"No!" she shouts. My sweet Truly is shouting. I have to fight the urge to pull at the collar of my button-up. My tie is feeling like it's choking me all of a sudden.
"You can shout all you want." I grab the papers off the desk and crumple them. "I won't give you a divorce."
"Fine."
I relax. Thank fuck. My relief is short-lived. Truly slaps down another paper. I grab it off my desk.
"What is this?" My eyes scan it, and I flip to the next page. "Is this?—"
"A Pap smear? Yes, it is."
"Did you get on birth control?" There is a medical clinic on her campus. I was not told about any new medications, and I would have been. I'm her husband, and they are under strict orders to alert me if anything changes with her medical care.
"What does that even matter?" She rolls those beautiful eyes at me again. It makes me want to throw her over my desk and spank her little ass.
Shit, where did that fucked-up thought come from? I yank at my tie.
"It matters now. Answer me."
"I'm not on birth control, weirdo." Weirdo? "It's a Pap smear. My yearly checkup."
I was told everything went fine with her last one. "At the bottom of the second page, you'll see where it's marked that I still have a hymen." The paper crinkles loudly in my hold.
She better still have it. I don't care how fucked-up that thought is. I would fly back over to Europe to murder a man. Either way, she's still not getting a divorce.
"And why is that important?"
"It means I can obtain an annulment. It's proof we never consummated our marriage, and let's not forget about abandonment."
"Abandonment?"
"I haven't seen you in years. I think they can check off abandonment." I don't know what you need to get an annulment, but it's not happening either.
"How can I abandon my wife if I've been supporting her all these years? I've taken care of your schooling, housing, food, and all the things you use when you slide that credit card."
Her lips press into a firm line. I've pissed her off more. Good, that makes two of us. I was promised Truly would be mine.
"Money." A humorless laugh leaves her, making me ache to hear one of her real ones. Truly has the kind of laugh that warms you. I've missed it. Hell, I've missed her. "Right, always about money." We stare at each other. I shuffle through possibilities.
I’m usually good at scrambling when needed. To be able to come up with a plan quickly.
"It's a moot point. We're not getting divorced. I assume you have finished your classes?" She was set to graduate. I had been alerted she'd turned in all of her work early, but the graduation ceremony was still happening, or so I'd thought. It seems my wife was in a hurry to get back here to divorce me.
"I'm done with school, and it's not a moot point."
"Is there someone else?" I don't know how that would be possible, but it shouldn't have been possible for her to be standing here either. I was to be alerted when she left campus. Not only did she leave it, but she also got on a plane. Her passport had to have been run.
I shouldn't have asked the question. It will change nothing.
"I hope there is someone else."
I take in a slow, deep breath, trying to rein my temper back in. "Are you planning to have an affair?"
"We're getting a divorce or an annulment. Your choice.”
"We have a contract."
"You can't bind me to you forever!" She throws her hands up.
