After Val and Tasha got married, they were pretty happy for a while! Tasha got pregnant quickly (Nikolai was a Honeymoon Baby), and Val took good care of her while she was with child. However, after Nikolai was born, post partum hit Tasha pretty hard, and Val was the main one really tending to their infant son.

Overall, both of them began to drift apart over the span of Nikolai being born to when Nikolai was around 2 or 3. Val became more withdrawn, and Tasha gradually just fell out of love with him because Val was very guarded about his past and was mainly focused on caring for their son. This all came to boil when Val discovers Tasha cheating on him with a younger man. Like literally he walks into the bedroom and catches bro in mid-thrust. Had Val been his younger, more violent self he would've killed them both. But he ends up taking Nikolai (who was napping) and leaves.

The divorce comes and Tasha gets pretty much full custody of Nikolai with Val having some visitation rights. It was very messy and not a pleasant time in Val's life. He's still on speaking terms with Tasha because she's the mother of his child, but he'll always have insecurities and pain in his heart from her betrayal. And he knows he isn't perfect either from how hands-off and guarded he was with Tasha. He doesn't blame her for what she did, looking back, but it still hurts.