Then I unfolded another document.
The date was from forty-six years earlier.
Her first husband had written:
Irene, I had no idea either. Tell me what needs to be signed so we can finally fix this.
For a few seconds, I felt relief.
Then I found the final paper.
Their first marriage had legally ended forty-six years ago.
Penelope looked at me.
“So after that, Mom was free to marry you?”
“Yes.”
Then we both understood the same thing.
“But she never did,” Penelope said.
I sat down on the edge of the bed.
“Fourteen years could have been an accident.”
I looked at the paper in my hand.
“Forty-six years wasn’t.”
The next morning, I called Mr. Geller.
When he came over, I placed the divorce documents between us.
“Explain something to me. Once Irene’s first marriage legally ended, why didn’t that automatically make ours valid?”
