No. There was no way.
No. Way.
Jesse brought their food and they made pleasant conversation while they ate. Kate polished off the bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich she had ordered—the only thing on the menu that sounded good. She ate it ravenously, as if she hadn’t eaten in days. It tasted better than anything she had ever eaten, filling her empty stomach in a gentle, soothing way.
Even though the bacon was a little greasy, it didn’t bother her. It settled well.
After the bill was paid, Kate was still lingering over her tea, in no hurry to get back to the salon since it was still a while before her appointment.
Aidan didn’t seem to be in a rush to leave, either. So it shouldn’t have come as a surprise when he cleared his throat and said, “I need to talk to you about something.”
Conversation during lunch had been a little strained, but when they reached the end of the meal without any major disputes or bombshells or mention of the annulment, Kate had started to believe that Aidan had asked her to lunch because he wanted her company. Even though Aidan had not been acting like his usual self since the time he’d appeared at the salon, in the back of her mind, Kate had let herself hope that maybe they could find their way back to good once the dust had settled.
But she’d thought too soon.
“I talked to a lawyer about our situation,” Aidan said. Judging by the look on his face, he didn’t have good news. “You’re not going to like what I have to tell you.”
“Oh. And what did the attorney have to say? Aidan, we haven’t even had our hearing yet. I thought he said we’d have to wait a month before we could even request a hearing.”
“He did say that. He also said that annulments in Georgia are very difficult to win. He consulted some of his colleagues on the matter and their opinion is that our case doesn’t look promising. Of course, we can go ahead with the petition, but the attorney thinks the only chance we might have to win is by claiming that you were mentally incompetent the night we got married.”
Wait. Hold on there. Mentally incompetent?
Kate made a face. “Mentally incompetent?”
“Yes. Even that’s a long shot. The fact that we spent our honeymoon night together makes it even tougher to plead our case, and of course, our prior relationship doesn’t help matters,” Aidan continued. “He said if we really want to get out of this marriage, we should strongly consider divorce. Or at least start preparing ourselves for divorce being the only way to end the marriage, because it will likely be our only option.”
Aidan stared at the table and traced a silver vein in the marble on the tabletop with his finger. He was already divorced from Chloe’s mother, who had decided, right after giving birth, that she did not want to be tied down to a husband and child. She had left Aidan with a tiny newborn to care for on his own.
Aidan had confided in Kate that if he ever got married again—and it was a solid if because he didn’t want to put himself and his daughter through that heartbreak again—the marriage would be forever.
While he sometimes talked like getting married again was not very high on his list, he had not solidly ruled out the possibility.
But then why—Why, if he had been in his right mind, had he married her in Vegas under those circumstances? Of course, he had said that she had seemed to know what she was doing. Still, she longed to press the issue and ask him that question again, but right now, she couldn’t move the words from her brain to her lips.
She didn’t want to get a divorce. She wanted an annulment because it shouldn’t have happened like that.
But even more, she didn’t want to get the annulment by claiming mental instability. It wasn’t true, and it felt like fraud. It felt disrespectful to those who did battle a condition. Something like that shouldn’t be trifled with and certainly should not be used to get out of a sticky situation. She couldn’t live with herself if she played that card. Surely, blacking out—er—not remembering one night wasn’t the same as being mentally incompetent. Mentally incapacitated, sure. But not mentally incompetent. Saying she was would be a lie.
“If mental incompetency is our only way out, I have a feeling the judge isn’t simply going to take my word for it. Wouldn’t I have to see a doctor? Wait, don’t even answer that. We both know it is not true and I don’t think it is right to use something so serious to clean up the mess we made.”
The moment the words fell out of her mouth, she regretted them. The look on Aidan’s face was soul crushing. She wished she could reel them back in.
Aidan stood. “I wasn’t suggesting that you lie or misrepresent a condition—because you’re right, it should not be taken lightly.” His voice was level and low as he bit off the words. “Then it looks like a divorce will be the only way to clean up our mess, as you put it. Though I never considered being married to you a mess or a mistake, Kate. I’ll call him and have him get started on the divorce papers.”
As he turned to leave, Kate felt as if he was walking out of her life forever. Her heart ached. “Aidan, don’t go—”
“Yeah, I need to go. I’ll talk to you later, Kate.” He waked away and didn’t look back.
Chapter Five
After Aidan left the restaurant, he didn’t go back to the office. He walked around downtown Savannah, trying to burn off some of the anger boiling in his gut. Kate was right. This was a mess. Even though her calling their marriage a mess had pissed him
