Chapter 9: Respondent

Hallie's POV

At 6:50 on Tuesday morning, Bea parked her truck outside the site gate and said the crew had asked for me.

"They want a photo with the hat," she said. "They're being sweet. Let them be sweet."

I carried the dented hard hat under my good arm.

The whole third shift was waiting at the gate in the half-light, forty people in vests, holding paper cups of coffee.

They clapped when I walked up.

I was about to say something embarrassing when I saw a grey car pull in at the curb behind them.

The thin lawyer climbed out.

A second man in a polo shirt and a lanyard got out with him, carrying a thick envelope.

"Ms. MacAuley," said the lawyer, in his soft voice. "I'm sorry to intrude."

The crowd's noise dropped away.

"You don't have to be sorry," I said. "You can just leave."

"I'm afraid this is a matter of process." He nodded to the man beside him. "Please."

The man in the polo shirt stepped forward and held out the envelope.

"Hallie MacAuley?"

"Who's asking?"

"You've been served."

I had never been served with anything.

I took it, because I didn't know what else to do with my hand.

The first page said *Franklin County Court of Domestic Relations*.

Below that it said *Petition for Dissolution of Marriage*.

Below that, in a typeface so plain it seemed like a joke:

*DECLAN JAMES ASHWORTH, Petitioner, and HALLIE MARIE MACAULEY ASHWORTH, Respondent.*

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