He Divorced Me While I Carried Twins, Now He Wants Them novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: The Last Page
Jessa signs the divorce in a hospital gown, takes her mother's pendant back from Landon's mistress, and then the ultrasound shows twins and Marilyn hears.
I signed my divorce on a hospital bed, in a gown that didn't close in the back.
My husband's assistant stood in the doorway wearing my mother's garnet pendant.
Landon had taken it to a jeweler in March, he told me, because the clasp was loose.
My husband sat in the visitor's chair with his coat still on and his eyes on the pen.
"Page six too," Landon said. "Initial every tab."
It was his voice for vendors, flat and quick.
Three years of marriage, and I got the vendor voice.
His lawyer's assistant stood by the window holding the folder open for me.
The doctor had left twenty minutes before.
"Nine weeks," she'd said, tapping my chart. "Stay in bed. Radiology is coming for your ultrasound."
I had fainted on the stairs of his office building that morning, carrying the lunch Landon forgot.
I had not told anyone yet.
Then Landon walked in, with Kendra behind him and no flowers.
"Kendra is pregnant," he said. "I won't have a child of mine born while I'm still married to someone else."
I looked at Kendra.
She touched the garnet and gave me a small, sorry smile.
"Jessa, I hope you know none of this was meant to hurt you," she said.
She had run his calendar for two years and brought me soup when I had the flu.
I had never once asked why she knew his coffee order better than I did.
"Sign the last page too," Landon said. "My lawyer wants it filed by five."
I looked at him then, really looked.
The jaw I used to kiss in the mornings. The collar I had straightened that same morning, before the stairs.
He looked at the window.
Nine weeks.
Landon had come to my bed once since June, on the night of his birthday, and he was gone before I woke up.
If I told him now, he would fight me for them.
If I told his mother, she would win.
Marilyn Carrington had said it at our wedding, smiling over her champagne.
"Carrington children stay with the Carrington family, dear. Whatever happens to the marriage."
A man's gray wool scarf lay folded at the bottom of my tote bag on the chair.
It wasn't Landon's, and I had meant to return it for two months.
I took out my phone and photographed every page, one at a time, while he watched.
"What are you doing?" Landon asked.
"Keeping a copy. You said it yourself, your lawyer wants this filed today."
Then I picked up the pen.
My hand shook once, and I held it still against the blanket until it stopped.
"I want one thing before I sign," I said.
Landon sighed. "The settlement is generous, Jessa."
"It's not about money."
I turned to Kendra and held out my hand, palm up.
"My mother's necklace."
Kendra's fingers closed over it.
"Landon gave this to me."
"He took it from my jewelry box without asking," I said. "It was my mother's, and it was in my house."
She looked at Landon.
He stared at the floor.
Neither of them said a word, and the assistant by the window stopped pretending to read.
"Landon," Kendra said, in a small voice.
"Give it to her," he muttered.
"But you said..."
"Kendra. Give it back."
She unclasped it herself and dropped it into my palm.
I closed my hand around the garnet.
It was warm from her skin, and I hated that, and I held it anyway.
Then I signed.
Jessa Winslow Carrington on page one, page six, and the last page.
I dated each one and handed the folder to the assistant.
"There," I said. "File it."
Landon stood up and buttoned his coat.
"It's better this way," he said. "You'll see."
"You've always had a lot of faith in what I'll see," I said.
He didn't answer.
He put his hand on Kendra's back and walked her out, and the door swung shut on its slow hinge.
I sat there with the garnet in my fist and my name still wet on the page.
It was over, and not one of them had asked if I was all right.
The door opened again.
A young sonographer rolled in a machine and smiled at me with her whole face.
"Mrs. Carrington? Sorry for the wait. Let's have a look."
She squeezed the cold gel across my stomach.
The screen flickered gray, and I didn't dare move.
"Well," she said softly. "Hello, there."
One small flutter showed on the screen, quick and bright.
Then a second one, right beside it.
"Two heartbeats," she said, delighted. "You're having twins."
I laughed, once, and covered my mouth.
Behind her, in the doorway, someone made a sound.
Marilyn Carrington stood there in her camel coat, one hand still on the frame.
She had come to watch me sign, and she had never left.
"Twins," she said.
She was staring at the screen, and she was smiling.
"Landon never mentioned twins."
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