Forever Yours

As we stood by my father and Rachel’s grave, as they were lowering them into the ditches, it was silent—until Matthew started to cry hysterically. It must’ve dawned on him at that moment, what actually happened to his parents. I picked him up and put him over my shoulder. I walked away with him and put him down on the hood of the car, he sat.
“Mommy and daddy not coming back?” He asked in a sniffle.
“No, Matty…they’re not coming back.”
His face fell and his eyes welled up with tears. I wrapped my arms and he held me tight.
“Why did they leave me?” he asked.
“They didn’t leave you, Matty. It was just time for them to go. Nobody knows why.”
“Are you gonna stay with me?”
“Of course, Matty. I’ll always be there for you.”

The gathering after the funeral was at Rachel’s mother’s house. Matt, Zack and I sat on the couch. Matt sat in between Zack and me, attached to my side. Soon, Rachel’s mom came over with a plate of food—sandwich, some baby carrots, and potato salad. She bent down and tried to hand it to Matt, but Matt didn’t want it.

“Matthew, you have to eat,” she said.
I took the plate. “Thank you,” I said. “I’ll save it for him.”
I could tell that Martha, Rachel’s mom, felt useless. I could tell that she wanted to help her grandson in some way, but knew that she couldn’t. I felt bad for her. I would be a mess if Matt needed help and I knew I couldn’t do anything to help him.
Jenna walked up a minute after Martha left. She sat on the arm of the couch. She put her arm around my shoulders.
“How are you doing, kid?”
“Not so good,” I answered.
“How’s our little man?” She asked.
“Not any better,” I said. “I think he’s tired. I should get him home.”

When we started to leave, of course, everyone wanted to say goodbye to him. This made him even more tired. Once I got him into his booster seat, he was completely knocked out. Once we got to my mom’s house, I carried him to his room and tucked him into bed. When I came back down, Zack was waiting for me on the couch. I sat next to him and buried myself into his body. He kissed me on the cheek.
“I love you,” he said.
“I love you, too,” I answered.
The doorbell rang, so I got up to answer it, but on the other end was Molly. She sneered at me and looked away for a second. She looked back at me and rolled her eyes.
“Is Zack here?”
“Yeah,” I said. “Come in.”
“Can he just come to the door?”
“Sure…” I looked at her and she looked at me. “Hold on.”
I walked back to the living room and sat back next to Zack.
“Who is it?” he asked.
“It’s…Molly.”
“Really?”
“Yeah,” I said.
“Shit…right…okay…I’ll, ah…I’ll be right back.”
He kissed me on the cheek right before he left. I stayed and tried not to listen, but I couldn’t help it. It wasn’t any use anyway. All I heard was yelling. Then I heard Zack tell her to keep it down because Matt was sleeping. My heart smiled when he said that.
A few minutes later, he came back. He put his arm around me and kissed me. He looked at me and I looked at him. He smiled.
“I love you,” he said.
“Zack, just tell me what happened.”
“She’s refusing the annulment,” he said.
“What? She wants to stay married?”
“No, she wants a divorce instead.”
“Don’t tell me she wants alimony or something?”
“I think she wants our house.”
“What did you say?”
“I said that I’d just sign it over and she didn’t need to go through a divorce to get it.”
“She wants more than that, Zack. She wants you to suffer.”
“I know,” he said. “But can you blame her?”
“No, I guess not.” I sighed. “What’re you gonna do?”
“I have to go through this divorce,” he said. “I just don’t wanna have to hire a lawyer. I don’t know if I can afford a divorce.”
“Well, we’ll figure something out.”
“My cousin Darren is an attorney, maybe he’ll do it for cheap. I think I’ll give him a call tomorrow morning.”
“Is he a divorce attorney?”
“I’m not sure—babe, I don’t really wanna talk about this right now. Let’s just sit here and be together, okay. I love you.”
“That’s the third time you said that today,” I said. “Not that I’m complaining.”
“I can’t say it enough, Rain. I’m so happy to be with you; that we’re finally together. I love you so much.”
“I love you, too Zack. I don’t know what I can say that could follow that, but…I love you. I always have.”