The Divorce

12|Confession

"Thank you for letting me come over today," the man says to an older lady sitting across from him. "I've been wanting to talk to you for a while."

Diana, the woman's mother, forces a smile as she sat on her leather chair. "I've been wanting to talk to you too."

The man nervously sips his tea that was made by Diana and sets the teacup back down on the coaster.

He straightens his shoulders to seem more polite. "I wanted to talk to you about...your daughter."

Diana nods as if she knew he was going to talk about the woman. "Go on."

"She's been very possessive of me, ever since we became married. But she's a good person, she really is," he clears his throat. "I just feel scared to be around her sometimes. Has she always been like this, Diana? With her past boyfriends?"

Diana gets up from the chair and pulls out a photo album from a bookshelf.

She flips a few pages and stops right at the middle of the album.

Diana takes a seat next to the man on the couch and lays the album over the coffee table. "Here's a picture of my daughter and her ex-boyfriend, Miles." She points to a picture of the woman posing next to a guy with matte black hair. He was wearing a leather jacket. And he was holding his wife in his arms with a big smile as they stood next to a shiny red motorcycle.

"My wife told me she dated a guy with a motorcycle," the man says as he studied the old photograph. "She just never gave me any details of her relationship with Miles."

Diana closes the photo album. "She didn't share any details because their whole relationship was doomed from the start."

The man starts to feel nervous again. "What happened to them?"

Diana sighs and looks at the man with serious eyes. "If I tell you what happened between them, will you promise to not tell my daughter that I told you?"

The man nods. "I promise. I just want to know what happened."

"Very well," Diana says as she sits back down on her leather chair. "So your wife met Miles back in high school. She was a junior; Miles was a senior. They ended up breaking up once Miles graduated. He wanted to move out of state with his rock band. But my daughter wanted him to stay in North Carolina."

"So that's why they broke up? Because of distance?"

"Yes," Diana responds. "But they ended up getting back together. And that was Miles' biggest mistake."

The man's head starts to swirl. "Mistake? Did she do something bad to Miles?"

"Well physically no," Diana takes a sip from her tea. "But emotionally, yes."

She puts her teacup down on the little table beside her. "After one year of their breakup, my daughter called Miles while he was performing at a club in New Jersey. She asked if he wanted to get back together with her."

"And why did he agree?"

"Because my daughter told him she would ditch going to college and travel to New Jersey to be with him," Diana says dryly. "She was insane back then. Throwing her life away for some boy in a band."

"Was it common for her to make drastic decisions?" The man inquiries.

Diana laughs. "God, drastic was literally my daughter's middle name. She was always so unpredictable! I never knew which version I would get of her when she lived under our roof."

The man laughs in return. "Tell me about it."

"Anyways," Diana stops laughing and gets back to the story. "I told your wife that leaving home was a big mistake. She was only eighteen years old with no income or even a car. And she had no plans for her future since she tossed college out the window.

"But of course, she didn't listen to me—or her father. She packed up all of her things in one night and called a cab, using my credit card," Diana rolls her eyes at the flashback. "And off she went to the airport. Without even saying goodbye to any of us. Not even her own little sister."

"Wow," the man says. "That is insane."

"So I called my daughter once she made it to New Jersey. I begged her to come back home but she refused. She said she wanted to get married and have children with Miles. My daughter was so in love with this guy.

"But," Diana begins slowly. "I found out three weeks later that Miles was reported missing."

The man begins to sweat. "What? But you said she didn't hurt him, oh my god, did she?!"

Diana waves her hand at him. "Calm down, she didn't do anything to him. Miles is okay."

The man relaxes and takes a breath of relief. "Thank heavens. But he went missing? What the hell happened?"

"Language!" Diana scolds him.

"Sorry."

"Miles was reported missing for over a week. I thought he was dead. But my daughter told me they had a big argument and he left their apartment in a hurry. That's all she told me.

"The police found Miles in Texas at his cousin's trailer. He was safe, but he didn't want to be found."

"Why?" The man presses.

Diana crosses her arms over her chest. "I don't know, nobody knows except him and my daughter. The police questioned Miles, but Miles didn't say anything about why he left the state. All he wanted was a restraining order against my daughter."

The man furrows his brow. "But didn't the police needed a legitimate reason why to grant a restraining order?"

Diana begins tying her gray hair up into a bun as she spoke. "One of the cops was a good friend of Miles' cousin so he took care of the restraining order without any further details. The only thing Miles said was that my daughter was a crazy chick and that he just wanted her to stay away from him."

Diana shifts her eyes to the corner of the room with despair. "But I've always had a bad feeling that something terrible happened between them. And my daughter acted like nothing was ever wrong. She moved back home and never discussed Miles again after the restraining order was issued for three years."

"Why are telling me all of this?" The man asks. "I thought you hated me."

Diana takes the final sip from her tea. "I never hated you," she gets up from her chair and walks over to the front window and stares out into the starry night. "I just wanted you to know who you're married to."

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(Actor Christian Bale is an inspiration of what the man looks like in the story)