Chapter 1

"Are you brain-dead?"

"You can't even do a problem this simple?"

My wife lecturing the kids. Standard summer routine.

I couldn't watch it anymore. "It's late. Let them get to bed first."

"Bed my ass. Until this problem gets into that head, nobody's sleeping."

"This is prep work, brand-new material. It takes a while to sink in." I looked at her. "How about I take over teaching them for a while?"

"You don't even know what you are. What are you going to teach with? You think you could get it through to them?"

"We're solving a problem here. Let's not make it a personal attack."

Her face darkened further. "Who are you yelling at? The kid takes after you. Can't do a single thing right."

"Enough." I slapped the desk.

"Who do you think you're shouting at?" Her temper flared up, and she grabbed the water cup and hurled it.

Everything on the desk went to the floor. She kicked the kid, went back into the bedroom, and slammed the door hard.

The two boys were shaking with fear. I stayed quiet for a long time. This wasn't the first fight over how to raise them.

Neither of us could change the other. I knew it was time to make a decision.

I looked at the kids. "If I divorced your mom, who would you go with?"

......

Divorce was the last step I ever wanted to take.

But twelve years into this marriage, she said she saw no hope in it.

The truth was, neither did I. I knew I couldn't keep dragging it out.

Once the kids gave me their answer, I took them to my mother's first. I meant to sit down and really talk it through with my wife.

The whole drive back, I kept going over these twelve years of marriage.

We'd never leaned on each other through anything, and going by the odds we never would. That settled it. I was going through with the divorce.

She still wasn't asleep in the bedroom.

"Have you calmed down? Let's talk." I looked at her.

"There's nothing to talk about." Her face was cold.

"When there's a problem, you solve it. We need to communicate." I tried again.

"Communicate what? What is there to communicate about?" She glared at me.

"Are you fit to be the safety net for these kids? Don't teach them properly now, and they'll end up as useless as you, is that it?"

I'd heard this kind of thing far too many times.

I don't know why, but her mind never went to solving the problem. It went to tearing me down, and even tearing down the kids.

I'd told her again and again that kids need to be affirmed, that it's how you build their confidence.

This time the words came up to my mouth and I swallowed them again. I knew there was no point saying any of it now.

Fine, forget the kids. I started taking a hard look at what was left between her and me.

I looked at her. "When two people are together, they're supposed to find the things that draw them to each other. You put me down as worthless, every last bit of me. Do I really not have a single good point?"

"Nothing in me you'd give any credit to?"

"No." Her answer came flat and immediate.

"Then let's get divorced."