Natalie opened the door and after only a moment’s hesitation asked, “What happened?”
Dakota stood there feeling as if her limbs weighed eighty pounds each. Her eyes felt three times their normal size. “Cam wants me to sign a prenup.”
“What?” Natalie scowled as Dakota went inside. “I can’t believe that.”
“Believe it.”
They went into the kitchen where Natalie got out some white wine. “It’s kind of early to start drinking, but I think the situation merits some spur of the moment sangria.”
“Good call. I’d love some sangria. What can I do to help?”
Together they cut up fruit, dissolved some sugar in water and put that, some orange juice and the bottle of wine into a pitcher and voila.
The sun was out, so they sat on the patio. Natalie broke out a large bag of tortilla chips and a wedge of brie she had in the fridge. It was a surprisingly tasty pairing.
“Now tell me what happened,” Natalie said. “Did he just come home one day and present the piece of paper?”
Dakota shook her head. “No. I actually don’t think I was supposed to find out about it this soon.” She explained how Cam had left his phone behind and she’d seen the texts.
“I…I’m still kind of shocked,” Natalie said. “What are you going to do, honey?”
“I don’t know. He thinks I’m a gold digger.”
“No, I’m sure he doesn’t.”
Dakota gave her a look. “I did some research before I came over. Prenups are for asset protection. And who is he protecting himself from? Me. That’s who.”
Natalie winced. “Okay, as much as that totally sucks, let’s say that’s true. You still have a decision to make. Do you still marry him or not? Do you still love him?”
Dakota stared into the distance. “Yes, I do. And that’s what sucks even more. Even though he’s done this to me, I still love and want him. How sad is that?”
“It’s not sad at all, Dakota. He’s a wonderful man, and I know he must have a good reason for doing this.”
“I don’t know what it could be, and believe me, I’ve tried to think of it.” Dakota looked down at her ring. The magnificent diamond seemed to mock her. “I take it you and Paul didn’t have a prenup.”
Natalie sighed. “No, we didn’t.”
“In your circle of hockey wife friends, assuming you have one, does anyone you know have a prenup?”
“I honestly don’t know, but that doesn’t prove anything. They just might be private people.”
That was true and made her feel a little bit better.
“Well, if you think about it, put some feelers out there for me, okay? Because if this is a normal thing…”
“No, of course, I will. And I’ll make sure no one suspects that I’m asking on your behalf. You can count on me.”
Dakota held her empty glass out and Natalie refilled it.
“One last question,” Dakota said. “If Paul had asked you to sign a prenup before you got married, what do you think you would have done?”
Natalie was quiet for a moment. “If Paul had asked me to sign a prenup, I think…I think would have signed it. Maybe it’s idealistic of me, but I trust him to keep his marriage vows to me, so the prenup would just sit in a file somewhere gathering dust and we’d be just as happy as we are today.
“Look, Cam’s a good man, Dakota. One of the best I’ve ever known. And you’re just as wonderful. You’re two wonderful people who deserve happiness together. So I guess it all just boils down to the fact that he loves you and you love him. Everything else is just white noise.”
On the way home, Dakota stopped at a mini-mall and purchased enough food to feed a family of six—Korean barbecued short ribs, rice and kimchi, fried chicken and buttermilk biscuits, a quart of hand-packed mint chip ice cream, and a pepperoni pizza. The dogs happily greeted her at the door, unaware anything was wrong at all and it was strange how she still felt very alone.
“All right, pooches, if you’re good, you’ll get some goodies later.”
Taking her haul with her to the family room, she spread it all out on the coffee table—everything but the ice cream. She put on her favorite feel-good movie, The Princess Bride, sat back and stuffed her face. She ate so much she didn’t even have room for the ice cream. The dogs, as if sensing she needed comfort, cuddled with her on the sofa.
Even so, all the hurt and pain had coalesced into a cold little knot, as if she’d been shot and the bullet was still embedded in her flesh. The pain just wouldn’t go away.
She wasn’t sure if it ever would.
Even if she ended up signing the prenup and marrying him anyway, like Natalie said she would have done, what would the cost to her sense of self be? Would the knowledge that document existed “in a file somewhere” slowly eat away at her like a slow growing cancer? Or would she be able to put it from her mind and forget about it?
She honestly didn’t know.