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“I don’t want any money. You can save it for Gabe.”
Matthew gave her an indulgent smile, as if she were a young child. “I’m afraid, with Jarrett’s net worth, no judge would uphold an agreement without a reasonable settlement. But if you look closely, you can see that it’s graduated and jumps significantly when the adoption is finalized. After that, the settlement is a percentage, with contingent conditions, of course. For instance—” He droned on, but she couldn’t hear a word he said. Her mind was spinning. None of this mattered. What about the annulment?
“Twelve to eighteen months?” Jarrett leapt to his feet. “What are you talking about? We came today to start the divorce proceedings. In fact, we were hoping you could have the marriage annulled.”
Matthew’s jaw dropped. “I can start divorce proceedings if you want, Jarrett. But you know this means you’ll probably lose Gabe, right?”
“I’m not losing Gabe.” Jarrett slammed his fist on the desk. “You need to fix this.”
If she weren’t so upset, Rylie would’ve smiled. Jarrett had lost his temper.
He has a fault!
Matthew spread warding hands in front of his face like he was expecting Jarrett to start swinging. “Look, I think there’s been some sort of miscommunication here.”
“I’ll say,” Jarrett said, pacing behind her chair with a decided limp. She’d never seen him so upset. She wanted to put a hand on his arm and help him calm down, but she had a feeling it would do the opposite.
“When we talked on the phone last Thursday—” Matthew began.
“You told me if I wanted to adopt Gabe I should marry Ryliefor now. I thought it was going to be for a week. Or a few months at the most.”
“That’s what Jarrett told me,” Rylie confirmed.
Matthew spoke in a steady voice. “What I said was, ‘You could marry Rylienowif you want to adopt Gabe as scheduled. And we can take care of the paperwork next week.’”
“Right!” Jarrett’s arms flung in the air. “Take care of the paperwork. That’s getting an annulment or a divorce, right?”
“I never said anything about an annulment, Jarrett. I’m sure of it.” Matthew’s tone revealed a slight tremor. “You have no grounds for a legal annulment in the state of Colorado. I can start divorce proceedings any time you want, but your adoption application will probably be rejected. You were approved based on being married to Rylie.”
“But what about Carlie?” Rylie asked the question that had to be behind the horrified look on Jarrett’s face.
“At this point…” Matthew looked directly at Jarrett. “You need to decide which relationship is most important. Gabe will stay with you until his chemo is completed, regardless of what you choose to do. But you’ll be having multiple home studies before the adoption can be approved and finalized. There’s no set timeline. It could easily be a year or more. And it will be hard to convince the social worker you’re in a healthy marriage if you divorce one sister to marry the other.”
“I can’t believe it.” Jarrett’s shoulders slumped as he sank into his chair. “Rylie didn’t sign up for this. I coerced her into it, telling her it would be a couple of months at most.”
“I’m sorry.” This time Matthew addressed Rylie. “To be fair, Jarrett and I only talked for a few minutes, and I was in the middle of a hearing. It’s not his fault he misunderstood.”
Rylie nodded, the movement making her lightheaded.
“I’ve lost Gabe,” Jarrett moaned. “I’m so stupid. I should’ve just waited until this week, when Carlie was well.”
Rylie didn’t want to point out that Carlie had been in LA this week. The chances that Carlie would’ve given up her opportunity to be cast in a movie were slim to none.
“No matter what, you saved Gabe’s life,” Rylie said, reaching across to put her hand on his arm and ignoring the thrill of that contact. “You’ll have the rest of this year with him, and maybe you can explain it to your caseworker. Tell her what happened. Maybe she’ll understand.”
Matthew scrunched his face. “Does this mean the other possibility is off the table? That would be your best option to keep Gabe.”
“Are you talking about me staying in a fake marriage with Jarrett for a year or more?” Rylie asked. “Because I don’t know if we could fake it well enough to fool that caseworker.”
“Don’t talk to me about anythingfake,” Matthew said. “I want to be absolutely above board, here. I won’t help you commit fraud. At the very least, you’ll have to live in the same house, and you can’t date anyone else while you’re married.”
“I would never do that.” Jarrett lifted his head, as if the affront to his pride had brought him back to life.
“Honestly,” Matthew said, “if you’d been married to Carlie and she was off in Hollywood for three or four months, you might’ve been rejected anyway.”
Jarrett blinked like someone had thrown cold water in his face. “I hadn’t thought of that.”
“These are your current choices, Jarrett,” Matthew said. “Do you want to throw everything into the adoption? Or would you rather just be Gabe’s guardian for a year and pursue Carlie, instead?”
