Page 90 of The Ex Next Door
“We sold our home.”
“Then I’ll buy us another one, a better one. We can start over, you and me, and the kids. We—”
“What are youtalkingabout? We’re divorced. What happened to Shannon?”
“It didn’t work out, but that’s not important. I still love you, Amy, and David said you told him you still love me. This could work. We gave up too quickly. We didn’t really try to fix our family, and our kids deserve that. Weowethem that.”
The words were like bullets, each one hitting a major artery. Those wereherwords, said before their divorce, when it seemed Rob had lost his mind. She’d wanted to fight for them, to solve their issues. Rob had not. Except now he did, somehow. Now that she was finding her way to a new life, a new career, with a man she’d fallen in love with all over again,nowRob wanted to fix their family.
When she finally spoke, her words were salty. “I wanted to work on our marriage, but you didn’t.”
“Yes, but—”
“You said, and I quote, ‘I don’t want to be married anymore. You can’t fix that by staying married.’Yourwords.”
“I know, my mistake! I own it.”
“Honestly, I can’t help but think this has something to do with the fact that I’m dating Declan.”
Rob shook his head. “It’s not that. Even before he showed up, I was already regretting this divorce.”
“No, you weren’t. You signed up for the dating apps and rented a condo with a swimming pool. You were in your ‘bachelor era.’” She made air quotes.
“For about two minutes and then I slowly started to come to my senses.”
Those were words she wished he’d said about a year ago but they were too late now. He had to be joking that after putting her through everything she’d give him another chance.
“I don’t know what you expect from me now. We’re divorced. The kids are just starting to get used to the idea and now you want to come in and upset everything. Whenyouwanted the divorce, I didn’t make you the bad guy. I didn’t tell the kids the real reason we were divorcing is because you didn’t want to be married anymore. I hauled out all the platitudes, all the vagueness, followed all the advice when I really wanted to tell them, ‘Talk to your father! It’s his fault.’ No, I didn’t do that, and I’d appreciate it if you return the favor now.”
“You won’t evenconsiderit?”
She threw up her hands. “There’s nothing to consider!”
“If you won’t do it for me, Amy, do it for our kids. They both want us back together. They want things how they used to be. You’ve always put the kids first, which is what made you a fantastic mother.”
Below the belt. Way below.
Rob knew her far too well. He knew how best to exact the maximum amount of damage. He knew how and where to slice, and which veins bled the heaviest. She’d do anything for her children and Rob knew it well.
He studied the ground, regret pinching every feature on his face. “I couldn’t have picked a better mother for my children.”
“Stop. This isn’t fair. I’m not the one who wanted the divorce.”
“I know, because you understood better than I did that we belong together.”
“Not anymore, we don’t!”
“We could change that if you’ll give me a chance. I told the kids when we get back together, we’ll go on a vacation to Disneyland again.”
“You didwhat?”
So, he was going to make her the bad guy! “You told the children?”
“I had to be honest. The first thing I had to do was apologize to them for wrecking their home.”
“As usual, you forget to make these things age-appropriate.”
“I made the mess, I have to fix it.” Rob slowly walked to his car and swung open the driver’s side door. “Talk to the kids. And think about it. I’ll call you.”
