Reluctantly, Sasha took the papers from him, refusing to meet his eyes. Just being this close to him brought back all of the emotions she'd been trying so hard to repress these last few months - not just the hurt and anger she had felt when he'd gone back to his family, but all of the good memories, too. She missed being with him, missed talking to him about how his day had been, or gently lecturing him about taking his vitamins or making sure he got enough sleep. And she really, really missed falling asleep in his arms after he'd made love to her so tenderly that it had brought tears to her eyes. Being near him this way, close enough to smell the soap he'd used to shower with this morning, brought all of those emotions surging to the surface until they threatened to overwhelm her. She took a deep, calming breath before glancing at the papers, which looked to her inexperienced eyes to be some sort of legal document.
"I don't understand. What exactly is this? Am I supposed to read all of these pages or something?" she asked half-jokingly.
"No." Matthew shook his head. "Just the first and last ones will suffice."
Sasha looked at the top sheet more carefully this time, and three words jumped out at her - "Decree of Divorce". Slowly, not permitting herself to get her hopes up, she flipped to the last page as Matthew had instructed.
There were two signatures there, both notarized and dated a few days ago. She recognized Matthew's bold, almost indecipherable scrawl, and then gave a soft gasp when she realized the second signature was Lindsey's.
"I just picked the papers up from my attorney a little while ago," Matthew told her somberly. "Lindsey finally gave in and signed them late last week. After some extra added persuasion, that is."
Sasha's hand was trembling a little, and she quickly handed the document back to him before it fell. "What - what sort of persuasion?" she asked faintly.
Matthew gave a wry grin. "The sort Lindsey understands best - the financial kind. I changed the terms of the divorce settlement after certain, ah, developments occurred. She stood to lose a hundred thousand dollars for each day that she refused to sign. And when she realized I was dead serious on the matter, she caved. The divorce will be final in about six weeks."
She wrapped her arms over her torso, suddenly feeling chilled despite the warmth of the massage room. "What about Hayley?" she murmured. "I thought the whole reason for you moving back to Hillsborough was to help her get through her pregnancy."
He snorted. "What pregnancy? Those developments I just mentioned? Turns out that Lindsey and Hayley concocted this very elaborate web of lies about the date rape and the pregnancy, even about how Hayley was acting out and being rebellious. A web of lies very carefully woven with the intent of trapping me inside of it. Lindsey was so desperate to get me back, to reclaim her place as Mrs. Matthew Bennett, that she had the nerve to coerce Hayley into going along with her warped plans."
Sasha stared at him in horror. "She lied to you about everything?" she whispered. "My God, Matthew. I knew Hayley could be, well, difficult, but I never thought she could be that cruel to her own father. I'm so sorry. I can't even imagine how much that sort of betrayal hurt you."
Matthew nodded. "Yeah, it sucked big time. Doing something so twisted is vintage Lindsey, so it didn't surprise me to learn she was the mastermind behind everything. But to learn my own daughter was a willing participant in ruining my life - well, like I told Hayley, it's going to take me some time to forgive her. Even if she was strong-armed into cooperating."
"I had this feeling - no, never mind." She shook her head. "It's not my place to say anything, especially since I can tell you already feel awful about this."
He placed a hand on her forearm. "No, please. Tell me. I know you well enough to realize that your feelings and premonitions are usually always right. What were you about to say?"
Sasha couldn't resist touching him a second longer, feeling an overwhelming rush of empathy for what he had endured at learning his own child had betrayed him. She placed her hand over his, giving it a comforting squeeze. "I couldn't help but be a little suspicious of Hayley's story. I never said anything to you at the time, didn't want to sound like I was bitter or resentful. But, well, something just felt off about the whole thing. If for no other reason Hayley didn't seem like the sort of person who would ever consider going through with a pregnancy under such circumstances. She's a bit too much on the self-centered side for that. But it wasn't my business, and I figured that you knew your daughter far better than I did."