From Fake Divorce to Real Fortune Novel – Chapter 6
The first thing I did was consult a lawyer, a sharp woman named Ms. Albright.
“Given that your ex-husband, Jack, has been missing without contact for over five years, and you have his parents’ full support, we can petition the court to have him declared legally dead,” she explained, her tone businesslike.
“Under California law, five years of unexplained absence is sufficient.
John and Margaret didn’t hesitate.
They signed affidavits detailing Jack’s abandonment, his silence, their own fruitless attempts to find him in the early days.
The legal process was straightforward.
A few months later, I held a court order.
Jack Miller, my ex-husband, was, for all legal intents and purposes, deceased.
A strange sense of closure settled over me.
Life moved forward. My consultancy flourished.
Sophia started elementary school.
And then, I met Ben.
He was a firefighter, solid and dependable, with kind eyes and a quiet strength that drew me in.
He knew my story, or at least the version I shared — a widow, raising her daughter with the help of her wonderful in-laws.
He didn’t pry, simply accepted it, and me.
Our relationship grew naturally, easily.
He was wonderful with Sophia, patient and fun. John and Margaret adored him.
A year later, on a bluff overlooking the Pacific, Ben asked me to marry him.
The ring wasn’t a massive diamond like Jack’s had been, but a beautiful sapphire, my birthstone, flanked by two smaller diamonds.
It was perfect.
“Yes,” I said, my heart full. “Yes, I will.”
We were building a new future, a real one, on a foundation of honesty and love.
Jack was a ghost, a legal fiction.
He couldn’t touch us.