I looked at Aaron, then at Diane, and I felt something settle inside my chest that I had not felt in years: calm.
“You know what’s funny?” I said. “I fell in love with a boy on a porch swing when I was a teenager. But that boy never existed.”
Aaron’s mouth opened, but he could not find the right words.
“I won’t waste another tear on a stranger wearing his face,” I added.
My stepmother straightened, clutching her folder as though it could still protect her.
“And you. My mother’s house will never be yours. Not in this life. Not in the next one.” Mother-in-lawgifts
I reached into my handbag and pulled out a manila envelope I had placed there that morning. I set it gently into Aaron’s hands.
“Annulment papers,” I told him. “When Mr. Whitfield restructured the trust in August, I asked him to draw these up too. A contingency. To be filed only if I ever confirmed what I’d been afraid of for a long time. Fraud in the inducement of marriage. He says it’s a clean case.”
My husband finally found his voice.
“Sandra, wait, please!”
“I waited for 15 years, Aaron. I’m done waiting.”
I walked both of them to the door. Then I closed it.
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