"Not now, Odalys."
"Then when?"
For the first time all morning, I understood something I hadn't expected: Odalys had known about the marriage. She'd known she was helping break apart a family. But she hadn't known everything about Desmond either. The man who'd deceived me had apparently decided honesty was optional in his new relationship too.
The judge ordered the disputed assets restricted pending further review. Desmond's clean ending disappeared in a matter of minutes.
---
During the recess, he found me by a window, Odalys standing several yards back.
"Why would you do this?"
"Why would I tell the truth?"
"You could've taken the settlement and moved on."
"With our daughters?"
He looked away. That was the moment my anger disappeared, replaced by something clearer. "Ivy is six, Desmond. She already knows more than you think. Her sister will be here soon. I'm not starting their future by pretending none of this happened."
"You're making everything harder."
"No. I'm refusing to make dishonesty easier." I let the silence sit a second before I said the thing I'd been holding for months. "You mistook my patience for permission."
He had no answer.
---
By the time I left the courthouse, the rain had stopped. Julian walked beside me down the steps. Behind us, Desmond stood alone near the entrance — Odalys was gone.
I didn't feel victorious, exactly. There was still sadness. Seven years don't disappear in one morning, and neither do the memories — birthdays, Christmas mornings, the evening we brought Ivy home from the hospital. Some of it had been real. That was what made the ending hurt.
But pain and regret aren't the same thing.
At home, Ivy ran to me. "Mommy!" I bent carefully and hugged her. She pressed both hands to my stomach. "Did my sister come today?"
"Not yet."
Her face turned serious. "Are you still sad?"
I could have lied. Instead I gave her a truth a six-year-old could hold. "A little. But I'm going to be okay."
She wrapped her arms around me. "Then I'll be okay too."
---
Weeks later, I finally understood why I'd smiled that morning. Not because Desmond faced hard questions. Not because Odalys learned she didn't know him as well as she'd thought. Not even because the marriage had ended.
