Chapter 13: Page One Is Void

Hamish shut the door and turned the deadbolt.

I stood in the middle of the sitting room with the petition in my hand.

"Abandonment," I read. "Unfit home. He filed it before I even finished packing."

"He filed it before the wedding," Hamish said. "Look at the stamp."

I looked.

The clerk's stamp was dated Friday, the day Dalton had stood in the bridal shop and smiled at my daughter.

I dropped the pages on the coffee table.

My hands were shaking, and I could not make them stop.

"He planned this too," I said. "He plans everything, and I sit there passing the salt."

"Marina."

"I want to hit something."

"Hit me."

"I don't want to hit you."

He was standing very close, in his rolled sleeves, with the lamp behind him.

I looked at his mouth again.

I did not look away this time.

"Then tell me what you want," he said, low and steady.

"I want to stop being the one who waits."

I took one step and put both my hands flat on his chest.

His heart was going hard under my palms.

"Page one is void," I said. "I'm voiding it."

"You said the church isn't here."

"You said it first."

He did not answer.

He kissed me instead, and this time there was nothing slow in it at all.

He lifted me by the backs of my thighs, and I wrapped my legs around his waist and held his face with both hands.

He carried me into the bedroom, past the door of the small room where Ivy slept, and he stopped there with his forehead against mine.

"Quiet," he said.

"I know."

"I mean it. She's right there."

"Then you'd better be careful with me."

He laughed against my mouth, a rough sound, and shut the bedroom door with his foot.

He set me down on the edge of the nearest bed and stood in front of me.

My ruined dress was still on, with his belt still buckled at my waist.

His fingers went to the belt, and they were not steady.

"You've been wearing this for twelve hours," he said.

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