Chapter 5 Five

Divorce agreement

"Maybe pain is meant to shape us into stronger and more resilient versions of ourselves."

***

~ Elizabeth ~

DIVORCE AGREEMENT.

Two bold words. Two words that shattered my reality in seconds.

With trembling hands, I flipped through the first few pages, reading slowly-too slowly, as if dragging out the moment could somehow change its outcome. But when I reached the final page, my breath caught in my throat. Their signatures. Fresh ink. Finality.

"They're getting divorced?"

Tears spilled instantly as the truth sank in. My parents-my super-loving, always-there parents-were ending it?

Why?

Was surviving Katrina not enough? The hurricane had already stolen my home, my sense of identity-my twin. Wasn't that enough grief for one lifetime? And now, this? Another loss? Another wound?

My vision blurred as memories of that day came rushing back.

We'd had warnings-days, even weeks of them. But many of us in New Orleans hadn't believed it. Why would a hurricane just come out of nowhere and wipe out everything we'd ever known? And if it truly was coming, why couldn't it be stopped?

We had lingered. I wish we hadn't.

By the time we tried to escape, it was too late. A building collapsed on Eliezer, burying her beneath the rubble. I could still see it-too vividly, too clearly. The image stabbed at me, hot and relentless.

A sob rose in my throat, my chest tightening. I gasped for air. It felt like I was trapped between worlds-past and present, reality and nightmare. My pulse raced. My lungs burned.

"Beth?"

My father's voice.

"Liz, are you okay?" My mother's voice followed, urgent and worried.

I barely registered their hands on my shoulders. Mom bent down, lifting the papers from the floor. She glanced at them, then back at me.

"I'm sorry you had to find out this way."

I swallowed hard and nodded. But deep down, I knew-this was only the beginning.

---

"So?"

I sat in the living room, facing my parents. They sat apart, separated by an invisible but undeniable chasm.

It had been half an hour. I was calmer now, ready-no, desperate-for answers.

Dad exhaled, his voice low, hesitant. "When we lost Eliazar, it changed everything."

Her name cut through me like glass, but I held my composure.

"We came here, and I... I started drinking. Staying out late."

As if I could forget. As if I didn't remember those nights-Mom grieving one loss while suffering another, enduring the weight of my father's absence.

"I met someone, Bernita. And... we had-"

I didn't need him to finish. The words filled themselves in, each syllable twisting the knife deeper.

I squeezed my eyes shut, wishing, for once, that reality was fiction. But when I opened them and saw my mother's tear-streaked face, I knew-this was real. And it was worse than I had imagined.

"We never spoke again... until recently." Dad swallowed. "She called me. She was in labor."

A sickening dread curled in my stomach. "Labor?"

"She was pregnant, with twins."

Twins. My father had twin sons. The pride in his voice cracked something inside me.

Mom's sobs grew uncontrollable. She covered her face with trembling hands, and I-helpless, shattered, torn-watched as my world unraveled.

"She had a fiancé," Dad continued, "but he left when he found out about the pregnancy."

"Why didn't she...?" I hesitated, ashamed of the question forming on my lips. "Why didn't she consider abortion?"

I had always been against it. Always. But now, standing at the edge of this reality, I wasn't sure what I believed anymore.

"Because," Dad said softly, "her uterus lining is too thin. If she terminated, she'd never be able to carry another pregnancy to term."

His voice wavered, and for the first time, I saw him-really saw him. Not as the strong, steady father I once knew. But as a man-flawed, broken, and drowning in his own choices.

"And now?" My voice barely made it out.

His gaze hardened, a decision already made. "Her condition for me gaining custody of my sons is to marry her."

The words struck like a final blow. Sons. His sons. His family.

I turned to my mother, her shoulders shaking, her pain swallowing the room whole.

"Will you go to her?" I whispered.

Dad's voice was sure this time. Unwavering. "She is the mother of my children."

I clenched my fists. "And Mom?"

A pause.

"She can move on without me."

That was it. The last straw.

Without thinking, without grabbing my slippers, I bolted.

I ran.

Out the door. Through the gate. Into the street.

Away from the pain. Away from the reality I couldn't bear.

I had just stepped into the road when I saw it-headlights.

A bus.

Racing toward me.

I should run. I should move.

But my feet wouldn't obey.

I stood frozen.

Until-

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A/N: What do you think happens next? Let me know!