Ziad England Dean Halliday

I said I wanted a divorce. He laughed.He said don't be ridiculous.He said I could never leave him. He said I'd never find anyone better. I didn't argue. I went to the hospital to pay the b1ll. He followed me there.He pushed my father. The old man hit the cabinet and split his forehead open. He collapsed on the floor.He couldn't get up.He panicked. He said he didn't mean it. I didn't look at him.I helped my father up.I pulled out my phone and called his mother. I said I want a divorce.Right now! ...... I stood frozen where I was,a bitter ache spreading through my chest. At the door of the hospital room,my mother grabbed my arm,her eyes red."Deidre,let it go.Otto works hard." ❤️😍My father's voice was hoarse. "I won't get treatment.Don't bow your head in that family for my sake." I looked at the gray creeping into their hair,and all at once I felt how horribly wrong I'd been. They hadn't raised me so I could stand there with a swollen belly,begging. And certainly not so they'd be humiliated right along with me. I took the slip back and steadied them both. "Dad,Mom,this illness,we're treating it." "From now on,we don't beg anyone for anything." When I pushed open the study door with the divorce agreement I'd drawn up,Otto was sitting at the computer with headphones on. What was on the screen wasn't a work document. It was a horror movie. In the little window in the bottom corner,a girl was curled up on a couch hugging a throw pillow,her eyes rimmed red. The moment I pushed the door open,a scream came from his end of the call. "Otto!" He yanked off the headphones at once,and the tenderness on his face vanished completely the instant he saw me. He frowned,his voice turning cold. "Deidre,are you never going to let this go?" "You chased me all the way to the study and interrupted my work?" I stood in the doorway,my fingers curling tighter and tighter. So this was his work. He'd said the company was busy,projects piling up,that he didn't want to disturb my rest,which was why he slept in the study so often. I'd believed him. I was so afraid of wearing him out that I didn't dare wake him even when my legs cramped in the night. Afraid of annoying him,I'd brace myself against the wall and make it to the bathroom alone,even when morning sickness left my stomach burning with acid. But it turned out,all those nights I thought he was up late handling work, he was watching movies with another woman,soothing her fears,listening to her coo. Something seemed to lodge in my throat,and it was a long moment before I held out the document in my hand. "Take a look." Otto didn't even lift his head. "Just give the slip to Vivien Chavez." "She'll give you this month's household needs." Watching him take it all for granted,I suddenly found it absurd. I slammed the divorce agreement down on the desk with all my strength and said: "This is a divorce agreement." "Otto,we're getting divorced." "I paid for this home.I want my share back." For a moment,Otto's face went blank. But he quickly lowered his head and said: "Got it.You can go now." I bit my lip,still wanting to say something,but he clicked his tongue,impatient. "If you've got anything else,say it all now." I shook my head in silence and turned to go. The instant the door closed,I heard a girl's bright voice come through his phone. "Your wife's asking for a divorce!Aren't you going to go smooth things over?" Otto answered flatly. "I wouldn't lend her,so she's sulking.That's all." "She won't actually divorce me." I stood outside the door,and a cold settled over my chest. From the day I got pregnant,Otto had made me quit my job. It was only because his sperm count was low that we'd managed to have this baby at all,and nothing could be allowed to go wrong. He said he earned to provide for me and the baby,so I could rest and carry the pregnancy with peace of mind. I quit my job,going from the youngest partner at a law firm,a graduate of a top school, to Mrs.Gilbert,who waited in the mansion every day for her husband to come home. But I soon learned that"never short on anything"never once meant I was allowed to spend. When I bought prenatal vitamins,I had to send the link to Vivien. When I added a single nightgown,I had to ask Vivien first whether it was appropriate. When I went to the hospital for checkups,I had to keep even the cab receipts and wait for them all to be cleared at the end of the month. Once,I only wanted to buy my mother a scarf,and Vivien turned right around and reported it to Otto. That night,he sat across the dining table,his tone as flat as if he were scolding a child who didn't know any better. "Deidre,I had you quit so you could rest and carry the baby,not so you could learn from those small-minded people who marry in and then scheme every way they can to claw things out of my hands." I rushed to explain. "I didn't.That day was my mom's sixtieth birthday.You'd promised to come back with me to celebrate,but you had something come up,so I bought a scarf in your place—" Otto's face went cold. "In my place?" "Deidre,don't go using my name to curry favor with your family." "Today it's a scarf.Tomorrow will you have me buying them a house,a car?" "Since you've married into the Gilbert family,you should keep your distance from your old family.Better to cut it off clean now,before they drag you down,and me with you." That was the first time the thought of divorce stirred in me. But the next day,when Otto came home,he carried an elegant gift box. He wrapped his arms around me from behind,his voice low and rough. "Deidre,I'm sorry." "I spoke too harshly yesterday." "It's just that I've seen too many women throw themselves at me for that." "Leah swore up and down she loved me too,back then,and in the end she dumped me for better prospects." "She made me feel like there's hardly anyone in this world who truly loves me,the person.So the moment you bring up that sort of thing,I overreact." He buried his face in my shoulder,as though he really were worn down to the bone. The hurt in my heart suddenly turned into aching tenderness for him. After that,I lived carefully by his rules,trying to prove that what I loved was him,not his status. But later,while washing his clothes,I found a shopping receipt in the pocket of his coat. It listed the date Leah was returning to the country. It also listed the diamond bracelet he'd given her,worth a lot. And under that gift box he'd given me,tucked beneath it,was a promotional card. I stood in the laundry room a long time,holding that flimsy little card. That sincerity I'd been killing myself to prove,in his eyes,had been worth nothing from start to finish. The second time I thought about divorce came in that very moment. That night,my emotions had churned too hard,and in the middle of the night a pain gripped my belly,cold sweat breaking out layer after layer.