Chapter 9 - The Dissolution
Ten minutes later, Sterling and Caleb returned to the conference room.
Caleb looked defeated. His shoulders were sloped, his posture broken. The bravado had completely vanished, leaving behind the empty shell of a man who had finally realized the cost of his own selfishness.
Sterling sat down, pulling a silver pen from his pocket.
"My client agrees to withdraw his objections," Sterling said softly. "He will sign the dissolution papers today, provided Ms. Miller agrees to waive any claim to the four-thousand-dollar wedding venue refund currently held by the hotel."
Arthur looked at me.
"He can keep the four thousand dollars," I said without hesitation. "Consider it my payment for a very thorough lesson in human nature."
The papers were slid across the table.
I picked up the pen. The official legal document was titled Decree of Dissolution of Marriage.
I turned to the final page, where my maiden name—Hannah Marie Miller—was printed beneath the signature line.
I signed my name with a steady, fluid stroke of blue ink.
Then, the papers were turned toward Caleb. He hesitated for three seconds, his pen hovering over the paper, his eyes darting to my face as if searching for a sliver of regret or hesitation.
He found none.
He signed his name, his hand shaking slightly as the ink dried on the white page.
"The marriage is dissolved," Judge Hollister declared, stamping the document with a heavy, red ink seal that echoed loudly through the room. "Ms. Miller, your legal name is fully restored. You are both dismissed."
I stood up immediately, buttoning my wool coat, picking up my black binder, and adjusting my scarf.
"Hannah," Caleb said, standing up as I moved toward the door.
I stopped, turning back to look at him.
"Is this really it?" he asked, his voice cracking slightly. "Two years... and it ends in twenty minutes in a legal office?"
"It didn't end here, Caleb," I said, looking at him with neither hatred nor affection, but with the cold, clear objectivity of glass. "It ended at 12:15 a.m. on the twenty-second floor of the hotel, when you picked up your car keys and walked out the door."
I turned my back on him, walked out into the carpeted hallway, and stepped into the waiting elevator.
May you like
As the steel doors slid closed, separating me from Caleb Ward forever, I let out a long, deep breath.
The weight didn't lift all at once; it dissolved, grain by grain, like salt in water, until there was nothing left to carry.
