The marriage bed was a closed door. Every cold turn of her face was a no, and I'd raised it more times than I could count. Nothing changed.

My income was never enough. The number climbed every year, and every year she found someone earning more to hold over me.

After work, on weekends, on holidays, I wasn't allowed anything that looked like fun.

The moment I tried, I was lazy. Greedy. Sly. A man with no ambition.

Five years married, and the same excuse every time we talked about a child: I wasn't driven enough, I didn't make enough.

You can't breathe in air like that. After a while you stop knowing why you're alive at all.

Meanwhile, she'd picked herself a cushy job paying three hundred a week, the kind where she could stream shows and scroll videos all shift.

Off the clock, it was poker or the spa.

Shopping and travel were holiday non-negotiables.

That double standard, I was done swallowing it.

"Marcie hasn't had one good day since she married you. Where do you get the nerve to ask for a divorce?"

My mother-in-law was still going, and I glanced at the gold bracelet on her wrist. I'd bought that.

She and my father-in-law came from a small town, and I was the one paying their health coverage and their retirement plans, topped up to the max.

Three thousand a month in household money, every month, straight to them.

As for Marcella's jewelry, there was a piece for Valentine's, for her birthday, for our anniversary, for Christmas, every year, never once skipped.

I didn't know what hardship they'd suffered. I knew even less about whatever hardship Marcella had supposedly endured with me.

Maybe the worst of it was the iced Americano.

Whenever I went back to her parents' place with her, my mother-in-law's mouth never stopped, this son-in-law cleared a fortune in some deal, that daughter just bought herself something nice.

Her family was a hole with no bottom.

I looked at her. "I came here to talk this through. Can you keep your mouth shut?"

She shot up from her chair, eyes bulging.

"Oh, the world's gone upside down. A live-in son-in-law telling me to shut up? Marcie, take a good look at what you dragged home."

She jabbed a finger at me. "If this is how you act with us sitting right here, God knows how you treat Marcie when no one's watching."

"If that's the attitude, then I'll see you in court." I stood to leave.

"You stop right there. Is this what your parents taught you? Do we, your elders, even register to you?"

"Mom, that's enough." Marcella rushed to step in front of her.

"Your parents should be here soon," my father-in-law said then. "We'll sort it out together when they arrive."

A divorce was too big to hide from my own parents. Since they'd already called the two of them over, fine, we'd all sit down and lay it out plainly.

I'd barely settled back into my seat when my parents arrived.

"You're finally here," my mother-in-law said, pulling a long face. "This Duncan Fleming is no kind of man. You'd better get him in line. I said two words to him and he told me to shut up."

"A man with no respect for his elders. Only Marcie has the patience to put up with him."

"Anyone else would've divorced him a long time ago."

My father didn't bite. He just looked at me. "You're sure?"

"Yes."

"Then divorce her."

My mother-in-law's face went uglier still. "What's that supposed to mean? I called you here to talk them out of it."

"Talk them out of it?" My father looked at her. "I haven't seen you do much talking out of anything."

"And while we're on respect for elders, does Marcella have any for me or her mother-in-law?"

"Five years married. Has she once come back to see us for a holiday?"

"In all that time, has she ever called me Dad? Called her Mom?"

"Only the people who gave birth to me are my parents. Is it a crime that I won't call you Mom and Dad?" Marcella's temper flared too.

"Then divorce her." My father said it again. "On this, I stand with Duncan."

"I called you both here because I thought you were reasonable people." Walter's face had gone hard. "But if this is your attitude too, then there's no reason to keep my Marcie suffering at your side."

He turned to me. "Duncan Fleming, you can divorce Marcie. But you walk away with nothing."

I didn't look at him. I kept my eyes on Marcella. "Agree to an uncontested divorce, and we split everything down the middle. Fight me, and I'll take you to court for all of it and leave you with nothing."

"You? Take all of it?" Doris planted one hand on her hip and jabbed a finger at me. "You married into this family. How do you have the nerve to fight over a single thing? Have you got no shame?"

"You keep throwing 'married in' at me like it's a leash. I've cut you too much slack." I was done humoring her. "You've got two daughters. The younger one married far away, so you said Marcie and I would take care of you in your old age. Now suddenly I'm the man who married in? The shameless one here is you."

