“That’s what I’m trying to tell you. There’s more,” Sawyer adds.
And just like that, the high crashes.
“What more?” I ask, already tense again.
“Hold on,” he says. “Where are you? I can’t hear a fucking thing but cowboys and music!”
He’s right. I grunt a curt, “Hang on a sec,” and I look for Alex.
We make eye contact, and I nod my head towards Esme. He dips his chin.
He gets it. Understands I want his eyes watching her. Protecting her.
“Okay, I’m outside now,” I mutter, already moving off the edge of the crowd. “it was too loud. Now, say it again.”
I step farther out into the dark, away from the noise, hitting speaker.
He gets cut off.
“Wait. What was that?”
Sawyer exhales.
“Your lawyer dug deeper,” he says. “Marriage license was never properly filed. Clerical screw-up. Means—technically—you’re not divorced…”
A beat.
“…but it also means you were never legally married in the first place.”
Everything stops.
Dead.
My brain short-circuits.
“What?” I say, the word flat, empty.
“Yeah,” Sawyer continues. “You had the ceremony, sure. But legally? It never registered. So on paper? You’re not husband and wife. You never were.”
My grip tightens on the phone.
“That doesn’t make any fucking sense,” I snap.
“It does,” he says. “It’s just messy. You guys thought you were married. Lived like it. But legally? It never happened.”
My chest feels like it’s caving in.
Like something just got ripped out.
Behind me—a sound.
Sharp.
Broken.
“Oh my God!”
I spin.
