Divorced, In Love and Miserable

Sentimental Settlement

Logan couldn't quite remember the last month. He remembered saying things he never should have and holding back the phrases that would've ensured a happily ever after. He remembered the pain. And he remembered the innocence on his daughter's face when he told her he loved her and she didn't say it in return.

That scene had replayed endlessly on the hotel room walls and when he squeezed his eyes to make it go away, all he could hear was Alex's villainous tone, "No, it's up to my lawyer."

He had barely gotten up nor gone out during the last month. He couldn't contact his daughter without facing Alex, something he wasn't prepared for. And he couldn't go to his mother about it, after all, her husband - his father - had done the same thing. Of all the things in his life he regretted, this was it. Leaving Alex a single mother, and over a petty fight as well. Leaving his daughter, especially now that Dean had antagonised him with the fact that girls without fathers were more susceptible to dating 'father figures' and older men starting at a younger age than most as if they were compensating. And he had become his father, something he had sworn he would never do. He had even put it in his vows.

He tried to sober up that day. He had made a bad habit of drinking himself unconscious because alcohol numbed the pain, but to do that it had to numb his brain, and if he stayed half-conscious whilst drunk he would have called Alex, he couldn't handle that. Or he would've called his sister - who would've called his mother - or his mother, and he couldn't handle her disappointment. But today he was going to see Alex and one of her parents and possibly Sophia - but probably not - at the Arbitration hearing (most divorces don't go to court). And he wanted to look his best, not to show Alex that he didn't need her because right no he did, but to win him points with the arbitrator, who would ultimately decide on how often he saw his daughter. He showered and dressed in a suit, collecting the papers he needed for the hearing and his last bag of possessions before driving to hid newly purchased apartment.

It had been a weird experience, buying the apartment. He'd only ever done it once before, with Alex, he had been eighteen at the time and that apartment had quickly become theirs not just his. And this one was almost an exact replica.

And it was superfluously weird now, he had paid the delivery men extra to actually place the furniture where he wanted it, not just in the living room, so now the apartment looked like he had been living in it - instead of the hotel - for the last month.

He looked at the clock on the microwave in the kitchenette directly across from the front door. Its numbers in a glowing alien green read 12:30. He ran his hands through his hair taking deep breaths. It was now or never and he seriously wished for the latter or a genie to get rid of this mess. Time travel to when Alex loved him count as making someone fall in love, did it?

He locked up and got in his ca, steeling himself for the disapproving look he was going to get from whichever parent Alex decided to employ and for her poker face.

He met his lawyer - his dad's lawyer - at the building and they rode up in the elevator in silence. The doors opened after a lifetime of awkwardness and Logan could hear his little girl from all the way down the pristine white hall of pompous titled offices.

"I want daddy! I hate you! You made him leave!" Sophia was squirming her hand out of Alex's, both girls had their backs to him but Richard daddario saw him coming, smiling sadly in greeting.

Alex let go of her daughter's hand in shock, her words had hurt and Logan wanted to assure her that Sophia didn't know what she was talking about. But he didn't. Alex collapsed into the seat beside her, her head in her hands. "I can't do this, Dad, I can't," he could hear her voice catch in her throat from halfway down the hall, it echoed a bit, "I can't do this without him."