My dad asked “are you mad Sarita? What are you going to do after divorce at this age? Who will take care of you”? I said “dad, I have enough savings of my own, I will manage. And if I get lucky by god’s grace, I will get married to the ‘correct’ person and settle down again”.
My mother said “Sarita you have surely lost your bearings. Who will marry an old woman like you now”? I said “don’t worry mom, I will find my Mr. Right surely soon”.
Similar conversation repeated with his parents, his dad said “a divorce will bring bad reputation to our family. Please reconsider your decision”.
I said “with your son in jail for assaulting his wife, you already have enough bad reputation to deal with. Remember I am not responsible for this, your son is. So go deal with that animal who you have raised”.
When they saw I was firm in my decision they too gave up and left. I called my children and Ex to my room since I was still bed ridden. Looking at my Ex I said “this house belongs to me, so till my son is living here you can also stay”.
My Ex interrupted saying “but…”, I said “I am not done talking yet. The day my son leaves this house for whatever reason consider yourself out of this house too. Am I making myself clear”?
He said “Sarita you are bringing a lot of bad name to our family by your actions, please think again”. I shouted “shut up you bastard, does physically assaulting your wife bring you a good name”???
I called Radhika and said “please bring the papers now Radhika”. Ex asked “what papers”? I said “divorce papers, what else”. He said “I am not ready for it yet Sarita. I need time to think about this”.
I said “I am giving you an option of mutual divorce without any questions or alimony, either you accept this or I will go to court and get a divorce on grounds of physical abuse which will also entail heavy compensation which you will need to pay me. So decide right now”.
I looked at my children and said “all this is not your fault so don’t worry, I will always be there when you need me. After our divorce, I have chosen to live my life on my terms and I will not bring you any bad name, I promise”.
Radhika arrived soon, I said “Thanks for coming at such short notice Radhika, give him the papers to sign”. My Ex stared at the papers flipping thru the pages and quietly signed them eventually.
She said “Sarita I will speak to the lawyer and give her these papers, I will let you know what to do next based on what she says”. I said “fine, thank you”, she hugged me and left.
I looked at my Ex, his eyes were red with anger. I looked at my children and said “you can all please go now. I will call you in advance when I am ready to move out from here”.
My son asked “but mom where are you going to go? Maybe dad can leave and you can stay with me here only”. My daughter also added “yes mom, this will be a better idea”.
Now I was caught totally unprepared for what my children said. So quickly thinking on my toes I said “Thanks for your concern dear, don’t worry, after all he is your father. I will be close by and will meet you both regularly”.