Changed my mind. Not coming over. Everything sorted itself out.
The reply came almost immediately.
Are you okay?
I’m great.
She put her phone away and looked out the window.
Life was going on.
People rushed to work.
Buses rattled at the stops.
Children laughed somewhere in the distance.
An ordinary day.
The first day of her new life.
Kiana smiled faintly, but genuinely.
The next morning after Darius left was surprisingly quiet.
Kiana woke up late, around ten, and immediately felt an unfamiliar lightness.
The apartment was empty.
The silence was so thick she could hear the pigeons cooing on the windowsill outside.
She got up and walked through the rooms.
Darius’s absence was palpable everywhere.
His jacket wasn’t hanging on the hook in the entryway.
His sneakers were gone from under the dresser.
His shaving gear wasn’t scattered in the bathroom.
Even the smell of his cologne had faded.
Kiana stopped by the living room window and looked down into the courtyard.
Kids were playing soccer between the garages.
A woman with a stroller walked slowly along the path.
An old man was walking a dachshund in a little sweater.
Ordinary life, in which her personal drama meant absolutely nothing.
She went back to the kitchen, brewed coffee in her small drip machine, and sat at the table.
She needed to think, plan, and decide what to do next.
File for divorce, change the locks just in case—though Darius had left the keys on the nightstand.
Erase five years of her life as if they hadn’t happened.
But for some reason, she didn’t want to think.
She just wanted to sit, drink hot coffee, and watch the clouds drift past the window over the low rooftops.
The phone rang around noon.
It was Shauna.
Kiana pressed the green button.
“Hello, Kiki. Why are you silent? What happened yesterday? You texted that everything worked out and then you disappeared.”
Kiana smiled.
“Sorry. I didn’t have the energy to explain.”
“Well, explain now. I’m going crazy with curiosity.”
Kiana sighed and began telling the story briefly, without unnecessary detail.
Shauna listened silently, occasionally gasping.
When Kiana finished, her friend exhaled slowly.
“Well, I’ll be… both the mother and the son. But now it doesn’t matter. The main thing is that it’s over.”
“It’s over.”
“All right, Kiki, are you filing for divorce?”
“Of course. I’ll go to the county clerk’s office next week to find out what I need.”
“And he won’t fight it?”
Kiana shook her head, although Shauna couldn’t see her.
“He won’t. He’s probably relieved I didn’t file a report on his mother. So we’ll settle everything quickly and quietly.”
“Listen, how are you feeling right now? You’re there all alone. You must be sad.”
Kiana thought about it.
“You know, surprisingly, I’m not sad. I feel relief—more like a weight lifted off my shoulders. For five years, I lived with the feeling that something was wrong. And now I realize it wasn’t me who was wrong. It was him and his mother.”
Shauna was silent for a moment, then said gently,
“Come over tonight. We’ll have tea and talk. It’s lonely sitting there by yourself.”
“Thanks. I’ll come.”
After the call, Kiana got dressed and went out.
She needed to walk, clear her head, and distract herself from her thoughts.
She wandered through familiar streets, looking at store windows and watching people.
Everything seemed new, as if she were looking at the world with fresh eyes.
She lingered in the bookstore for about twenty minutes, flipping through new releases, and bought a mystery novel and a collection of short stories.
She had been wanting to read something light and unstressful for a long time.
As she stepped outside, she bumped into her neighbor, Ms. Mabel.
Ms. Mabel lived one floor up and was known throughout the building for her love of gossip.
“Kiki, hello.”
Ms. Mabel beamed, pressing her hand to her chest.
“Haven’t seen you in a while. How are you? How’s your husband?”
Kiana smiled politely.
“Hello, Ms. Mabel. Everything’s fine, thank you.”
“Well, I saw Darius leaving with bags yesterday. Did you two have a fight?”
There it is, Kiana thought, holding back a sigh.
The gossip would spread through the building at the speed of light.
“We’re getting divorced,” she said calmly. “We just didn’t work out.”
Ms. Mabel gasped.
“Oh my goodness, and I thought you two were such a strong couple. Young and attractive.”
“It happens,” Kiana shrugged. “It’s nothing terrible. Life goes on.”
She said goodbye and walked on, feeling the neighbor’s curious gaze on her back.
By evening, the entire apartment building would know that the Jenkinses were divorcing.
Let them.
She didn’t care.
That evening, she did go to Shauna’s place.
Her friend greeted her with open arms, sat her down in the cozy kitchen of her small ranch house, and brewed aromatic thyme tea.
“Tell me everything from the beginning,” Shauna demanded, settling down opposite her. “And don’t even think about holding anything back.”
Kiana told the story, detailing every event without rushing.
Shauna listened, mouth agape, and at the end simply shook her head.
“Wow, you’re such a star, Kiki. I would have screamed and called the police immediately. And you calculated everything so calmly and outmaneuvered them.”
“I didn’t outmaneuver them. I just took precautions.”
“You’re a genius,” Shauna laughed.
“Three dollars on the card. That’s classic. I can just imagine how your mother‑in‑law reacted when they cornered her at the bank.”
Kiana smirked.
It was funny to picture.
“All right. You know, I’m not even angry at them,” she confessed. “More like pity. It’s a shame I wasted five years on a person capable of that.”
Shauna reached across the table and covered Kiana’s hand with hers.
“Don’t regret it. Five years isn’t forever. The important thing is that you realized it in time and left. Some people live with folks like that their whole lives and suffer.”
Kiana nodded.
Shauna was right.
The main thing was that she hadn’t closed her eyes, endured it, or forgiven him.
She had left.
And that was the right thing to do.
They stayed up until midnight talking about nonsense—work, vacation plans, the new series Shauna was binging.
Kiana listened, laughed, drank tea with honey, and felt the tension of the past few days gradually melt away.
She got home late.
