Remembering Us

"Only A Week To Forget"

I gave her an hour. I know that damn redhead enough to know she'd be here in an hour.

So when insistent pounding occurs on my office door, I brace myself.

But, a short redhead, with an even shorter temper, is not who walks in.

Instead, with the aid of a cane, my father-in-law enters.

"John."

"Have you lost your damn mind?!"

"John," I stand from my seat. Motioning for him to sit but his glare only hardens. "I think-"

"I don't believe you think at all, boy." He yells, his grip on the cane tightening. "At least not today."

"John-" I, again, try to defend myself, but the old man isn't having it.

"You promised to show up and try everyday!" He throws my wedding vows at me while stabbing a finger into my chest. "You both made that promise and while Amelia has stayed true to her word, you're giving up."

"So she can be happy!" I yell back at him. "She isn't happy with me, I have no right to keep her from happiness. Besides, this Amelia isn't the one that made those promises, I have no right to hold her to them."

"You are not the man I thought your were." John spits causing me to flinch. "Here."
He reaches into his pocket, slamming whatever he's grabbed onto my desk- a check for three hundred dollars. "I plan to repay every cent I've become indebted to you for."

"John, be reasonable." Fire ignites in his blue eyes, the ones that gave Amelia's life.

"Do not tell me to be reasonable, boy." He roars and I find myself wanting to cower back. "You are the one giving up. I put my pride aside when I found out about your investments because I figured, in some way, you owed it to me. I was giving you my little girl. You were going to take care of her and I needed to accept that in turn you would take care of her family."

"I will still take care of her, your family as well, nothing is changing!" I hold the check out for him, but he refuses to take them.

"My family is not a charity case for some hotshot billionaire."

Ice fills my veins.

"I am still the father of your grandchildren."

"And hopefully they don't start giving up the second things get difficult."

"She didn't have to sign the papers, John." I gently remind both him and myself. She could have pushed the papers away. She could have refused to sign them. But she didn't. This is what she wants. "I just want her to be able to choose what she wants."

"I promised her, John. I promised to put her happiness first above all else."

"What makes you think you're doing that now?" His tone has gone soft, almost fatherly as he leans against his cane.

"I just know."

"Ryan, I need you."
-

Xander is the next one to show up at my office.

"If you love her, let her go." He says, removing his officers hat and holding it under his arm. "I said that only a few days ago and now you're divorcing Mom."

"Xander, it's not because of what you said." I assure him, my hand resting on his shoulder. "Although it did help me to see that I'm holding her back, I'm destroying her."

He jerks his arm away.

"Deciding not to pursue a relationship with your high school ex is a lot different that divorcing your wife of almost ten years, Dad." He says, panic lacing his voice.

"You're right." I say as softly as I can manage, like I'm talking to the young, scared Xander. "Which is why it wasn't what you said that made me decide this."

Skepticism fills his features before he shakes his head.

"If I try to win Audrey back will you not do this?"

"Xander."

"Please, Dad," His voice cracks as the panic returns. "I didn't mean to do this. I'll make her be with me if it'll keep you with Mom."

"Alexander, your mother still doesn't remember loving me and it's not fair to try to force it."

"But she will, eventually!" He insists like a small child.

"No, I don't think she will."

My not quitting. I'm accepting.

-

Meghan, always the one to make a dramatic entrance, is the third to find me as I walk toward my car.

"What the hell is wrong with you?"

"I don't need this, Meghan, I can't, not today." I feel as if the life has been drained from me. Yesterday I had been full of happiness and hope, now... I just feel lonely. "I heard her talking to Ryan and I just... I can't force her anymore."

"She tells you she loves you and you throw divorce papers at her?! And she wouldn't call Ryan, she has nothing to say to him."

Something inside me ignites, I've been fighting my emotions for so long, the dam finally breaks. No shatters.

"You should ask Amelia what she was doing last night." My voice trembles and I have to clear my throat. "I can promise you, she wasn't telling me she loved me."

The anger in Meghan's face dissipates as she sees wetness fall from my eye.

"Now," I quickly wipe the single tear then straighten my jacket. "I have a plane to catch."

I glance back at the woman who loves my wife almost as much as I do.

"Take care of her, please."

I don't wait for a response before climbing into my waiting limo.

-

It took me a week. A week staying locked in a Vegas hotel room and drinking myself into oblivion to forget my sorrows. Only a week to forget my wife.

'Only a week' my mind screams in agony as it registers two things. The first being the missing wedding band on my left hand. The second being the bare skin of a woman in bed next to me.

***
It had to happen. This has been the plan from the beginning.