When I woke in the hospital, I stared at the message with too many feelings tangled together to name.
A nurse knocked and came in, set the billing slip on my bedside table, and sighed at me, helpless. "Now that you're awake, go pay. And honestly, your husband couldn't care less. We called him thirty times to come, and he didn't pick up once!"
I gave a small laugh. He was busy with Kay , of course he wasn't answering.
I pushed the blanket aside, took the slip, and made my way weakly to the billing hall, only to come face to face with the two of them. Duncan stared at the slip in my hand, his eyes dark and unreadable.
Kay was clinging to his arm, her voice sharp and mocking. "Annette, you didn't follow us here, did you?"
Once, I really had done that foolish thing. Wherever he took her, I went too. I beat her bloody on the spot, jabbed a finger at her and screamed that she had no shame, stealing her own sister's husband. The whole city called me the lawful wife gone mad.
Not anymore.
"You're imagining things. I came to pay a bill."
"What's wrong with you?"
Duncan's question cut off the moment her words sliced in. "Oh please, what could ever be wrong with Annette? Some little ache or pain, and she has to make a show of it and see a doctor. Duncan, if you have time, maybe you should spend more of it on her."
He looked me up and down, then gave a soft laugh. "What could be wrong with her? She had the strength to shove you."
With that, he lightly tapped the tip of her nose and said, smiling, "I'd rather spend my time with you, my little troublemaker, so you don't act out and worry me."
Kay's face flushed pink and she ducked her head, all shy. The two of them looked like newlyweds who couldn't get enough of each other, and I, the real wife, had become the outsider, the joke.
Something in my chest went sour, a dull, tight ache, and I turned and walked away rather than watch any more.
Back in the ward I picked up my phone, found the lawyer's number, and dialed. "Attorney Walker, I want to divorce Duncan Sanchez. Sorry to trouble you, but please bring the divorce agreement we drew up before to the hospital."
There was surprise on the other end. "Mrs. Sanchez, you and Mr. Sanchez love each other so much. Don't divorce over some little quarrel. Marriage isn't a game, after all. Have you really thought this through?"
Back when we loved each other most, every fight had me threatening divorce. We drafted agreement after agreement, and no one believed I'd ever go through with it, certain that in the end he'd always smooth things over.
A few years ago, yes, we really did love each other. Loved each other enough that he spent millions planting a field of sunflowers for me, enough that he named a minor planet after me, enough that he designed our magnificent wedding by hand, enough that we each owed the other a life.
My voice stayed calm, a flicker of self-mockery in my eyes.
"We loved each other once. I don't love him now."
Duncan didn't love me anymore, so the divorce was a settled thing.
The call ended. Attorney Walker would arrive in fifteen minutes. Just then the door to my ward opened, and Duncan came close, watching me hang up. "Who were you on the phone with?"
I met his eyes, calm, and held the dark screen of my phone out to him. "A friend. Would Mr. Sanchez like to check for himself?"
He ignored it and stepped closer, narrowing the space between us.
"The doctor says Kay sprained her ankle, and an old injury's flared up on top of it. She'll move into Shallow Bay to recover for now. The scenery there is good for her. Don't make a fuss over it."
I looked up at him in disbelief, my heart twisting with pain.
Shallow Bay. That was our marital home, the only home we had. Back when he bought the villa, he wrapped his arms around me from behind, brimming with joy. "From now on this is our home. No one else can ever come here, just the two of us. I promise this place will always be your safe harbor."
Now one word about recovery was enough to move her in, and what he'd said wasn't a question. It was an order.
"It's your house, Mr. Sanchez. Of course I wouldn't dare make a fuss."
Duncan caught that calm in my eyes and his expression turned complicated. He leaned down close, his voice low. "Annette, are you still angry with me over the fireworks? If you like them, I'll set some off for you too. I only did it to make her happy. You're already my wife, plain and proper. Are you really going to keep score?"
I stepped back without a flicker of feeling, my tone light. "Then I'll give that place up to her. From now on you won't have to mind me, and I won't care anymore either."
Shock filled his eyes. He grabbed my wrist and pressed a light kiss to the back of my hand, laughing softly.
"Annette, there you go acting up again. There isn't a man in our circle who keeps only to one. I just split my love into two shares. It's not as if I stopped loving you."
Duncan said it so righteously, the same way he'd told me, careless, the first time he cheated. "She and I are just having fun. All you have to do is be Mrs. Sanchez, that's enough. Money, power, status, name one thing I haven't given you. And you still want to keep score?"
Back then I was stubborn. I screamed and cried and called him a faithless man. Now I said nothing at all.
He looked at me, brushed a few loose strands of hair from my face, the smile faint.
"Annette, you're so much more sensible than before. It's good, not making a scene like a little girl anymore."
With that, he set a black card on the bedside table, as compensation.
There was a knock at the door. Attorney Walker came in and placed the divorce agreement in my hands. "Mrs. Sanchez, here's the agreement you asked for."
Duncan went stiff. Before he could process it, a nurse suddenly rushed in and called to him.
"Mr. Sanchez, Miss Henson is in a state, won't eat or drink, demanding to see you. Come with me, quickly."
The moment he heard it he was frantic to leave. I jerked upright and grabbed him. "Sign this agreement for me before you go."
Duncan took the pen, impatience all over his face, scrawled his name without a second look, and snapped, "I've told you, from now on whatever you want to buy, just buy it. Don't come finding me to sign things, it's a nuisance."
Looking at the name he'd signed, I let out a small, eased smile. No. There would be no "from now on" ever again.
He and I grew up together, childhood sweethearts, lucky enough to truly love each other young. At twenty I fought my way out of a den of men turning on each other and cut a path to save him. At twenty-one he took a robber's bullet beside my heart for me. We each promised the other we'd spend the rest of our lives repaying the debt of that life.
But now, what you owe me, I don't want it. And you, I don't want you either.