"You... you... you—" Doris's finger trembled at me. "So when her father and I die, the inheritance isn't yours?"

"Inheritance? What inheritance do you have?" The laugh that came out of me was pure disbelief. "When Marcie and I got married, your family had three crumbling little houses and a few acres of land, and you'd already sold off the land."

"You two retired early because all you raised were daughters. The house you live in, I built it."

"I cover your living expenses to this day, and you have the nerve to talk about inheritance?"

"And the bride price, the car, the condo, the jewelry. Tell me one thing Marcie didn't take. Have you ever seen a man who married in like that?"

"If you never learned how to be a decent human being, go die and come back to try again."

She stood there, face flushed dark with rage. I turned back to Marcella. "Now it's all on you. I want this over fast. Agree to the divorce and half of everything is yours. Make me sue, and you'll get nothing."

"Duncan Fleming, you're a bully." Marcella wiped at fake tears. "You're the one throwing me away. You're the one who wants out. What gives you the right to split everything?"

"What exactly did I do to wrong you?"

"You think I'm too old now. You've got someone on the side, I know it."

"Exactly." Doris jumped in. "Fine, divorce her. But you'd better spell out the reason. If you can't, you leave with nothing."

"You know exactly why I want this divorce." I held Marcella's stare. "You sure you want me saying it out loud?"

"I don't know. Say it. Right now. Why the divorce."

"I can put up with almost anything from you. But not the things that matter. That's the reason."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Marcella glared at me.

"You don't know what it means?"

"No, I don't." She closed the gap between us. "You'd better make it clear."

My voice went cold. "You cheated."

"Bullshit. You're the cheater. Don't you dare pin that filth on me."

She was working herself up now. "You don't get to call someone a cheat without proof. So where's yours?"

She came at me, screaming. "You're not even human. How do you say something like that and still sleep at night? I'll rip that mouth off your face."

Crack—

My hand came up and the slap landed across her cheek.

In all our years married, I'd never once raised my voice at her. Her tantrums, her sulking, her getting her way over everything, I'd taken it all with a smile.

But some things you don't forgive.

The truth is, I didn't want to touch her. It felt filthy.

All I wanted was to end this marriage fast. But watching her stand there playing the victim, I couldn't hold it in.

That slap lit the fuse.

"You dare hit my daughter!" Doris charged, Walter right behind her, and Marcella's sister came at me too.

The second my parents saw it, they threw themselves into the fight.

We were outnumbered.

But the only man on their side was my father-in-law, so the fight broke our way fast.

Every grievance I'd swallowed for years went out through my fists, and it all landed on Marcella.

I found my opening and slapped my high-and-mighty mother-in-law across the face a few good times.

Then my dad and I put my father-in-law on the ground together, and I planted the toe of my size-eleven shoe right on his cheek.

I showed my mother-in-law, action by action, that I'd not only hit her daughter but her too.

Whether it was beneath me didn't matter anymore. It felt good.

Feeling good comes at a price. The police hauled all of us in, and a family brawl like this is hard to pin blame on.

In the end they gave everyone the same slap on the wrist, a verbal warning, and sent us home to our own corners.

That round of negotiation ended in a fistfight.

Clearly an amicable divorce was off the table, so I'd sue.

Two weeks later, the court stepped in for the first round of mediation.

That day every relative on Marcella's side who could show up did, obviously hoping to win their face back the same way they'd lost it.

At the mediation, all her cousins sat there glaring like they were ready to pounce.

My dad saw it and called our relatives. I figured once mediation wrapped, there'd be another hard fight waiting.

The mediator wore a hard face. "I know you're all worked up, but the point of today is to settle the conflict between you."

"Duncan Fleming, Marcella does not agree to your request for divorce, and she's even more upset that you've slandered her by claiming she had an affair."

"If you have no proof, she has the right to hold you accountable."

I looked at Marcella. "You had your chance to keep this clean and you threw it away, so today every relative you've got is going to see exactly who you are."

"Marcella, listen carefully. Two weeks ago, my cousin got married, and before I left I had cameras installed at the house. Tell me, do I have proof you cheated?"

Then I turned to the mediator. "I have a video that proves Marcella's affair."