A Storm Is Brewing

Midnight Visit

After the birthday visit, Leah made a fresh demand in our divorce proceedings. She asked that the kids be allowed to travel with her when she played matches abroad, including when she would attend England camps, whether that be in London or Australia. It made no sense. She knew I was never going to agree to that, and I couldn't understand what was actually her game plan here.

Amanda was just as flummoxed as I was; she tried to convince Leah that her request was ridiculous, but each time she tried, Leah would shut her down, telling her she didn't know what she was talking about.

She started sending Amanda to pick up the kids, refusing to take my calls, and continuing on with her life without me. Finally, almost six weeks later, a middle-of-the night knock on the door told me everything I needed to know.

I wasn't asleep when it happened; sleep wasn't really my friend right now. Most of my nights were spent trying to distract myself from the loneliness of the house when the kids were away or the feeling of the empty side of the bed where Leah once lay.

Obviously, being awake didn't change the fright I got when someone knocked on the door at that time of the night. I edged towards it, standing on my toes to try and get a glimpse of who it was before I opened the door. I could see it was Leah, and considering she was meant to have the kids, I flung the door open so quickly that I almost chopped my own foot off.

"Fuck!" I winced, pulling one foot up into my hand.
"Are you okay?"
"Where are the kids?"
"They're asleep at mum's."

I hopped about on the spot for a few seconds before I was able to consider the sight in front of me. It was 2am, Leah was standing on the doorstep of our home, and she had obviously been crying. Fearing for the possibility of any lingering paparazzi, I didn't question why she was here as I made my way to the living room, still hopping on one foot.

"Sorry about your foot."
"It's fine." I sighed, sitting on the sofa and waiting for an explanation.

Leah sat on the same sofa, keeping enough of a distance to remind me that we weren't together, but the act of being on the same sofa was more than we had done in months, aside from that hug at the front door on my birthday.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't currently angry at her. Her ridiculous requests recently had soured things between us, and to make matters worse, she had completely disappeared from my life. Usually, seeing her with puffy, red eyes would've pulled at my heartstrings, but I wasn't really in the mood to be nice.

"Why're you here, Leah?"
"I didn't know where else to go."

Her voice trembled, but mine had been trembling since the moment she walked out on me. She couldn't blame me for being so cold, and I knew she was silently thinking that in her own head.

"I wanted to talk about the stories."
"What is there to say?"
"Well, we never really talked about it."
"You never gave me a chance."

She nodded; she couldn't argue with that. I wasn't even sure I was angry at her for it. My profession opened my eyes to how far people were willing to go to destroy others; she didn't have that experience. Leah took everyone at face value; it was one of the things I loved most about her, but now that I was collateral damage to that, I'd changed my opinion.

"I know how they looked, Leah. I know why you believed them. I can't even explain them. I can't say this part was wrong. They were all right. The little things in the messages that we'd argued over were spot on. We did argue about getting Teddy a bike; we did argue about you going to that photoshoot in Lyon; we did argue about me working so much; and we did argue about whether or not we should put Teddy in daycare. Someone knew all that; someone knew the most mundane facts about our relationship to create those messages, but unless I can tell you who that was, how can I expect you to believe me?"