Page 39 of Feels Like Home

She lifts her bags off the bed, and if I were a gentleman I would take them for her. I am a gentleman, just not to her. Notanymore.

“You had to know things weren’tgreat.”

I follow her to the kitchen where she leans against the counter and twists the top off the bottle of water she brought in withher.

“Of course, I knew that. I didn’t realize it was because you felt like you were stuck in some suburbanhell.”

Her eyes flash, and she slams her bottle down on the counter, a few drops spilling out. “I never saidthat.”

“You didn’t haveto!”

I clench my fists tightly and take several deep breaths, trying to get control of my anger. It’s not me who I’m angry for. It’s our boys. Our boys, who are teenagers who need their mother, no matter how crappy she seems to haveturned.

“Don’t make this harder than it has to be. Besides, you have the boys. You have what you wanted. Why are you fighting this? Why do you care? You’ve already moved on withheranyway!”

“Harder than it has to be? You don’t know why I’m fighting this? And what the hell do you care if I’ve moved on or not. You moved on from me years ago.” She flinches at the tone of my voice, and I know she recognizes the anger that’s laced in it. “And what the hell do you know about my private life? I haven’t gone on a singledate.”

“That’s not what I hear.” Shesneers.

“You heard wrongthen.”

She watches me closely, probably to see if I’m lying to her. When she doesn’t get what she wants, she huffs and rolls hereyes.

“You told me you wanted the boys. I gave them to you. Why do you still want mearound?”

I slam my fists on the counter, making her jump. “Idon’t want you around, Heather! I want the boys to have their mother! How do you not understand that? Do you know how it feels for them? To feel like they’re worth nothing? That their own mother doesn’t want them? You abandonedthem!”

“I didn’tabandonthem.” She rolls her eyes. “I left them with theirfather.You know — you, in all your perfectglory?”

“Oh,please.”

“You know what? I almost didn’t do this, but now that you reminded me that I sograciouslygave you the boys…” She reaches around and pulls a tri-folded piece of paper out of her back pocket and hands it over tome.

I open it up, my eyes flitting over the words that I can hardly believe I’mreading.

I slowly lift my gaze to hers. She’s smirking, inspecting her nails like she doesn’t have a care in theworld.

“What the hell isthis?”

“Myshare.”

“Your.Share.”

“That’s right. My share. You didn’t think I was just going to walk away and not get anything out of being married to you, didyou?”

“My family’scabin?”

She shrugs hershoulders.

“You know how much the boys love itthere.”

“Then I guess you’ll have to find one to replaceit.”

I laugh, a bit hysterical and manic. When I finally get control of myself, I blow out a breath and scrub a hand down my face. “Holy shit. You’re the biggest bitch on theplanet.”

“Well that’s not very nice,” shechides.

“Nice? You lost the right to expect me to beniceto you long ago, you miserable, rotten, no good excuse of a humanbeing.”

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