The Feud

Chapter 19

"I don't understand," Belle said. She looked quizzically at both her parents and scooted closer to her little sister. "You two are divorcing, but you're still going to live here together? Shouldn't you hate each other to divorce? That's what happened with the parents from Ava from my class."

"No, that's not how it is in our case. Every divorce is different," Emma started and felt sorry for her children. Ashley had stopped sobbing. It had broken her heart when Ashley had started crying and she was glad to see she was slowly calming down.

"Your father and I care a lot about each other, and we do love each other. But there are different types of love, you can love someone in a friendship way, or in a romantic way or because they're family. Killian and I love each other as friends." Emma tried to explain it as good as possible and she saw Belle slowly catching on.

Ashley, on the other hand, had a hard time following her. She was a year younger than her sister and sometimes that was more noticable than other times.

"Your mom and I find it very important that you two know that. And we want our family to be together for as long as possible," Killian said.

"And when won't it be possible?" Belle asked, half curious, half concerned.

"There could be a day that we find other people that we like, but no matter what happens, we'll love you two more than anything in the world. And we will do our best to make the situation bearable for all of us," Emma added and looked at the two children.

Ashley and Belle looked at each other and gave each other a hug. Emma and Killian exchanged a look, not really knowing what to do next but Ashley smiled.

"Can we play with our doll house again?" she inquired, but Emma waited until she gave her permission.

"Don't you have any questions?" Emma tried, but the girl shook her head and took off. Belle smiled helplessly and followed her little sister to the room.

Emma sighed softly and slumped in her chair. She didn't know whether they'd handled it the correct way. She was convinced that it would be better for the kids to grow up with a mother and father in one house, but maybe it made everything just more complex.

She wanted to handle the entire divorce perfectly and she wanted to make sure her daughters wouldn't get hurt by the situation, but she had absolutely no idea what exactly she was doing.

"Did we do this right?" Emma asked and looked at Killian, who shrugged. "We didn't give them false hope for us to get back together again, right?"

"I don't think there's such a big difference for them. For us it means seeking intimacy with others and perhaps telling Robin and Regina what we used to tell each other, but for them, it's probably just the same. The real shock will come once we announce we love other people," Killian said, "and I just hope we've prepared them a little bit for that."

~~~~

"Well, to us it sounds like you've arranged everything perfectly, honey." Emma sat in front of her parents and drank the last of her tea.

"I hope so. I just hope it doesn't confuse them," Emma said. She'd just told her parents how she and Killian had planned everything regarding the divorce. They were officially divorced now, on paper, and it had been two weeks since she'd told the kids.

Her parents had been overly supportive so far. They hadn't asked any questions regarding Regina, even though they were very curious to know whether Emma and she would start dating.

"I gotta go," Emma said and set her cup down. She smiled briefly at her parents, before she shoved her chair back.

"Don't you want to stay for one more cup of tea?" Mary Margaret asked, hoping that she would get something out of her daughter regarding the continuity of her dating life.