“You’re funny. What’s not to understand?”

She softly smiles. “And lastly, I appreciate your heart. You took a chance on me when I didn’t think I deserved a chance. You helped me see that through the bruised and battered heart I grew up with, that I was able to open myself up to love.”

“It’s easy to love you, Myla,” I say before I can stop myself.

“It’s easy to love you, Ryot.”

Any other human in my situation would say, then why are you asking for a divorce, why are you trying to break away from me?

But I know why.

Because I broke her trust. I broke our vows.

I’ve thought a lot about this over the past twenty-four hours. I’ve never verbally abused Myla. I’ve never flaunted her flaws or tried to make her feel small. But I’m seeing that in taking away her choices, moving her without any consultation or—let’s be perfectly honest—any thought about her needs, I’ve treated her with the same level of disrespect as her parents. She’s an intelligent, driven woman, and in many ways, I belittled that. I knew she loved her work with Renovate Chicago, and I’m now sickened by my disloyalty to her. My actions spoke loudly and negatively into her fragile self-esteem, much like her mother’s words and her father’s inaction did. I made her feel unvalued and inconsequential. So she ran from me. Because that’s safer than confronting the bully, as she learned from her mother’s abuse. God, I fucked up.

Clearing my throat, I say, “Well, I guess it’s my turn.” I move my hands down her back, repositioning myself as her legs grow tighter around me. “I appreciate your strength. You’ve been through hell and back, Myla, and even though there were times when you didn’t think you could recover, you never broke. I appreciate everything you put into our marriage, especially when I was playing baseball. You made it easier on me, for me, and you tried to keep us from breaking, and I will always love you for that.” She glances away because I know that’s a touchy subject. She put her life on hold so I could pursue my dreams.

What have I done for her?

“And I appreciate your smile, which sounds lame, but that smile? It’s turned some of my shittiest days into better ones. There were times when I would come home after some of the worst games of my life, and you would greet me with that welcoming smile and remind me that it was just a game. It was all just a game, and that what I have with you is so much better than any batting average I might ever achieve.”

“Even during the strikeout streak we don’t talk about?” she asks, clearly trying to lighten the mood.

“You mean the streak when I struck out every up at bat for three games in a row?”

She nods. “Now those were difficult times.”

I chuckle just as Mel chimes in. “Okay, now I’d like you to confess something to your partner. It could be small, it could be grand, but if you’re the one who is listening, I need you to understand, the key to a good marriage is listening, acceptance, and forgiveness. So please, don’t use this confession against your partner. Use it as a base to grow. Remember the three things you appreciate about each other while you’re listening.”