“Yes, but the marriage isn’t real.”
“It’s real to me.”
“I know, but this doesn’t feel like you’re working to forgive or trying to communicate in a healthy way. This just feels like you want to embarrass me or get back at me.”
“So?”
“So, if you love me, why would you want to treat me that way?”
“Because this is what I need to reconcile.”
“Making me do something humiliating in public doesn’t sound like reconciliation; it sounds like punishment.”
“Maybe you deserve to be punished.”
“Yeah, but what you’re asking is so childish and controlling.”
Her lips purse, and it’s in that action that I see Shanna in an entirely new light. All the times she’s been manipulative, even down to forcing an engagement I’m not sure I even want. Pieces fall together, and suddenly she seems vindictive and more interested in winning or making me pay than working through our issues. If this is what forgiveness looks like to her, how can there be any love or respect in the relationship?
“This isn’t going to work,” I say as I take a step back.
“Well, these are my terms, so?—”
“No, I mean you and I aren’t going to work. What you did, going behind my back to hurt me, was wrong, but I was willing to overlook it because I’ve made mistakes too. But now, I don’t want to overlook anything. Our relationship is over.”
Her brows drop as her mouth falls open. “You’re breaking things off with me?”
I can’t believe it either. Shanna and I have been together for over a year. I thought I knew her. I wondered if she wasthe one, but maybe all my hesitations weren’t a timing thing. Maybe deep down I knew she wasn’t right for me, but I talked myself out of every red flag in front of me. I was going down the freeway with my blinders on, using cruise control because it was easier that way.
“I no longer think we’re a good fit for each other.”
“You no longer think?”
“Actually, Iknowwe’re not a good fit. I’d never do what you did to someone I love. I don’t want to be with someone so willing to throw me under the bus as easily as you did.”
That’s when she starts yelling.
And all I can think about is,Holy crap. I can’t believe I actually thought about marrying this woman.
Camila
“Your Honor,the evidence is clear. This so-called marriage exists only on paper. The parties have not lived together, shared a household, or even spoken regularly for years,” Max Hawthorne from Hawthorne & Bell, LLP states to the judge.
Luckily, it’s just the lawyer’s little weasel face I have to deal with in this emergency hearing and not Glen Lucas. I’ve been worried for the past two days that I’d have to be in the same room as him.
I’ve only met my biological dad a handful of times. The most notable was when I was nine. My mother dragged us to his office and made us wait outside for him all day so that she could beg for more child support money. Her tears and commotion were embarrassing, even to a child. It wasn’t until I was an adult that I learned that, soon after my mother got pregnant with me, she signed a settlement instead of fighting for a calculated share of his wealth for child support. Probably one of the dumbest things she’s done in her life, and a big reasonwhyI needed thisinheritance money in the first place, andwhyI became a divorce attorney. I’d never let one of my clients make a horrible deal like the one my mom did.
I puff out a mocking laugh before addressing the judge. “Mr. Taylor and I have been legally married the entire time, which satisfies the trust’s language. It doesn’t say we had to live under one roof. It just says married, which we are. Beyond that, the estate has no authority to dictate the private dynamics of the marriage.”
“Your Honor, debating back and forth over the language of the trust is ridiculous. The terms are explicit: not only must the beneficiaries be married to receive the inheritance, they must remain married in good faith for six years.”
“Define good faith.”
Mr. Hawthorne continues, unfazed by my interruption. “We have substantial evidence they have not been living together, communicating, or acting as a couple.”
My glare flashes to Mr. Hawthorne. “I’d hardly call Mr. Taylor’s disgruntled ex-girlfriend substantial evidence.”
Beside me, Hess shifts in his chair at the mention of Shanna as hisex-girlfriend. Maybe I took some liberties calling her that. For all I know, they’ve made up and are planning a wedding next spring.
