Chapter 10%
The officer repeated calmly, “According to our records, your marriage with Ms. Carrington has been legally dissolved. You two are divorced, so we can’t help you with telling her location.”
“No. There has to be a mistake! Evelyn and I are not divorced!”
Beckett shook his head furiously, refusing to leave, insisting the police had made an error. %
For some reason he couldn’t explain, Beckett suddenly had this sinking feeling that maybe… the police hadn’t made an error
But how could that be possible? He hadn’t signed any divorce papers.
Seeing Beckett growing increasingly agitated, clinging to the edge of the front desk, the officers finally showed him the documentation- proof that the divorce had already been finalized. They even printed him a copy to take home.
He clutched that printed document so tightly. His eyes scanned the page over and over again, as if sheer disbelief could change the words written in ink. He just couldn’t accept that we’re divorced, 2
He took the paper home, walking like a ghost. Once inside, he sank into the couch, motionless. He just sat there, haunted by memories- of me. Every smile, every laugh, every word we’d shared. And the baby… the one he had looked forward to from the moment he found out ! was pregnant. All of it swirled in his head, over and over, like a tape on repeat.
The weight of it was crushing.
As
Beckett reached for a photo of me, he suddenly noticed how much the house had changed.
In the month since I left, Delaney had quickly cleared out every trace of my tastes and belongings.%
Beckett tried to stop her the first time. She was getting rid of something small, something seemingly insignificant. And all it took was a playful pout, a soft plea and he let it slide.
He didn’t realize that was just the beginning.
Because that same little act kept happening. Again. And again. Until slowly, subtly, deliberately, she wiped away every trace of me.X Now, there was nothing left in that house to remind him that I had ever been there.Z
The wedding photo–I’d already thrown that into the trash myself.
All the furniture we had picked out together was gone, replaced by new things Delaney had brought in.2
Even the nursery… no longer ours since she’d moved into it.”
Everything else–either I took it with me, or she made sure it disappeared./
And suddenly, the home we built together felt completely foreign to him.”
He sat there, stunned and motionless on the couch, clutching that printed page like it was some kind of lifeline. The official confirmation that we were over. That I was really gone.”
Then Delaney came home.”
She flipped on the light and found him frozen in place, that piece of paper still in his hands.
Of course, she couldn’t resist. Curiosity had always been her strongest impulse. She snatched it right out of his grasp without even asking.
And the mornent she saw the words–our divorce, finalized–she smiled. That wide satisfied smile she probably didn’t even realize she let slip.?
But when Beckett looked up, she masked it quickly, shifting back into that sweet, innocent act she’d always played so well.2
“Oh? What’s this all about?” she asked, tilting her head like a child pretending confusion.
“Why are you divorcing Evelyn?” Her voice was all concern, but her eyes gave her away.
They sparkled with joy.
Before now, Beckett would have never noticed anything unusual about Delaney. But after holding proof of our divorce in his hands, something in him had changed. He was suddenly wide awake, painfully aware.
The things he used to ignore–he saw them all clearly now.%
The greed in Delaney’s gaze. The satisfaction she couldn’t hide.
He never thought she was capable of that expression.
