Her Ex-husband's Deception

“ …And then the three bears lived happily ever. The end.” I looked up from the storybook to find Jared asleep. I quietly tucked him in, turned on his nightlight and the baby monitor, then kissed him goodnight and left the room, leaving the door open a bit. Then I went to make dinner for myself. Jason hasn’t shown up or called in two weeks. As I plate my food, I can’t help but wonder why Jason would suddenly leave without a word.

“He’s not even picking up his calls.” I mutter to myself as I angrily dig into my pasta. Just then I hear a car pull up to the driveway and I rush to the window to take a peep of whose coming in. The sight of my husband casually strolling to the door both relieve and infuriates me.

“Jason! You had me worried sick about you! Where have you been? And why weren’t you taking your calls? You weren’t even at the company the other day. Did I do something wrong?” I asked all in one breath, feeling my eyes start to tear up from distress.

“I need you to sign these papers.” He says completely ignoring my questions as he hands me a brown envelope. “No. You can’t just disappear for two weeks and expect me to sign some papers for you the minute you arrive. Where did yo-”

“Sign the fucking papers already and stop talking.” He yells cutting me off and storming out of the living room. I faintly hear a door slam upstairs and the click of a lock but I’m too startled by Jason’s behavior to react in any way.

I take the envelope with me and clear the dishes from my dinner, then retreat to our room. I’m not surprised to find the room empty but my curiosity and exhaustion overrides my anger towards Jason character. I sit on our bed and stare at the envelope in my hands, a sudden sense of dread fills me as I open it and pull out the papers and stare blankly at the words written on them.

“Divorce papers?... What in the world is happeni-” I’m cut off by Jason stepping into the room. I watch him quietly as he heads to the closet, emerging after a while with a suitcase I’m pretty sure he’s packed with clothes. He doesn’t even spare me a glance as he makes a start towards the door.

“Divorce papers? Jason? Where in the world is this coming from? You’re not even saying anything about this… what about Jared?.. I- I don’t understand wha-…please Jason what going on?” I ask him, the walls suddenly blurring out. I faintly register my breathing coming out in harsh pants and the sound of our son crying through the monitor but I’m too shocked to go to him.

Jason sighs and drops the suitcase. “Listen, I want a divorce. You signed a contract on the day of our wedding alright?.. You give me a son and we can have a divorce whenever… plus I’m in love with someone else. I’ve always loved her even before we got married and I just want to be with her now… not you.” With that he pick up his suitcase and leaves the room. I know I signed a prenup, but a contract? I follow him down the stairs and out of the house, unable to speak a single word.

“I don’t remember a contract.” I finally say to him, my voice sounding so broken and I can’t help but cry more at how foreign my own voice sounds. He stands at the door of his car and stares at me for a while.

“I’ll have my lawyer send you a copy of the contract you signed. I’d like to have the divorce finalized before I have to leave the country next month. Have a good night Skylar.”

The slam of his car door is the only sound that resonates in my head as I stand in the driveway, divorce papers in hand and unable to stop my tears. When I finally find my way to Jared’s room, he has cried himself to sleep and I can’t help tearing up once again. That night I fall asleep on the floor of the nursery, dreading tomorrow and knowing deep down that my life was about to be torn apart.

Jason and I were college friends. We met in a library and after a while of hanging out, I had fallen in love with him but was too much of a coward to tell him. He was 6’2 and he wasn’t too huge in the muscle department. His eyes were the darkest shade of black I had ever seen it was like he could suck your soul in with a single glance. Overall, he was hot. He was nice to me and was very observant. He was smart and he knew what he wanted. He had his whole life planned out. That was probably what drew me in. Compared to him, I was a mess of a person. I was 5’5 with soft brown eyes and brown curly hair , a contrast to Jason’s midnight black curls. I was a hell of a procrastinator and I didn’t have a planned future.

While Jason studied business management, I studied child psychology. After graduation, our calls became less frequent and eventually we forgot about each other too busy trying to live our lives. My feelings never changed for him though. A couple of years later, when my stepparents tried to force me into a marriage with a man almost two times my age, Jason shows up to save me. Quite literally. I had managed to reject every rich man that showed the tiniest interest in me and my Dad had had enough. He created a scene, at a restaurant I would later find belongs to Jason, and Jason had walked in and charmed them. We got each other’s contact and kept in touch. Two months later and he saves me from my money hungry stepparents again. Then just weeks after, he proposes to marry me to stop my parents from marrying me off to someone I don’t love.

“You don’t have to do this. I know you want to help but you shouldn’t sacrifice your chance at finding love.” I had said to him when he proposed. We were having lunch at one of his restaurants.

“I’m ready to settle down and I don’t trust many people. Also, we have forever to get to love each other.” Was his reply. I was already running out of time and so I had agreed to marry him. My parents were overjoyed and basically rushed the marriage. We got married March, 2020 and by September I was a month pregnant with our child.

Our son, Jared was born in May, 2021 and ever since there had been a shift in our marriage. Jason had always been closed off but I just chucked it up to him learning to adjust to me and our marriage but when Jared came, Jason became much more stiff and cold.

We were currently in our third year of marriage and Jared had turned two a month ago and everyday he was growing up looking just like his father more and more. And now, I was getting divorced.