Chapter 3

A few days of peace. It was glorious. Then, on Saturday afternoon, a car pulled into my driveway. Not Brenda' s SUV. It was the new Dodge Charger.

Out poured the whole clown car. Brenda' s mother, Sharon, looking like she was marching into battle. Kevin, smug behind a pair of cheap sunglasses. And his latest girlfriend, a girl who looked too young to be out of high school. Brenda trailed behind them, her face tear-stained and furious.

I met them at the door.

"We' re here to talk some sense into you, Jack," Sharon announced, pushing past me into my own living room.

"This is an intervention," Kevin added, trying to look serious. "You' re being selfish. You' re hurting Brenda."

I just laughed. "I' m being selfish? You' re the one who took five grand from a man who needs surgery."

"It was an investment in my brand!" Kevin insisted. "You don' t understand modern business."

"And you," I said, turning to Sharon. "You' ve been encouraging this for years. Telling her it' s her duty to fund his failures. You think I' m just a bank, not a husband or a father."

"You have a duty as a son-in-law!" Sharon screeched. "Kevin is a genius! He just needs a little support to get started!"

The argument went in circles. They called me a failure for "losing my job." They called me unsupportive. They said I was destroying my family. Through it all, Brenda just stood there, letting them fight her battle.

Then Kevin, in his infinite stupidity, made a mistake.

"This is exactly why Brenda was going to get you that other twenty thousand!" he blurted out, pointing at me. "She knows I' m on the verge of a breakthrough with this new NFT art venture! But now you' ve screwed everything up!"

The room went silent.

I looked at Brenda. Her face was ashen. She knew he' d messed up.

"Twenty thousand dollars?" I asked, my voice barely a whisper. "You were going to give him another twenty thousand dollars?"

I felt something inside me snap. The last thread of hope that my marriage could be saved, that Brenda could ever change, just disintegrated.

"Get out," I said.

"Now, Jack, let' s be reasonable," Sharon started.

"GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!" I roared. I took a step toward Kevin, who actually flinched and stepped behind his mother. "All of you. Now. Before I call the cops and have you arrested for trespassing."

They saw the look in my eyes. They knew I wasn' t bluffing.

They scrambled out the door, piling back into the Charger.

Brenda lingered at the doorway. "Jack, I..."

"I want a divorce, Brenda."

The words hung in the air between us. Her face crumpled.

"No," she whispered. "You don' t mean that."

"I' ve never meant anything more in my life. It' s over."

I closed the door in her face and locked it.