Page 4 of Fierce-Zander

“Because it’s easier to agree than to speak up?” she asked.

“Yes,” Katelyn said. “I guess in the end I always lose, so why bother?”

“You agreed to come to counseling and it’s my job to get him to see your side of things at the same time for you to understand why he’s the way he is.”

“I know why Zachery is the way he is,” Katelyn said.

She listened to Katelyn repeat Zachery’s history of moving around so much in his life and never feeling as if he had any control. When he was old enough to make his own decisions in life, he pretty much did it all.

It wasn’t right or wrong and not for Regan to judge.

Some women liked to be taken care of like that.

Katelyn didn’t appear to be one of those women. It was her job to urge her client to say that.

“Let me ask you this,” she said. “If after the next three sessions, your opinion hasn’t changed, do you still want to have a trial separation from Zachery?”

“I want a divorce,” Katelyn said. “I’m afraid if I do a trial separation then he will talk me into staying and I can’t lose any more of myself. I don’t like who I am anymore. I never used to be this way. I don’t have friends that Zachery doesn’t know and has to meet.”

She hadn’t known that. “Does Zachery not let you go out with friends?”

“He does,” Katelyn said. “At times. But he wants to know who they are and what we are doing. I’ve never given him any reason not to trust me.”

“Have you had that conversation with him?” she asked.

“I’ve tried. But he won’t listen to me,” Katelyn said.

“We can talk about it today if you like,” she said.

“Sure,” Katelyn said.

Which was her client giving in. “But you’d rather not?” she asked. Katelyn shrugged. “Do you want to have a divorce and not continue with these sessions? It’s okay to say that. You’re here to talk these things out. People come to couples therapy for a number of reasons. Most times to save a relationship, but other times it’s to ease into a separation and the best way to maneuver it.”

“Really?” Katelyn asked.

“Yes. I urged this one-on-one session because I need to know what you want. This is the first you are speaking up. I can help you get that point across, but I need you to say it. I’ll be facilitating it, but it has to come from you.”

Katelyn took a deep breath. “Okay. I can’t do this anymore. I’m dreading these sessions with him. I just need to be away. I need to move on. I’m ill all the time waiting for him to come home and smother me. I just don’t love him anymore.”

She let Katelyn cry a little in her office, then they talked about the best way to approach it when Zachery showed up for their couple’s session.

But thirty minutes later, Katelyn wasn’t saying a word and Zachery was doing all the talking like always.

“I made reservations at Katelyn’s favorite restaurant for tomorrow night. I know she’s been working hard and deserves a break,” Zachery said.

She looked at Katelyn. “How do you feel hearing that?” she asked.

Katelyn forced a smile. “It sounds great.”

It went like this for another fifteen minutes without her client standing up for herself. It wasn’t her job to tell Zachery what Katelyn had said to her in confidence and she’d explained that prior to Zachery showing up.

When the session was done, Katelyn left with Zachery, him grabbing her hand and threading their fingers together. “Thanks so much, Dr. Regan,” Zachery said. “I think we are making so much progress.”

She forced a smile and nodded. Katelyn mouthed “sorry” to her and they left.

There was no reason Regan needed the apology other than her client would come here next week and either say the same things in private but then keep quiet with her husband, or change her tune.

Her job was to listen and point out what she saw.

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