. I will never put anything past a WAS/WS. But you are 100% right that her tears make no sense. Typical WAS/WS.
Her tears make perfect sense.
I cried when the divorce happened even though I left and I filed. Because it was done. For me all that I thought my life would be died that day. And as exciting as it was to have a whole new life with a lot less awful in it it didn't override my grief for the family I wanted for my daughter.
I cried when my exH found a GF that he could change for. It didn't last. But it still hurt. I cried that he would do things with and for her that I begged for for 10 years. You couldn't pay me enough money to go back to my ex, or that life. And I was happily living with my current H when exH had the wonder GF who D19 and I grew to love.
Just because you don't want something because it's toxic for everyone involved doesn't mean you can't be hurt that things didn't go as planned. It doesn't mean that even if you're the one who was finally able to see how bad the cycle was and you were brave enough to pull the trigger that it brings you joy or simply apathy to be done.
Steve, no body wants to hurt their kids like that. Or make their own lives more difficult. And yeah there are a lot of WAS and WS that are so deep in their own crisis nothing makes sense, but most aren't. And most aren't total sociopath's like your little story there. In fact almost none are. Scott's exW is a human being with feelings. A flawed imperfect person just like Scott. Who made some really bad choices, and probably made some really healthy ones too. Like moving to legally end a toxic MR instead of dragging it out ad infinitum seeing as this will they won't they misery business was going on for YEARS. Normal humans don't stop caring about their exes because they left them. They just cared about themselves more. And sometimes that's for the best in the long run.
There's no such thing as a typical WAS/WS, only common behaviors. They aren't a monolith of illogical, irrational, and impulsive decision making. She cried because she was hurting. Because she's a human person and divorce is hard on everyone.
