I stare at the paper, my eyes wide and heart sinking into my stomach. “We’re still married?”
“Yep,” he says, popping the P sound at the end. “I wonder what your boyfriend would think if he knew he was sleeping with a married woman?”
My eyes flash to his. “You have no room to say anything remotely close to that, Jacob. We both know the things you did during our relationship. And as far as anyone is concerned, we aren’t married.”
“Well, according to the courts, we are.” He narrows his eyes on mine. “I need you to sign the papers. I’m sure you canimagine the shock both my fiancee and I experienced when we found this out.”
My breath catches. “You’re engaged?”
“Mhm,” he murmurs, pulling a pen from his pocket and clicking the top of it. “We have a two and a half year old and another on the way, so we’d really like to get this over with.”
My stomach falls onto the floor. “You–” I pause, my face contorting. “You have a child?”
I don’t bother doing the math because at this point, it doesn’t even matter. That means she was pregnant when I was. We got pregnant around the same time… to the same man.
Except I was married to him and she was not.
“It’s her, isn’t it?”
The woman my brother saw him with. The last woman he cheated on me with.
“Does it really matter, Ella?” He half snaps at me. “I just need you to sign the damn papers so I can move on with my life.”
I can feel myself curling inward. My efforts to remain strong are being tested past what I thought I could handle. But I know I can't break. I can't fold.
If not for me, I have to stay strong for Chloe.
“You need to leave before I call the police.”
“Ella? What's going on?”
My shoulders sag the instant I hear his voice. I glance over my shoulder, seeing Cole as he walks into the kitchen. His eyes are glued to Jacob, who has now directed his undivided attention to Cole. “Everything's okay. Jacob was just leaving.”
“Ah, you’re the boyfriend,” Jacob laughs, tilting his head to the side. “This is fun. You get to find out the news too.”
Cole’s expression doesn’t change. “What news?”
“Turns out, Ella and I are still married.” He smiles. “You’ve been sleeping with a married woman.”
Cole narrows his eyes. “She's not your wife. Legally, maybe. In every other capacity? Absolutely not.” Cole looks at me from the corner of his eye. “Did he break in?”
I nod slowly, looking past Cole to Jacob and then back to Cole. “He did. I told him I was going to call the police.”
“The door was unlocked,” Jacob chimes in.
“Call them, El.”
“There’s no need,” Jacob says, raising his hands in innocence. “I need Ella to sign the papers and I will see myself out.”
“I need to look them over with my lawyer before I’ll sign a damned thing.” I narrow my eyes on him, my heart racing inside of my chest. “I don’t know what those papers are and I need to make sure they are legitimate and I’m not signing some random papers from you.”
“Do you think I would do that?”
“I don’t know, Jacob,” I say, lowering my voice, shaking my head at him. “There are a lot of things I didn’t think you’d do, but I was wrong.”
Cole levels his gaze on Jacob. “You need to leave. Now.”
“This is Ella’s home, not yours.”
