Sarah, I won’t tolerate humiliation,” Catherine said slowly. “I have a right to a peaceful life.”
“Peaceful?” Julia shot up sharply from her seat. “You call this peaceful? You’re tearing apart the bonds, destroying everything you two built over the years!”
“It wasn’t me who destroyed it, Julia,” Catherine shook her head. “It wasn’t me…”
“Well, so what? Almost all men cheat on the side! It’s just our nature. What’s so surprising about that?” Mark smiled.
Catherine slowly raised her eyes to him. Twenty-seven years of marriage. Two grown children. And now it turned out he had “that kind of nature,” just like all men. And there was supposedly nothing to be upset about.
“Are you seriously saying this right now?”
“What’s the big deal?” Mark lounged back in his chair, showing complete indifference. “It was just one mistake. One time!”
“Why did you suddenly decide to get a divorce over such nonsense? And destroy our family? Everything we built over the years. Over one single mistake!”
Catherine tried to understand when exactly her husband had become like this. Maybe he had always been this way, and she simply hadn’t wanted to notice, had closed her eyes to it. She was forty-nine years old. The children had grown up and lived on their own long ago. And she had no intention of enduring humiliation any longer.
“It’s not nonsense, Mark,” Catherine said quietly. “It’s betrayal. It’s a collapse.”
“I’m begging you! Drop the drama!” Mark shouted. “Betrayal, divorce! Do you even realize what you’re doing? You’re destroying the family because of your hurt feelings!”
“Me destroying it?” Catherine narrowed her eyes, unable to believe what she was hearing. “Hurt feelings? You got yourself a mistress, and I’m the one to blame?”
Mark jumped up and started pacing around the kitchen. Catherine watched him, though everything inside her tightened into a heavy knot.
She had made her decision a week earlier, when she accidentally saw the messages on his phone. She hadn’t been looking for anything on purpose—she had simply wanted to check the time—but there they were: photos, texts, plans for the weekend. Mark hadn’t even bothered to set a password.
“Catherine, let’s talk like adults,” Mark decided to change his approach. “I’m ready to admit I was wrong. I’m ready to change. But divorce is too much, you understand!”
“No, Mark,” Catherine shook her head. “I filed the papers yesterday.”
Mark first went pale, then turned red. Catherine observed this color change with detached curiosity. Before, she would have been frightened by his reaction, would have tried to smooth things over, to find a compromise. But not anymore.
“You’ve completely lost your mind!” Mark yelled across the entire kitchen. “What will the children say? What will the neighbors and friends say?”
“That doesn’t concern me anymore.”
“But it concerns me!” Mark moved closer to her. “Do you realize what position you’re putting me in? Everyone will find out, they’ll start whispering behind my back! Talking, gossiping!”
Catherine stood up and walked over to the window to put as much distance as possible between them. Outside, pedestrians hurried along on their business. An ordinary evening. And her life—the one she had built for nearly thirty years—was falling apart.
“Is that all that worries you?” Catherine asked without turning to face her husband. “What other people will think?”
“I’m worried about our family!”
“We don’t have a family anymore!” Catherine turned to face him. “You destroyed it when you brought another woman into our bed.”
Mark froze. Catherine noticed how his Adam’s apple twitched and how the muscles in his jaw tightened.
“How did you…”
“It doesn’t matter,” Catherine cut him off sharply. “I know everything, Mark. About the weekends at the cabin, about the hotel downtown, and about the gifts you bought with our money.”
Mark stayed silent. Catherine could see him frantically thinking about what else she might have discovered and how to wriggle out of it. A pathetic, disgusting sight. A grown man, a father of two, standing in the middle of the kitchen and inventing new lies.
“Catherine, listen,” Mark softened his tone. “I know this hurts you. I understand. But let’s not be hasty. Think about the children.”
“The children are adults,” Catherine returned to the table and sat down. “They have their own lives.”
“They’ll be upset to learn their parents are divorcing!”
“They’ll be upset to learn their father cheated on their mother,” Catherine replied without hesitation. “But I’m not going to tell them. Let them draw their own conclusions.”
…The next two weeks turned into a real nightmare for Catherine. Mark would shout, then cry, then beg, then threaten. One night he spent two hours telling her how she was ruining his life. He only left toward morning…
And on Saturday, her son Daniel came over.
He arrived at seven in the evening, bringing a cake and flowers. Catherine accepted the gifts with mild surprise and led her son into the living room. They talked for a long time about the weather, Daniel’s job, and his wife Natalie. The conversation felt strained and unnatural.
“Mom,” Daniel finally got to the point. “I spoke with Dad…”
Catherine set her cup down on the saucer. Here it was—the real reason for his visit. Not to see her or support her, but to find out the truth.
“What did he tell you?” Catherine asked.
“He said he made a mistake,” Daniel looked at her with an unreadable expression. “Just one single mistake in twenty-seven years. And that he’s ready to fix everything.”
Catherine looked carefully at her son. So this was how Mark had chosen to present the situation. One mistake. A random slip. A small sin that could be forgiven and forgotten.
“One mistake? That’s all? Daniel, what are you saying?!”
“Mom, Dad slipped up, yes,” Daniel grimaced at the thought. “But why get divorced right away? You’ve been together so many years! Dad swears it will never happen again.”
“What else does he say?” Catherine tried to keep herself together.
“That you don’t want to listen, that you don’t want to forgive him,” Daniel shrugged. “That you decided to destroy the family over one mistake of his.”
