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For several long moments, Waverly and I stared at one another. I didn’t know why, but something told me that whatever she said next was going to be the thing that changed my whole life. I just never expected what it was going to be.
“What is it?” I questioned her.
“You still call the attorney, and you still take half of the shared funds,” she started. “But instead of changing the locks and kicking him out, you leave. You go and find a tiny cabin in the Teton mountains, and you heal your heart. You find a man who knows your worth and will always have your back.”
It was with those words that I’d been rendered speechless.
Leave.
Could I just pick up and go like that?
Tom had done it without a care for how it had affected me.
As awful as that was, he was still planning to come back home to me. What Waverly had suggested didn’t leave room for that. If I left, if I was gone when Tom got home, it would be permanent. I wasn’t a woman who’d make a decision like this and renege on it. I’d follow through.
That alone should have been enough to have me stopping to think. It should have forced me to seriously reconsider the first option Waverly offered.
Hell, I should have probably researched marriage counselors.
But I didn’t.
Instead, I chose option two, and I got out.
ONE
Dakota
Two months later
“I miss you so much.”
I did it.
I was here.
Cottonwood, Wyoming, was my new hometown.
At the advice and recommendation of my best friend, I filed for divorce from Tom and moved out of the home we’d shared together.
Of course, it wasn’t just Waverly’s advice that had pushed me to ending my marriage. For far too long, I’d been afraid to admit it to myself. I hadn’t wanted to be wrong about him. About us. But I realized it was better to be wrong, alone, and healing somewhere far away from him than it was to lie to myself, stay with him, and feel absolutely miserable every day of my life.
And there was no doubt it would have been worse if I had stayed.
Because Tom leaving me to spend the holiday alone was just the tip of the iceberg. He had been there for each and every interaction I’d had with his family from the very start of our relationship. He saw how it had gone from amicable, at best, to downright uncomfortable and awkward.
No matter that I hadn’t given them a reason not to hate me—something Tom had always insisted was the truth as well—and was always doing my best to be polite and kind, they never really made the attempts to get to know me.
They didn’t even hide it from Tom. And the worst part of all was that he never stood up to them and put a stop to it.
This past Christmas was just the straw that broke the camel’s back. I was setting myself up for a lifetime of lonely holidays if I didn’t change things. Granted, I was alone now, but at least it was by choice.
It surprised me just how quickly I was able to get divorced. I contacted an attorney, the paperwork was filed, and things ended swiftly.
As for Tom, it became evident rather quickly just how oblivious he was to my heartache. Either that or he was really good at hiding the truth.
It seemed impossible to me that he couldn’t know where things were for me. He had four years of my life. He knew what I wanted. I’d made him well aware of just what was important to me for my future.
I thought we were on the same page, but when he made no effort to make things better between his family and me, he left me with no other choice. I wasn’t going to be the only one fighting for this.
