A Bride for 100 Days

fifteen: my husband is back with his girlfriend

My heart was thudding in my chest as I waited and watched. 

"Hey." He'd come up behind me and I practically jumped out of my skin. 

"Hey!" He was wearing his wedding suit and the red tie. I couldn't help myself, I looked. His ring was gone. "Look, about yesterday. I'm sorry if I created a scene. It's just that..."

"No, it's me. I should have told you I was meeting Kyra. When I said I wasn't going to date, I didn't imagine that things would turn out like that with her."

"Ah," I bit my lip. It had been exactly what I thought it had been. My husband was back together with his girlfriend.

"Are we OK?"

"Yeah, of course," I am such a liar. "But if things are going to be..."

"I think they are, actually."

"Ah," I said again. "I can stay with my friend Paige on the weekends, when you're home. That's where I was last night and if that would give you the privacy..."

"Really? You'd be OK with that? I feel like I'm taking total advantage..."

"It's fine," Lies, lies, lies. 

"So, let's do this?"

I nodded. We stepped into the courtroom. We stood with Jeb's lawyer in front of the judge and clerk and attested to being ourselves. A woman stepped up with us and read out a brief review of Levi's life history and had copies of all the paperwork. The final one was Levi's grandmother's surrender of her rights to Jeb. 

The judge approved the legal placement of Levi into Jeb's home pending adoption. 

Jeb was given a copy of the placement order and the approval to go ahead with the adoption. We stepped out of the courtroom in a daze. The whole thing had taken maybe 20 minutes. 

His lawyer then led us to a conference room where a notary was waiting. He slid a stack of papers in front of me. It was a petition to divorce. 

I stared at it like it would bite. 

"It is completely straightforward. You keep your individual property and Jeb is the sole parent of Levi. Irreconcilable differences. There's a cooling-off period before we can go to court so I'll file it tomorrow morning and see if I can finagle an early August court date. I'd be surprised if the adoption got a date before September, when the court returns after summer adjournment."

"Maggie and Marco will be back by then so even if the construction is not completed - I can be home and you can get on with your life, Alice." Jeb signed all the highlighted areas and then pushed the package in front of me. 

Get on with my life? What was that supposed to look like? I want to stand and flip the table over and... and...

I reached for the pen. Time to stop fantasizing. 

The attorney put his fingers over it to stop me from signing immediately. "Alice, you are free to take this to your lawyer."

"No need." I signed my name everywhere it was highlighted. Then I slid the whole thing back. 

I followed Jeb in my car back to the cabin. Gayle was feeding Levi applesauce while he banged a plastic spoon on his highchair tray.

I went straight to my room and closed the door. I was leaning against the wall, sliding down to the floor, telling myself to get up, stand up and then I was flat on my back. 

Every damn thing in my life hurt. 

There was no place my thoughts could rest. No corner I could relax. Every part of my life was broken.  From the moment I'd met him, I wanted Jeb as my savior and the illusion that we would be playing house with his baby...