Chapter 12: Russell’s Last Try
Russell tried one more time six months later.
He showed up at the house without warning, standing on the porch with flowers and a nervous smile. Felix saw him from the window and froze.
I stepped outside and closed the door behind me.
“You shouldn’t be here,” I said.
“I want to see my son,” Russell answered. “I have rights.”
“You have supervised visitation that you stopped using,” I replied. “The court knows why.”
He looked at the flowers in his hand as if he had forgotten he was holding them.
“Jessica left. I lost the job. I have nothing, Maren. I made a mistake.”
I looked at the man who had taken five years of my life and given it to another woman in the house I had paid for.
“You had everything,” I said. “You chose to throw it away. Don’t come here again.”
He tried to argue. I closed the door and locked it.
Felix was waiting in the hallway.
“Is Daddy mad?”
I knelt down and hugged him.
“Daddy is sad because he made bad choices. But we’re okay. We have each other.”
May you like
He nodded and went back to his drawing.
Russell never came back.
