The attorney she went to filed all the papers for her and sent them to Bart’s attorney. There was no set visitation schedule for the twins, since they were too young for regular visitation, and she stipulated that with advance warning, Bart could visit them at her home whenever he wanted. He had moved out temporarily and was staying at his club, since Spencer had bought the apartment where they lived. She had had the funds to buy it, Bart hadn’t.
Bart’s attorney asked for the apartment as part of the settlement, and she gave it to him. She bought a small townhouse in Chelsea, not far from the store, and decorated it the way she wanted. She loved it. It was just big enough for her and the twins, with a room for the nanny, and a garden. The twins seemed happy there too.
She was working even harder than before, once she and Bart split up, and rushing home to see the twins after work. She felt like a robot sometimes, going from one problem to the next. She was the only parent at home, and the ultimate decision-maker and the final word at the store on every subject. It was an awesome responsibility, and she took it more seriously than ever. She took her parenting of the twins seriously too, and managed both her career and her mothering, just as she had promised herself she would. She was surprised by how little Bart wanted to see the boys. She invited him to visit them whenever he hadn’t been to see them in a while, and most of the time he said he was busy and declined. He hadn’t formed a strong bond with them to begin with, and it seemed to lessen over time. He was enjoying his single life again, and dating. Spencer had no time to date, between the store and the twins, and she had no interest in dating. She didn’t have the energy or the time to meet men and go out with them.
Her mother had been very vocally opposed to the divorce as soon as Spencer told her. As usual, she was critical of Spencer. Her views were more similar to Bart’s than her daughter’s. And like Bart, she hated the store, and was jealous of it.
“He’s right, you know. You don’t have time to bring up children properly. They’ll end up juvenile delinquents if you’re never around,” she predicted. Eileen had never been around either, and Spencer had never gone wild. She’d been a serious child and a good student, despite little attention from her parents. Spencer was a much better, warmer mother than her own had been, and spent more time with her children than her mother had.
“I’m around, Mom,” Spencer said quietly. “Just not at traditional hours.” She took care of them herself on Sundays and loved it. She didn’t have to choose between them and the store. It was Bart who had tried to force that hand, as though to prove a point. He was giving her a decent amount of child support for the boys, but none of his time. She wondered who he was dating, but never asked. She told herself that it was none of her business, although it would be later on, once visitation started. The court mediator had started visitation at three years of age for the twins, by mutual consent, with visits at Spencer’s home in the meantime, with proper warning. Bart almost never called to see them. He claimed they were too young to know the difference. The twins seemed happy, had no alarming behaviors, and didn’t seem to miss him. They were only eighteen months old, barely more than babies, and had been just over a year old when their parents separated.
Spencer walked the store, as she did every morning right after they opened at ten, although she was there long before ten. She was thirty-seven years old, had run the store for seven years since her father’s death, and her divorce from Bart had been final for five years. It had been relatively bloodless. They’d had a strong prenup at her father’s insistence, and as a result there had been less to argue about than there might have been, once she gave him their apartment, which was generous of her. In the end, neither of them tried to hang onto a marriage that wasn’t working and never would. He had disappeared from her life rapidly, which was a relief. He said he wanted a traditional wife who stayed home, not one with a big job who owned a department store and was a CEO. He had wanted her to quit her job at the store once she had children. He refused to understand how much the store meant to her. She had a deep love for it at the very core of her being, and considered it an important part of her heritage and her history. It was almost sacred to her, and a mission bequeathed to her by her grandfather.
Bart still didn’t see the boys often enough, in her opinion, but they weren’t suffering. She had fun with them on Sundays, when Francine was off, and she tried to get home several times a week to have dinner with them, or at least tuck them into bed. And she saw them every morning before work. Francine, the nanny, had stayed with them, so she was a constant.