Short Story 1: Why?

"Why?" He asked himself numerous times, but never found an answer. "Why?"
He loved her. She loved him. After a few short years of love, the fights began. First they were over important topics, like money, the bills, the children. After that, it was over trivial problems. "Who forgot to put the dishes away?" "Who left the light on?" "Who keeps leaving their clothes on the floor?" Even though it might be the children, she always blamed him.
After the fights, she would go out at night. First every other week, then every week, everyday. She started coming home later and later, then she stopped coming home the same day she left. She would come back the next day. The children would ask their dad where Mom was, but he wouldn't be able to tell them.
He knew what she was doing. She was cheating. She didn't love him anymore, so she went to somebody else who "loved" her. He knew, the other guy didn't love her half as much as he used to love her.
Whenever he would ask her where she's been all night, she would tell him the lie. Whenever he would ask her if she was cheating on him, in the most quietest voice he could manage with all the anger bubbling inside of him, she would get angry and answer a little too quickly no. That's when a little bit of the anger would spill out. They would get into the biggest fights, then she would leave the house again. Off to him again, bitterness still in mind. He would keep his anger bottled up, to where he almost tricked himself that he wasn't angry.
The tenth time of her coming home the next was the last straw. He let his angry out. He yelled, he swore, and she did the same things. This time, he stormed off. He went to the nearest lawyer's office, and filed a divorce. He felt guilty, but then he remembered the cheating. When he brought home the papers, and showed them to his partner. When she saw the title of the pages, she knew what it meant. They were divorce papers. When she looked up at him, she had tears coming down. She asked him, "Why?" He told her about the cheating, and how he was the one being loyal to their marriage, not her. She started to cry, and told him the story about all the business dinners she been having to go to. He wouldn't take it. He told her to sign the papers, and he left. He went to a hotel on the other side of town, and stayed there for the night.
The next day, when he went back home, he saw the papers, signed, by a note that said, "Here are the papers. Out with him." He saw that note, and decided to tell the children now. They heard the fights before, and the oldest of the two knew it was coming sooner or later. Both the children agreed, no more fighting. They saw what could happen to people if they fight as often as they breathe air.
As he and the children are waiting for the divorce to be finalized by the local judge, he's asking himself, "Why?" This time, he has the answer. She didn't love him.


(Ok, so about a third of this I wrote down, all the other bits I came up with. Kinda sad story, partially true to what's going on with parents. There's no cheating that I know of, but there is fighting. Julie and I still fight.)