When He Finally Found Her, She Was Already Married novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: Stephanie Hargrove

"Say it," I said.

Davis looked at the receiver.

"Steph, the marriage was never ended."

The study was so quiet that I heard a clock I'd never noticed in four years.

"Not annulled, not divorced, not set aside," Davis said. "There was no case, because nobody ever filed one. That petition is a draft on firm letterhead with a signature that isn't his. Someone mailed it to you and let you believe it was done."

"But the check," I said.

"A check is not a court."

"The letter said full and final."

"It said what it needed to." His voice was gentle, and it cracked in the middle. "Stevie, in the eyes of the state of Massachusetts, you have been Declan Hargrove's wife every single day since that Tuesday."

I sat down on the arm of the chair.

I didn't remember crossing the room.

"And the license," I said. "The one you and I signed at the courthouse in Rockland."

Davis took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"It's void," he said. "I'll have to look at the exact statute, but I'm almost certain. A man can't marry a woman who already has a husband. You can't marry two."

"I didn't know."

"I know you didn't."

"I would never have done it."

"Steph. I know."

He said it so kindly that I put my hand over my mouth.

For three years I had signed Ferris on the bakery lease, and on the school forms, and on the card that went with every Christmas cookie tin.

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