thing that was strange was it was almost like it was just a Monday after a weekend away, not a whole summer. He was that familiar.
They hadn’t talked. Hadn’t texted. Not once, through this whole summer. She had no idea what he had done. What he had lived.
She looked down and noticed that on his left hand, he was wearing his wedding ring.
“Sam,” he said.
“Hi,” she returned.
“This is weird,” he said, stepping deeper into the living room.
“Yeah. It is.” She looked down at her own hand, which now felt resolutely bare.
Then she looked back up at him. “How was it?”
“It’s been kind of a long summer,” he said.
Not long enough.
She thought of Logan. Of each and every trip. Each car. Each mile down the road leaving this version of herself who had lived in this home further and further behind.
“I know what I want,” she said.
“I know you do. You were very clear about it from the beginning…”
“No,” she said, cutting him off. “I know what I want now.” She took a breath and dove right in, because she’d waited months. And she wasn’t waiting anymore. “Will, I want a divorce.”
