Page 83 of Until the Ribbon Breaks

She reaches over to the small table next to her chair and pulls a tissue from the box before dabbing her eyes.

“Your father and I ...” She begins before stalling.

“Dad?” I turn to him with apprehension as my stomach twists.

He finally looks at me with pitiful eyes as he takes my hand again, but mine remains limp as I feel my family ripping at the seams. My gut is telling me that their marriage is over, but I don’t want to believe it, and neither one of them are saying anything, which is only making this worse.

“Just tell me.”

He grips my hand a little tighter before crushing me. “Your mother and I have decided to get a divorce.”

A dagger spears through the center of my world, inflicting more than just pain, but a torrential avalanche of anger. My body burns with it, and the sounds of my mother weeping only dumps more gasoline onto the flames as I turn to her.

“I hate you,” I seethe. “This is all your fault.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“Harlow, please. This was both of us.”

I snap my head at my dad when he says this and rip my hand away. “Are you kidding me?”

“Marriage can be really tough.”

“Especially when you have a wife who’s screwing around on you.”

“Harlow!” he scolds.

“If we could all just take a moment,” Dr. Amberg interjects. “This is never an easy thing, and it is completely understandable that you’re upset, Harlow.”

Crossing my arms over my chest, I sit back with a jaw locked so tightly that my teeth just might crack as I breathe heavily in and out of my nose.

Dr. Amberg continues talking to me, yet every word is drowned out by my mom’s crying. It’s all I can hear, but her soulless tears mean nothing to me because this is all her fault, and when I can’t stand it any longer, I snap, “Shut up! Just stop crying because it means nothing! No one feels bad for you.”

“I’m not asking for you to feel bad for me. I feel enough of it for myself.”

“Good.”

My dad shifts toward me. “This was my choice, honey.”

“A choice you made because of what she did,” I tell him. “Why are trying to defend her? She cheated on you.”

“I’m not defending her, but she is still your mother, and we are still a family.”

“Yeah right.” Pressing my lips together, I stare down at the floor.

“I never meant for any of this to happen.”

“Stop talking, Mom.”

My throat thickens with sadness, and it’s taking everything in me to keep my tears back. I’m mad—I don’t want to cry on top of that, but my heart is breaking. Like, literally, breaking into razor-sharp pieces that slice me open as they crack off.

“Your mother and I love you very much.”

I shake my head, not because I don’t believe in his love but because I don’t believe in hers.

“And we are always going to be here for you. Nothing changes.”

“Everything changes.” I’m forced to grasp on to courage just to look at him, and when I do, I see his tears, which actually mean something to me. “Are you moving out?”

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