Page 92 of At the Heart of It
But no divorce certificate.
“There isn’t one,” Amy said, reading Kate’s thoughts. “According to Viv, they handled the divorce themselves to make sure it stayed out of the media. It was an uncontested divorce, so all they had to do was file a Petition for Dissolution of Marriage and then have a lawyer prepare a QDRO.”
“A cuatro?”
“No, a QDRO—it’s legal shorthand for a Qualified Domestic Relations Order.” Amy picked up a sheaf of papers from the pile and waved it at her. “It’s a legal document for splitting up things like retirement accounts and pension plans.”
“Okay,” Kate said, not sure she was following. “So what happened? Or what didn’t happen?”
“According to Viv, they divvied up the tasks. They did all the paperwork together?—”
“How chummy,” Kate muttered, hating the bitterness in her own voice.
Amy, bless her heart, ignored Kate’s snark and continued. “Apparently they worked out a big list of who’d get what. She was very proud of that—that they didn’t use a mediator or lawyers or anything. Just made this great big document splitting up all their assets and accounts and possessions.”
“Okay,” Kate said, pretty sure she was following.
“They decided Jonah would file the paperwork for the petition and Viv would file the QDRO.”
“You can do them separately?”
“Apparently so.” Amy bit her lip and looked down at the papers. “And as far as I can find, Jonah never did his part.”
“But—but—that doesn’t make sense,” Kate said. “Wouldn’t there have been some sort of red flag when they did taxes or something?”
Amy shook her head. “It’s only been a year. They had to file taxes together last time, since they were still married the preceding tax year,” Amy said. “The red flag wouldn’t have been raised until the next round.”
Kate swallowed, unsurprised Amy had done her homework. It was the only thing here that wasn’t a complete and total shock. “I still don’t get it,” Kate said. “How could you not realize your divorce wasn’t final?”
“Viv did the QDRO,” Amy said. “There would have been a lot of legal-sounding paperwork flying back and forth. It’s possible they both just assumed it was a done deal. Viv does, anyway.”
Kate opened her mouth to insist how improbable that sounded, but closed it again. Hadn’t Jonah himself acknowledged his own forgetfulness? His failure to keep track of documents and remember important dates?
“Even Viv didn’t catch it,” Amy said, reading Kate’s thoughts. “When I first started asking for paperwork, she gave me all these official-sounding documents, but nothing with an actual county seal on it. That’s what raised my antennae. That’s why I contacted the courthouse.”
“But wouldn’t Viv or Jonah or someone have realized at some point that they never saw an official divorce certificate?”
“That’s what I asked the county clerk,” Amy said. “She said it’s not unusual. They don’t automatically send you copies. You have to pay for them. And with all the QDRO paperwork flying around?—”
“Jonah probably figured Viv had taken care of it.” A sick feeling churned in her gut. “He told me once before how she was always giving him honey-do lists and then doing the tasks herself if he didn’t jump on it fast enough.”
“Sure, that’s possible,” Amy said. “All this time, Viv seemed so proud of how they managed to keep their divorce out of the media.”
“And all this time, they weren’t actually divorced.” Kate had hoped saying the words aloud might make them easier to digest, but that wasn’t the case at all. They still sounded sharp and cold, like little obsidian arrow tips.
Amy dropped the stack of papers on the comforter and nodded. “That appears to be the case.”
They both looked down at the paperwork then, like the answer might be somewhere in that pile. Kate took a few deep breaths, trying to imagine how it might have all happened. Jonah with a big stack of paperwork, never quite getting around to filing his portion. Getting a stack of documents months later about the divvying up of assets and assuming it was a done deal. That it had all been handled.
Kate looked up again. “Who else knows about this?”
“Just the two of us, for now.”
Kate nodded, letting the wheels turn in her brain. For once, she had no answer. No certainty about the right next move. Was this a dealbreaker? A show killer or a show maker?
Beyond that, what did it mean for Jonah? For Viv? For all of them?
Amy sat watching her, waiting for a response.
