Page 93 of At the Heart of It
“We have to tell them,” Kate said.
“Tell who?”
Kate hesitated. “Viv. Jonah. The network execs.” She thought about the order of those names, about which needed to happen first. About their need to be discreet. “The show’s lawyers.”
“You’re sure?”
Kate nodded, her brain working quickly, even though she wasn’t sure. “We start with the lawyers. They’ll know what to do.”
“I thought about that,” Amy said. “Surely the legal team has seen something like this before. Like maybe there’s a simple solution. Some way they can just file the paperwork and get it over with and never need to alert Viv and Jonah at all.”
“Right,” Kate agreed. “Maybe it really is that simple.”
They looked at each other for a long time. Neither of them spoke, but Kate knew they both realized there was no way it could be that simple. Not legally, anyway.
She looked down at the copy of the QDRO. Both bore signatures from Viv and Jonah. It would be so easy to trace those words, to imitate Viv’s loopy cursive or Jonah’s blocky lettering.
“No.” Kate’s voice was sharp as she glanced back at Amy. “We’re not forging anyone’s signatures.”
Amy looked startled. “I didn’t suggest it.”
“I know.” Kate took a shaky breath. “I’m telling myself. That’s a line we can’t cross.”
“Understood.” Amy was silent a moment, studying Kate with such intensity that she wanted to look away. “Kate?”
“Yeah?”
Amy seemed to hesitate. “I’ll only ask you this once, and you don’t have to answer if you don’t want.”
“Okay.”
“Do you think Jonah knows? That there’s some reason he did it on purpose or?—”
“Stayed married to Viv?” She shook her head, waiting to feel any pinpricks of suspicion, any niggling tingles of doubt. There was nothing.
In a way, it was a relief to feel certain about one thing.
“No,” Kate said. “I don’t think he knows. It wasn’t intentional.”
“Okay,” she said. “That’s what I was hoping you’d say.”
Amy gave Kate’s arm one last squeeze before letting go. Then she picked up a stack of paperwork and began organizing it. Kate watched all the pages shuffling past, all those certificates and licenses and legal documents. Pieces of two intertwined lives.
Amy gathered them all into a thick stack and shoved them into a big envelope the color of baby food. When she closed it and looked at Kate again, she looked determined. “If I do my job right, maybe Jonah never needs to know,” Amy said. “Same with Viv.”
Kate nodded, wishing it could really be that easy.
In the back of her mind, she heard Viv’s words again. A quote from But Not Broken, or maybe it was On the Other Hand. Kate wasn’t sure anymore.
“If something seems too easy, get ready for certain heartbreak.”
Kate touched a hand to her chest and tried to ignore the sharp ache.
Jonah held a twenty-pound Main coon named Lucifer between his thighs and tried to remember why he’d agreed to do this.
“I love you, Jonah.” Jossy smiled at him, then grabbed hold of Lucifer’s rear paws before he could rabbit-kick Jonah in the nuts again. Jonah shifted in his chair, fumbling for a better grip on the cat.
“I’m having second thoughts about whether the feeling’s mutual,” Jonah muttered, though he knew damn well that’s the why he was here at the Cat Café long after business hours, subjecting Lucifer to the world’s ugliest manicure. Jonah held out his hand to accept a pink glittery nail tip from his sister. “Remind me again why we’re putting Lee Press-On Nails on a cat?”
