All Chapters of After the Divorce, I Returned to the Track: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

Three weeks earlier, Noah had told me he wanted to show off the sailboat he'd made at his birthday party. I called the club, rescheduled the sailing lesson, went over the safety checklist with the instructor again and again, and stayed up two nights fixing the little sailboat's mast from his sketch. That morning, when the bakery sent the wrong flavor, I drove through the rain to exchange the cake.A parent nearby asked with a smile, "Noah, isn't your mom going to be in the picture?""She doesn't even have a job," Noah shot back. "The photo's for the people who helped me with my project."A few quiet snickers came from the patio. I took half a step forward and looked at my son. "Do you remember who fixed the mast on that boat?"His smile froze. "Mom, I'm not blaming you for anything. You just helped me take care of some stuff.""Taking care of things is real work too," I said. "If you don't want to be in a picture with me, you can just tell me. But you can't say I didn't do anything."A

There was an old scar on my right wrist. Whenever the weather turned cold, it told me to grab a jacket before the forecast did.The day I sorted through my papers, I found a yellowed acceptance letter for a training camp in a storage box. In the corner of the envelope was a racetrack curve I'd doodled when I was 17. Back then, I'd stuffed it in my backpack, eager to tell my father over dinner that I'd earned a spot in an advanced rally racing program.But that dinner turned into a gathering of both families. Adam's grandfather, my father, and a whole group of company partners were all there. I was made to wear a white dress I could barely move in, and I was seated across from a young man four years older than me. My father poured me half a glass of grape juice and introduced him with a smile. "This is Adam. You two are going to be seeing a lot of each other."Adam didn't shake my hand. He barely glanced up. I could tell he didn't want to be at that dinner any more than I did. For the n

The little apartment I rented by the ocean had only one bedroom. The balcony door was old and creaked a little whenever the wind blew hard. The first time I looked at it, the landlord worried I'd struggle to adjust after living in a big house and rattled off a whole list of its flaws.From the window, I could see the road to the racetrack in the distance. "This one's fine."Moving was a lot more complicated than I'd imagined. The past 13 years of my life were scattered across countless drawers. Even things I'd bought myself were often mixed in with other people's stuff. I sorted my documents, my training records, my design contracts from before the marriage, and the photos that belonged only to me. Adam wanted to send his secretary to pack for me, but I said no."You can keep anything you want," he said. "You can have the house too. There's no need to move somewhere so far away.""The lawyers can work out how to split the property." I packed a stack of drawings into a box. "I'm not wal

Saturday morning, Adam dropped Noah off at the community library by the beach ten minutes early. Noah opened the car door and looked down the street behind me first, as if checking whether I'd really settled here."Mom, Dad told me last night you're not moving back."Adam stood by the car, faint dark circles under his eyes. He didn't deny it. He walked over and said, "I lied to him before and said you just went out to cool off for a while. That was wrong of me."Noah gripped the straps of his backpack. "Dad says it's not my fault. But if I'd let you be in the picture on my birthday, would you still have left?""I didn't leave because of one picture." I crouched down. "What you said really did hurt my feelings, and we can talk it through little by little. But a marriage is something grown-ups have to work out themselves, and this one is between your dad and me. It's not something you can fix by doing one thing."Noah thought about it for a moment, then reached out and took my hand. "So

For the school's October open house, Noah was going to present his observations of wind direction in the main hall. His science teacher cc'd me on an email saying both parents were welcome to come, with no need to reserve seats ahead of time.The night before, Noah showed me a brand-new set of sailing gear over video. "Dad bought it! It cost a lot." He was beaming."The gear looks great," I said. "But tomorrow's presentation is about tracking wind direction, not expensive equipment.""Of course I know that." He quickly changed the subject. "Are you coming?""Yes. You'll find me in the second row."The next day, I got there half an hour early. Adam, in a casual light gray sweater, was going over the data with Noah in front of his poster board. When it was Noah's turn to present, Adam didn't have an assistant hold the materials. He fumbled through the pages, hunting for the talking points they'd written down ahead of time."Dad, did you forget what we went over?" Noah complained under hi