My Child Told Me To Get A Divorce

My father was stunned. He had not expected me to agree so decisively.

He rubbed his callous-covered hands nervously against his faded pants.

For a moment, his tired eyes looked lost before filling with hurt.

“Philip, are you really okay with this? Are you sure you can let go?” my mother asked through her tears.

She pointed at the large red-and-white woven bags in the corner.

“There are the free-range eggs that Aria’s mother... no, the Zimmer family, asked for. I stayed up all night making the baby’s shoes and blanket. You used to love Aria so much that you would’ve thrown your whole life away for her. Remember?”

Yes, just how much had I once loved my girlfriend, Aria Zimmer?

I loved her so much that I gave up the stable life of a government job back in my southern hometown. I stayed in the expensive capital city to struggle alongside her.

I loved her so much that even though I knew she was always under her mother’s thumb, I still deceived myself into thinking she was just being a good daughter.

I loved her so much that I was overjoyed when she told me she was pregnant. I actually believed that this baby would be the answer that made all our struggles worth it.

But the voice in my head told me not to marry her and not to let her go through with the pregnancy. The fear and despair in that voice felt too real. Recalling it made my hands tremble uncontrollably, and my heart ached with a dull pain.

I did not know if I had imagined it, but I knew Aria was using her pregnancy as leverage. She was also counting on my parents coming all this way to see me married off properly.

That was why she had the nerve to act so entitled and just walk all over my feelings like they did not matter.

“Mom, don’t feel bad about letting go.”

I took a deep breath, blinked back my tears, walked over, and picked up the heavy woven bag.

“She doesn’t deserve those free-range eggs you carried all the way from home. She sure doesn’t deserve those shoes you made either. I might’ve been blind before, but after what she said, I can see her for what she really is.”

When my father saw me picking up the bag, he quickly grabbed it from my hands. He hunched his back and hoisted it onto his shoulder.

“Philip, you’ve been working so hard lately. The doctor said your back can’t handle any heavy lifting! Let me take it. I’ve still got plenty of strength!”

My father, who had just spent over ten hours on a train riding the cheapest seats only to save money, could barely straighten his back. Yet there he was, still straining to protect me.

That sight finally broke me.

‘Aria, who do you think you are? My parents mean the world to me. How could you make them feel so worthless?’ I thought.

I took my parents away from that lavish restaurant and hailed a cab back to my one-bedroom rented apartment.

Aria had said that the new house needed to be aired out after the renovations. For the sake of her pregnancy, I had been living alone elsewhere.

I finally realized the truth. Jessica simply did not like me. She did not want me setting foot in that house before the wedding.

After settling my parents in, I watched their exhausted faces, worn out from the long journey and emotional strain, finally sink into sleep. Then, I walked to the balcony and slid the glass door shut behind me.

I gazed at the night scene outside the window.

I said inwardly, “Little one, thank you for trying so hard to come back and warn me. Don’t worry, I promise I will not let that tragedy happen again.

“Even if people call me cruel, even if they hate me for it, I’ll never let you be born into that nightmare.”

A gentle warmth spread through my chest, as if something were silently acknowledging my promise.

Just then, my phone screen, which I had set to silent, lit up frantically.

Aria had called.

I stared coldly at the screen. My heart used to race with excitement whenever I saw her name.

I did not pick up until the third ring, and even then, I did it slowly, on purpose.