Accidental Divorce Text

My hands were still wet from washing dishes when his name popped up with the message. I wasn’t expecting him to text right now, but the preview looked strange, too long and definitely not addressed to me.

I swiped it open completely, my heart hammering against my ribs like a trapped bird. “She finally signed the papers,” the message read, sent to a number I didn’t recognize, signed simply “J.” The bright screen burned my eyes in the dim kitchen light as I reread the awful words. My stomach dropped, a cold stone settling deep inside me.

James. My James. What papers could this possibly be about that someone was signing? We hadn’t talked about divorce papers, not recently, not ever in our fifteen years together, not even with the arguments we’ve been having. “What papers, James?” I typed back quickly, a tremor running through my fingers.

This had to be a mistake, a text meant for someone else entirely, that’s the only logical explanation. Maybe he was working on something for a client, a friend going through a difficult separation? He’s a lawyer, after all, it *must* be work related, right? I reread the signature ‘J’.

The unknown number sent another message: ‘Tell her you accidentally sent it.’

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