Even if my husband was currently calling his lawyer to figure out how to undo our cosmic union.
The universe had a plan.
And I trusted it completely.
Chapter Ten
Julien
“What do you mean, I can’t file until I’m back in Connecticut?”
I was standing outside the hotel restaurant, phone pressed to my ear, trying very hard not to scream. Inside, Athena was probably still communing with her açai bowl or thanking the universe for the structural integrity of the building, or whatever it was she did when I wasn’t around to witness it.
My attorney, Richard Chen, who I’d worked with on exactly two occasions, both involving medical malpractice insurance reviews, and who I was now deeply regretting calling, sighed on the other end of the line.
“Because Nevada marriage laws and Connecticut divorce laws are two different things, Julien. You got married in Nevada. You can file for annulment there, or you can file for divorce in Connecticut, but either way, you need to be physically present to start the paperwork. You can’t just call me from a hotel in Vegas and expect me to magic this away.”
“I don’t want you to magic it away. I want you tolawyerit away. Isn’t that what I pay you for?”
“You pay me to review insurance documents. This is... significantly outside my usual scope.”
“So you’re saying I’m stuck.”
“I’m saying you need to come home, bring all relevant documentation, the marriage certificate, any witnesses ifapplicable, proof of intoxication if you’re going the annulment route, and then we can start the process. Which, I should mention, takes time. Weeks, potentially. Months if she contests it.”
Months.
I closed my eyes and tried to remember what breathing felt like.
“And I can’t just... stay here? File in Nevada?”
“You could. But you’d need to establish residency, which means staying in Nevada for at least six weeks. Is that something you’re prepared to do?”
Six weeks.
In Las Vegas.
With Athena.
“No,” I said. “No, that is absolutely not something I’m prepared to do.”
“Then you need to come home. Get your documentation in order. And we’ll proceed from there.”
“How long will it take?”
“The annulment? If she doesn’t contest it and we can prove intoxication or lack of consent, maybe a few weeks. If she fights it—” He paused. “Longer.”
If she fights it.
I thought about Athena’s face this morning when she’d explained—in excruciating detail—how the universe had brought us together. How we were soulmates. How this was destiny.
She was going to fight it.
Of course she was going to fight it.
The universe hadtoldher to marry me. You didn’t just undo what the universe told you to do.
“Julien?” Richard’s voice cut through my spiral. “Are you still there?”
