Page 74 of Absolution

Chapter Twenty-One

Jackie

I was wrong.

I expected Kyle to drag it out. To make me fight for every dollar. But he doesn’t.

He gives me everything I ask for, the house, alimony until I get a job, child support even though we agreed on fifty-fifty custody. He doesn’t contest anything. Just hands it over.

The lawyers handled it all in record time. My attorney, Jeremy, looked almost disappointed, like he’d prepared for a battle that never came. You’d think I would be too. After all, I spent weeks building that folder, piece by damning piece. Every receipt, every email, every late-night charge like a brick in a wall of proof. I pieced it together like a war strategy.

And it stayed untouched.

He never even asked what I had.

Part of me wanted to throw it in his face, make him look at it, make him feel it. But another part, the quieter part, was relieved. Maybe I’d already won the moment I stopped needing him to lose.

Kyle’s been sleeping on the sofa in his home office. The kids have noticed something’s off, but they haven’t said much. Just those quiet glances they trade when we’re in the same room. We agreed not to tell them anything until everything was finalized. And now that it is, it’s time for the conversation I’ve been dreading most.

We picked Friday after school, so they’d have two days to process it before going back to school. Kyle isn’t moving out until Sunday.

The only thing he asked for in the divorce was time. He didn’t want to tell the kids he cheated. Not yet. He promised he would,just not now. We agreed we wouldn’t blame each other in front of them. That they didn’t need to carry our anger.

And strangely… I believe him.

I don’t know what changed, if it’s the therapy or if it finally hit him that I wasn’t going to stay just to play out the same story his parents did. I’m not his mother. I wasn’t going to rot quietly in a marriage while he withered beside me.

But Kyle’s different now.

Not magically healed. Not someone I want to fall back in love with. Just… different. More aware. More humble. Like he finally saw the wreckage he caused and didn’t look away.

We decide to sit the kids down in the living room. They’re all on the sofa, side by side, a tangle of knees and elbows, Jemma and Iris leaning just slightly into Levi like they always do when they’re unsure.

Kyle and I move the armchairs, dragging them to face the couch directly. United, even while separating.

We sit, shoulder to shoulder. The space between us tight but charged.

The silence stretches for a moment. I glance at Kyle. He gives me a small nod. So, I begin.

“We wanted to talk to you together,” I say carefully, “because this is important, and we didn’t want either of us to be the only one to say it.”

Jemma tilts her head. “Are we in trouble?”

Kyle gives a soft smile. “No, sweetheart. You’re not in trouble.”

I take a breath. “Your dad and I… we’ve decided we’re going to get a divorce.”

There’s a pause. That strange kind of stillness that only comes when something you half-feared, half-never-believed would happen suddenly does.

Iris immediately curls in on herself, knees to chest, blinking fast. Jemma just stares at me, her mouth parted.

Levi speaks first. His voice is quiet. “Is that why dad’s been sleeping in his office.”

My throat catches. He looks older than twelve when he says it. Like he's been bracing for this. Kyle nods.

“But…” he continues, voice tightening. “Can’t you just try again?”

Kyle shifts forward, elbows on knees. “We did try, bud. We tried for a long time. And we still care about each other, just not the same way.”

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