Safe Zone

{Matt’s Point of View}

Val sat at the bar in the kitchen, playing on her MacBook. River and Cash played on the floor with their toy cars. My mind was running crazy. I would be on my way to meet Katy in a little over an hour for the first time in three or so weeks.

Katy didn’t deserve any of this, but Val told me she would take the boys and be granted full custody because of infidelity. I knew I could probably fight it with money, but Val got half of my money because we had been together for so long. Plus she was there from the beginning with the band.

Several things went through my head to fight it, like if I could prove her and Jefferey had been seeing each other, but I couldn’t prove it.

“Hey, I’m going to go write a little, before I go run some errands. Alright?” I questioned to my estranged wife. Val looked up and nodded before going back to whatever she was doing. I was glad because usually she asked twenty-one questions, before I could leave the room.

Steadily, I walked down to my office and sat at my desk. I grabbed for my notepad and a pen. My brain played like a movie of Katy in Santa Monica as she walked along the beach looking for unique sea shells. I remember her face would light up and she’d hand it to me after she cleaned it in the water for me to hold so she could be on the hunt again. Then my mind began to create it’s on image of Katy and our child walking down the beach together by themselves. Tears began to fill my eyes.

The pen met the paper as I began to write to Katy…



My beloved Katy,

There’s no good way to tell you this, but we will never be able to see each other again. Val has threatened me with the boys that if I leave she will take me to court for infidelity. I can’t lose my boys. Thankfully, our child will never know who I am nor will I know who they are. The pain won’t affect our child like it would River and Cash. I love you with every being in my body, but it’s too late. I should’ve found you sooner, so I could love you longer. I never wanted this to end up this way. I’m sorry.

Love, Matt.



My heart is shaking as I walk through the large automatic door to the hospital. The plan was to meet with her in the beginning but now I walked to the front desk with flowers, an envelope, and a picture of us from high school that I kept in my locked office drawer.

The lady looked at me with a large smile, “How may I help you sir?” She asked.

“Can you get these to Katheryn Reed-Owens? She works with the babies,” I tried to specify. She looked at me and nodded.

“Oh yes. She is the sweetest. I’ll make sure she gets it all,” I felt assurance, once she confirmed that she knew who I was talking about.

“Thank you,” I patted the desk and turned around walking back through the doors I had just came in, never to return there again.





Matt still seemed like he was hiding something from me, but I tried to forget about it, even though I should investigate. He had only left twenty minutes ago, but was already back, so I figured it couldn’t be too detrimental.

“Hey that was fast,” I smiled trying to get the same from Matt.

“Yeah, had to drop something off at the post office. We have plans tonight?” He was monotone. It pained me to think that I couldn’t make him as happy as Katy did. But maybe it was because it was still fresh, or just the fact that he got caught.

Jeff had told me to just let him go and not pull the whole keeping the boys away from him thing. But I couldn’t lose Matt to Katy. She always won when we were kids. Katy was always the smarter, prettier, and funnier girl of our group.

“I think Brian and ‘Chelle are coming over. Maybe Johnny and Lacey,” I answered. Second guessing whether I did the right thing or not.

“Okay. I’m going to go clean out the pool and get the pit going. Bar-b-que sound good to you?” Matt finally smiled before opening the fridge.

“Yeah, whatever you want babe. I love you, Matty.” I winked as he turned around leaning up against our counter.

“I love you too, Val.” It looked genuine, but sounded fake. Hopefully I was doing the right thing.





“…I love you, Matty.” It was the last thing that I remember hearing and seeing Katy say in person. It didn’t feel the same when Val said it. Nothing in my body leaped or fluttered. It was a routine thing to us, with no meaning.

My confidence tried to build to tell Val I was leaving as I scrapped the nasty residue from my fire pit. But it quickly diminished as River came running outside wandering what I was doing.

“Daddy,” His innocent voice called.

“Bubba,” I chuckled copying him.

“What you doin’?” He asked walking over next to me.

“Cleaning this for tonight when people come over. What are you doing?” I copied once more. Looking down at the tiny brown haired boy.

“Bored,” I smiled as he shrugged and sighed. He had such an attitude already for a four-year-old.

“You know I love you, right?” I sat down and pulled him onto my lap.

“Yep,” He giggled as I tickled him. It made me void any thought of leaving, because I couldn’t let these moments go.