Love, Lies, And Papers

Synopsis

In the third year of my long-distance marriage, my husband and I decided to spend Valentine's Day in Italy. I went to the immigration office with all my documents to apply for a visa. The clerk typed for a while, then suddenly looked up at me. "Ma'am, your marital status shows divorced." To get to the bottom of it, I took our marriage license to the courthouse. The answer was the same. "You and Mr. Rivers finalized your divorce three years ago. He is now married to another woman named Lucy Summers. Do you know her?" My mind went blank. A sharp ringing filled my ears, drowning out everything else. Everyone around us had known that Jonathan had fallen for me at first sight. We went from classmates to husband and wife. Lucy was the orphan my parents had taken in after I got lost as a child. She and Jonathan had been childhood sweethearts.