Brennan' s POV:
My entire body went rigid. The air hissed out of my lungs, leaving me breathless.
"Dad? What does 'divorced' mean?" Bird's innocent voice, a tiny dagger, sliced through the stunned silence.
I forced a smile, a grotesque contortion of my lips. "It… it means Mommy and Daddy are playing a new game, buddy. A grown-up game." My voice sounded alien, choked.
"Go to bed, Bird," I urged, my voice strained. "Daddy needs to go find Mommy."
Bird, sensing the tremor in my voice, the unnatural tightness in my face, looked at me with wide, worried eyes. He didn't argue. He just nodded and padded silently back to his room.
I grabbed my phone, my fingers flying as I dialed Allison's number. Still off. My stomach clenched. I typed a frantic message: 'Allison, what have you done? When did you do this?'
No reply. The message just hung there, a ghost of a question. I scrolled through our chat history. It was barren. No new messages from her. Not a single one since… since forever.
She used to text me constantly. Little updates, funny memes, heartfelt confessions. Now, nothing. The silence was deafening.
A suffocating pressure built in my chest. I couldn't breathe. I dialed Barclay, Allison's brother, my hand shaking.
"Barclay. Is Allison there? Has she gone to your parents' place?" My voice was ragged, desperate.
There was a pause, then Barclay's terse reply. "No, Brennan. I haven' t heard from her. And frankly, why would I? You're her husband. You should know where she is."
"I…" My throat closed. The accusation hung in the air, heavy and undeniable.
Another pause. Then, a weary sigh from Barclay. "Did you… did you get the papers, Brennan?"
My blood ran cold. "What papers? What are you talking about?" I feigned ignorance, a desperate, futile attempt.
"The divorce papers, Brennan. The ones declaring your marriage over." Barclay' s voice was detached, but the words were a hammer blow.
"But… but I didn't sign anything! We didn't even go to court!" I stammered, my mind reeling.
"The prenuptial agreement, Brennan," Barclay said, his tone laced with a chilling calm. "The one you insisted on signing as a romantic gesture to Allison, to 'prove your love.' The one with the clause that allowed either party to trigger an uncontested divorce after a certain period of documented infidelity, without the other's signature."
My mind flashed back. Years ago. I'd been so confident, so sure of our love, so eager to make her feel secure. I'd signed it without a second thought. A symbolic gesture, I'd called it.
"I signed it," I whispered, the words barely audible. "But it was just a formality. It would never… it would never activate."
"It activated, Brennan," Barclay' s voice was flat, final. "Allison activated it."
I stumbled backward, hitting the ornate marble console in the hallway. A vase clattered, but I barely registered it. My fingers tightened around the phone, the plastic creaking under the pressure.
"No," I choked out, a raw, desperate sound. "She wouldn't. She loves me. She loves Bird. She wouldn't just leave."
"She loves you?" Barclay' s voice was sharp, a surgeon's scalpel, cutting through my denial. "What about the last six months, Brennan? While she was hurting, while she was begging for your attention, while she was watching you build a new family with your assistant, where were you?"
