"You'll be waiting a long time"

So I returned home after nearly six hours. Charlie was still up and waiting for me to return home.

I didn't know what I was going to walk into. I had no idea what his reaction was going to be, and to be completely honest I didn't care.

I felt free.

I felt cleansed.

I felt at peace.

I simply did not care.

I was fronted with questions as to where I had been and if I was OK. I refused to answer his many questions. It was no longer necessary for me to answer to him about where I had been or who I had been with. I refused to play his games.

It didn't matter where I had been. I needed to escape and I did exactly that.

I was exhausted so I just wanted to go to bed. I had watched the sunset on my marriage and made the decision that I was not returning to my marriage in anyway, and this included sleeping in the same bed as Charlie.

I went to the linen cupboard and grabbed myself a pillow and blanket and set myself up a bed on the lounge in the rumpus room. And I was so totally OK with this. I completely surprised myself with the fact that I was not at all emotional about this in anyway.

Charlie asked me what I was doing. I truthfully replied that I was going to bed. He asked me why I was not getting into our bed, and I told him that I would never sleep in that bed again. He begged me to sleep next to him, but I refused to do so.

He went to the linen cupboard and got himself a blanket and a pillow. He proceeded to lay down on the floor in front of me. I asked him what he was doing and he told me that he just wanted to be next to me.

I told him I did not want him to be in the same room as me.

He picked up his blanket and pillow and moved himself to the family room. He began to set himself up on the cold hard tiles of the family room. I asked him what he was doing and again he stated "I just want to be next to you."

I told him that he could sleep in the bed until such times as he found alternate accommodation for himself, the bed was all his, and that I would never sleep in the same bed as him again.

He told me that he would only get up and go into the bed if I accompanied him to the bedroom.

And with that statement from him I merely replied "You'll be waiting a long time" and rolled over turning my back on him and closing my eyes to sleep.

I was rather shocked at my reaction. Usually his manipulative tactics would have had some form of impact on me, but not this time.

I continued to sleep on that lounge or a matress on the floor. That was my new bed. And every time I tried to discuss Charlie finding a new place to live he just ignored me and told me he would not leave. I hated him and everything he stood for, because in his eyes he still did not see that he did anything wrong.

In desperation I asked him what it was that had to occur for him to realise that the marriage was over. He told me that we would have to be in a 'dark period' for longer than 2 weeks and that we would have to attend another marriage counselling appointment.

Hey, easy enough so I told him to book the appointment.