His Champagne

Chapter 16: Neglect

"And what are you going to do if I don't?"

"... I wanted to have a talk with you later today, but it seems you were too occupied with other things." He eyed the messy living room then back at her, "I'll tell you this straight."

"What!?"

He dug through his bag and threw papers at her. "Look at them."

She crouched down and looked at the booklet.

Divorce Application Documents

"I..." She looked back up at him, "I thought you said you wanted to try to work this out!"

"And I thought you said our marriage was failing. It's time to be realistic now, Yuu."

"You can't fucking divorce me!" She grabbed his arm and pleaded, "What about the kids? What about my financial state? What about me? You can't!"

Dad picked up the papers and put them back in his bag, "We can discuss this in court."

"You're making a really bad decision!" Mom's eyes filled with tears, "You're going to leave me? After everything we've done together?"

"Don't fucking talk to me." He shoved her away and started to clean up the room, "You better sign them, or else the court is going to get messy."

Her mouth quivered as the tears went down her face, "You... You can't! I'm-"

...

Elias covered my ears from Mom's uncontrollable and loud sobbing as I hopped into the doorstep.

I looked up at him confused, "What's wrong?"

"Shh!" He frowned sadly, "Mom and Dad are having an important talk..."

My voice quieted down, "About what?"

"Don't worry about it." He said with tears in his eyes. "I'm sure it's just a small little argument."

I had no reaction towards Elias, but the pain settled in my throat as I saw him trying hard to protect me from the noise that caused him a permanent scar.

[BACK TO PRESENT]

"I see." Cleo clicked her pen against her chin with a concerned look, "I'm sorry, again."

I gulped a shrimp down, "It's fine. It was a really long time ago, and it affected him more than me, for sure."

"This is probably one of the biggest reasons why he had the urge to commit. But, I heard he was known to be a prodigy? Did he receive support?"

"Well, he was all cooped up in his room during the entire day. He would only come out for food or to help Mom out with taxes."

"Hm..." She looked over her notes, "What else?"

"She didn't really fight with Elias. But I think one thing that could have really affected him was my terrible arguments with mom."

Cleo's eyes glistened, "Tell me more."

"It would turn really abusive... I don't want to get into too much detail about that."