Catherine remained silent, digesting what she had heard. Mark had turned everything upside down. In his version of events, he was the poor victim of circumstances, and she was the cruel wife who couldn’t forgive.
“Daniel, your father cheated on me,” Catherine said, measuring every word. “It wasn’t just one slip. He cheated systematically. It went on for several months, maybe longer.”
“Mom, I don’t want to discuss this,” Daniel grimaced even harder. “I’m just asking you to think again. Maybe it’s not worth making decisions based on emotions?”
“Based on emotions?” Catherine raised an eyebrow. “Daniel, I’m forty-nine years old. I stopped making decisions based on emotions a long time ago.”
“Then why can’t you forgive Dad?”
“Because I don’t want to!” Catherine looked straight into her son’s eyes. “I have that right.”
Daniel stood up and walked over to the window. Catherine saw his tense back and tightly clenched fists. Her son was angry but trying to hide it. He had clearly come with a purpose and hadn’t expected his mother to resist.
“Mom, do you realize you’re putting us in an awkward position?” Daniel turned to her. “Me and Jessica? Now we have to choose between you two?”
“I’m not asking anyone to choose.”
“But that’s what you’re forcing us to do!” Daniel raised his voice, unable to hold back. “Dad says one thing, you say another. Who am I supposed to believe?”
“Believe whoever you want,” Catherine wearily rubbed her forehead with her fingers. “I’m not forcing you to do anything.”
Daniel grabbed his jacket and headed for the door. On the threshold he turned and threw out:
“Dad at least admits his mistakes. You don’t even want to talk properly.”
Catherine remained seated in the armchair, staring at the half-drunk tea and the untouched cake. A dull pain spread through her chest, but there were no tears. It was as if she had already cried them all out over the past two weeks.
…Three days later, Jessica came. Catherine already knew what to expect, yet she still hoped her daughter would prove wiser than her brother. In vain.
“Mom, I spoke with Dad,” Jessica sat down at the table across from her mother. “He’s really suffering.”
“Really?” Catherine didn’t hide the sarcasm in her voice.
“Mom, enough already,” Jessica frowned with displeasure. “You’re an adult. Couldn’t you have worked something out?”
“Jessica, what exactly were we supposed to work out?” Catherine looked directly at her daughter. “Your father cheated on me! I don’t want to live with him! It’s that simple.”
“Simple?” Jessica let out a short laugh. “You’re destroying the family, and you call that simple?”
“I’m not destroying anything. I’m leaving a man who betrayed me!”
“Mom, everyone makes mistakes!” Jessica looked at her mother with incomprehension. “Dad is sorry! He’s ready to do anything for you to forgive him! And you’re being stubborn!”
Jessica had always been reasonable and fair. Where did this blind defense of her father come from, this stubborn refusal to see the truth?
“Jessica, I won’t tolerate humiliation,” Catherine said slowly. “I have a right to a peaceful life.”
“Peaceful?” Julia shot up sharply. “You call this peaceful? You’re tearing apart the bonds, destroying everything you two built over the years!”
“It wasn’t me who destroyed it, Jessica,” Catherine shook her head. “It wasn’t me.”
“Of course not!” Jessica grabbed her bag from the back of the chair. “Dad is guilty, everyone around is guilty, but not you! You know what? I thought you were smarter than this!”
“Jessica, wait…”
“No, Mom,” Jessica was already standing at the door, ready to leave. “Call me when you come to your senses.”
The door slammed shut with a bang. Catherine sat staring into emptiness. Both children had taken their father’s side. Both had believed his version of events. To them, she had become the bad mother who couldn’t keep the family together.
The divorce was finalized two months later. Mark tried to drag out the process until the very end, but Catherine hired a good lawyer. The apartment was divided, the property split. Catherine moved into a small one-bedroom place and began a new life.
She tried to restore her relationship with the children. She called Daniel once a week and wrote to Jessica. The replies came rarely and sounded formal. On her birthday, both sent dry text messages. No one came for New Year’s.
In February, Mark’s sister Laura called. Catherine had always had a warm relationship with her, and they continued to communicate after the divorce.
“Catherine, I wanted to tell you,” Laura paused for a few seconds. “Yesterday was Mark’s birthday. The kids came over.”
Catherine gripped the phone tighter. So they visited their father. The father who had cheated. The father who had lied and manipulated. And she—the mother who had raised them—was left alone.
“Thank you for telling me, Laura,” Catherine whispered barely audibly.
“Catherine, I didn’t want to upset you,” Laura sighed heavily. “I just thought you should know.”
After the conversation, Catherine sat by the window for a long time. Outside, snow was falling, covering the city in a white blanket. It was beautiful, quiet, and carefree. Inside her, there was only emptiness.
Her grown, educated children had chosen the one who betrayed her. Not her—the woman who for twenty-seven years had washed, cooked, raised them, and sacrificed. Not her—the woman who refused to endure humiliation. They chose their father because he knew how to speak well and shift the blame.
Perhaps she had made mistakes somewhere in raising them. Maybe she had forgiven too much and said “no” too rarely. Maybe she had taught them that a woman must endure while a man could do anything.
Catherine stood up and walked over to the bookshelf. There stood an old photograph: her, Mark, little Daniel and Jessica. A happy family against the backdrop of the sea. Twenty years ago. A whole lifetime ago.
Catherine took down the photograph and put it away in a desk drawer. It was too late to change anything now. Life goes on, and she would live the rest of it the way she wanted. And the children—God would be their judge. If they came to their senses, good. If not, then it wasn’t meant to be…
