The cold divorce: the tale of Mabel and Arthur
It still feels bitter to recall how love turned, without warning, into an icy separation, shattering every illusion of safety that once seemed to shelter a family.
How was your trip? Mabel asked when, three weeks after his disappearance, Arthur finally stepped through the front door of their modest terraced house in Manchester.
It was fine, he replied calmly. Im exhausted, like a dog after a long hunt. Those business trips have worn me out completely.
Cant you just quit? Mabel murmured, staring out the window.
Thats the very problem, Arthur sighed. Besides you, no ones waiting for me, and I wont let my colleagues down.
You understand everything, love, Mabel whispered tenderly.
If not everything, then most of it, she added, her voice soft.
But Mabel already knew Arthur had not been on any assignment. She was certain where, and with whom, he had really spent that time. Why then did she speak so calmly? There were weighty reasons.
The next day after his departure she found his passport tucked beneath the sofa. How could he have gone without his passport? she wondered. She called him.
Are you alright? she asked.
All good, he answered.
Where are you now?
On the train, Arthur said.
After a few more words, Mabel hung up and thought, If he has no passport, either he has another one or hes lying. So the trips never happened. He must be seeing another woman, and hell return to work tomorrow as if nothings changed. Thats when Ill see.
At dawn she went to his workplace. Before eight oclock she lingered by the iron gate, watching as Arthur slipped inside. No other woman? she wondered. I must keep my composure, find out where he goes after work, and confront her.
When the day ended she followed him. The truth emerged more easily than she had imagined. A talkative neighbour, Mrs. Agnes Whitaker, 35, who had bought a flat two years earlier, revealed that shed known Arthur for six months. The pieces fell into place, and Mabels mind buzzed with questions, though an inner voice urged caution.
Mabel! a sudden inner voice rang out. Now is not the time for quarrels.
Why not? she retorted.
Because youre unsteady: your hands shake, your breathing quickens, and hatred fills your heart. Have you even looked at yourself in the mirror? How could you start a conversation looking like that? Remember, if you erupt, theyll both pity you, then after you leave theyll laugh together, relieved youre no longer in their way. Is that what you want?
That inner counsel gave her a cold, clinical resolve. Ill have to divorce without explanationsquiet, indifferent, and in a way that hurts Arthur, she decided, feeling a fierce surge inside.
She plotted:
Just say were divorcing, thats all.
Hell press for reasons.
Ill answer that there are none.
The divorce is simply because I decided it.
Then Ill be indifferent, a silent mockery, a touch of rudeness.
The voice approved, warning, Do it quietly, brazenly, calmlythis will strike at his pride harder than any shout.
Bolstered, Mabel began to prepare for Arthurs return. For the first few days she pretended to believe his stories of work and travel, keeping alive his illusion of their onceshared love.
Her first words upon his arrival were compassionate; the next day, when he came home from work, the act began. Arthur felt confident and happy, unaware that everything was about to change.
That evening, as he entered, he shouted cheerfully, Darling, where are you? Your rabbits back! Jump into my arms!
Mabel sat at the kitchen table, sipping tea and nibbling a slice of cake, indifferent. Its too late, she thought, feeling the shift.
Arthur complained about the grindendless assignments, trips without respite. Mabel answered curtly, I dont care. He fell silent, stunned by her coldness.
She drank her tea loudly from a saucer, ate the cake straight from the tin with a spoon, refusing to cut it into neat piecesbehaviour Arthur could not comprehend.
Then, in a voice as cool as winter, she said, Were divorcing. She fixed her gaze on him, making it as piercing as possible, and added, Understand? Divorce is simple. No reason. Divorce. Thats it.
Arthur was shocked. Her refusal to explain infuriated him, and when he tried to set her straight, she snapped, Go away. She rose and moved to another room, declaring she would no longer touch the cake or explain anything to anyone.
The relationship collapsed completelycoldness and indifference had reached their limit. Arthur tried to keep his composure, but irritation grew inside him.
Whats happening? he wondered, eyeing the halfeaten cake. Did she find out about Agnes? That would have sparked a scene, yet theres none. So it must be something else
He attempted to speak again, Mabel, lets discuss this calmly.
Leave me be, Im resting, she replied.
He felt she was mocking him. You dont know what a divorce is? Divorcetwo parts! Got it?
His questions hung unanswered, the house growing colder. Suddenly the doorbell rangArthurs daughters, Ivy and Nora, had arrived.
Arthur greeted them joyfully, only to meet the same chill that Mabel had shown. The girls, siding with their mother, addressed him with the same bluntness.
Mum wants a divorce, but she gives no reason.
Why look for reasons when women nowadays split so easily?
You should leave. This flat is now Mums, and youd be better off staying with Grandmother in the village.
Arthur tried to make sense of the assault, but he was unprepared for such a united front. The women of the household were in accord: the divorce was a fact, and there was no room left for the love that once bound them.
Agnes Whitaker, the neighbour, was the spark of the rupture; Mabels icy response was the retaliation to betrayal; the daughters backed their mother, reinforcing her stance. Arthur was left alone, stripped of everything.
In the end Mabel told Arthur to gather his belongings and go, emphasizing that her decision was final and uncompromising. He never fully grasped what had become the point of no return.
The episode was drenched in bitterness and mutual misunderstanding, yet the chosen weapon was cold indifferencea silent boycott designed to wound the betrayer without loud fights or scandal.
A key observation: sometimes the most painful punishment is the wordless alienation and a detached divorce without explanation, when words lose their meaning and hope evaporates from the emptiness of a relationship.
Thus this story remains a chronicle of betrayal, inner struggle, and a hardwon decision that reshaped the lives of all involved. It shows how love can swiftly turn to icy separation, and how each persons rights and feelings may be tested by harsh change.
