CHAPTER 2 — THE DIVORCE I NEVER FILED
Olivia and I sat inside a quiet airport lounge while Daniel paced outside the glass doors.
He kept calling.
I silenced my phone.
Olivia enlarged the photograph on her screen.
The document claimed Daniel and I had divorced six months earlier in Lake County. It said I had accepted a private settlement, waived my rights to the house, and agreed not to seek any ownership interest in Daniel’s medical practice.
At the bottom was my signature.
It was almost perfect.
Almost.
Whoever had copied it had used the version from my driver’s license—the stiff signature I only used on official documents.
My everyday signature curved differently around the letter B.
“Where did you get this?” I asked.
“Daniel sent it to me.”
“When?”
“Seven months ago.”
One month before the supposed divorce had been finalized.
Olivia pressed her fingers against her forehead.
“I didn’t know.”
I studied her.
She was younger than me, but not by much. Maybe thirty-four. Her blonde hair was pulled into a careful knot, and the diamond on her left hand looked newly purchased.
“How long?”
“Fourteen months.”
The pain arrived quietly.
Daniel had been coming home to me for fourteen months while promising another woman a future.
“He said you lived separately,” Olivia continued. “He said you only stayed in the house because of the children.”
“Did he tell you I raised those children?”
She looked away.
“He said you were distant with them.”
I swallowed.
Daniel had not only erased me from his future.
He had rewritten my past.
Outside the lounge, Richard spoke urgently into his phone. Lauren stood near the gate, avoiding my eyes. Ethan and Sophie sat beside the luggage, visibly confused.
“Why are you showing me this?” I asked Olivia.
“Because he lied to both of us.”
“That doesn’t make us equal.”
“I know.”
Her answer was immediate.
“I knew he was still legally married when we met. He told me the divorce was already underway. I should have walked away.”
“Yes.”
She nodded, accepting it.
“But I didn’t know the decree was fake.”
Daniel entered the lounge before either of us could continue.
“You two need to stop.”
His controlled expression had begun to crack.
Olivia stood.
“Is the divorce real?”
Daniel looked toward me.
“The paperwork is being processed.”
“That isn’t what you told me.”
He lowered his voice.
“We’ll discuss this privately.”
I stood too.
“There is no private conversation anymore.”
Daniel turned toward me.
“Rachel, I made mistakes. But our marriage has been over for a long time.”
“You slept in our bed Monday night.”
“That doesn’t mean—”
“You asked me to transfer sixty thousand dollars into our investment account last week.”
His expression shifted.
Only slightly.
But I saw it.
“What investment account?” Olivia asked.
Daniel ignored her.
“Rachel, go home. I’ll call you when I return.”
“You’re still planning to leave?”
“My children have been looking forward to this trip.”
Sophie appeared at the lounge entrance.
“Did Rachel really refuse to come?”
Daniel froze.
I looked at her.
“No, sweetheart. I was never invited.”
Her eyes filled with confusion.
“But Dad showed us your message.”
“What message?”
Daniel stepped between us.
“That’s enough.”
Ethan joined his sister.
“He showed us a text from you. It said you didn’t want to spend another vacation pretending to be our mother.”
The cruelty of the sentence left me breathless.
I would never have written it.
“Show me.”
Ethan took out his phone.
Daniel reached for it, but Ethan moved away.
The message appeared to come from my number.
But I immediately noticed the date.
That night, I had been seated beside Daniel at a charity dinner.
My phone had disappeared for nearly an hour.
Daniel had claimed he accidentally placed it in his jacket pocket.
He had sent the message himself.
Sophie’s face crumpled.
“You didn’t write it?”
“No.”
Daniel’s voice hardened.
“Rachel, stop involving the children.”
“You involved them when you used my phone to make them believe I didn’t love them.”
Olivia removed the diamond ring from her finger and placed it on the table.
“I’m not getting on that plane.”
Richard entered behind Daniel.
“Yes, you are.”
Olivia stared at him.
Richard’s tone was calm, almost threatening.
“We have all invested too much for you to ruin this now.”
I looked at him carefully.
“Invested?”
Richard realized his mistake.
Daniel turned toward his father.
“Dad.”
But it was too late.
Olivia unlocked her phone again.
“There’s more,” she said.
She opened a series of messages between her and Daniel.
Most were personal.
Then I saw one from Richard.
Once Rachel signs the final transfer, the house and the practice will be protected. After that, Daniel can announce the engagement.
I read the sentence twice.
Then my phone rang.
This time, it wasn’t Daniel.
It was my bank’s fraud department.
“Mrs. Bennett,” the representative said, “we need to confirm a request to transfer eight hundred thousand dollars from your trust account.”
May you like
I looked directly at Daniel.
The transfer request had been submitted fourteen minutes earlier.
