It wasn't a legal question. It was personal. *Do you still want this?*
I thought about the apartment Derek barely lived in anymore. The dinners I ate alone while he gave interviews about "the importance of partnership." The way Vanessa's name had entered our marriage long before her perfume did.
"No," I said softly. "Not yet."
"What do you mean, not yet?" Vanessa's eyes went wide.
"I signed because I wanted peace," I said. "Not because I agreed with how this was done."
"The terms are clear," Derek said. "You signed."
"I know. But notarization isn't finished," Walter said, closing the folder. "And without it, these copies don't go anywhere today."
"This is absurd," Vanessa snapped. "He can't refuse just because he knows her."
Walter turned to her with the calm of a man who'd been underestimated by louder people for six decades. "I'm not refusing. I'm pausing because one party has expressed concern about the circumstances."
