"I'm going to bed," Rachel said twenty minutes later. "Are you coming, darling?"
"In a little while, Love. There's something I need to take care of first."
After Rachel had gone to bed, Carl went to the phone and made a call.
"I can talk now. Rachel has gone to bed. He listened for a minute, and then said, "No, I've never told her."
The person on the other end spoke once more.
"Until quite recently," Carl responded, "I didn't think there was any reason to mention it."
Again the person he had called spoke.
"Yes, we do have to get together to discuss this situation," Carl said, "but it can't be in Bay City."
Carl and the person he was talking with decided to meet in a Chicago restaurant.
Carl ended the call and went to bed.
####
The next day ,Carl was seated at a table in the restaurant chosen for the meeting. A woman with shoulder-length black hair
entered, looked around, and then approached him.
"Hello, Carl," she said.
"Hello, Lydia," Carl said. "I suppose the polite thing would be to say [Carl made "quotation marks" with his fingers] "It's good to see you, but..." Carl spread his hands and shrugged his shoulders as if to say, "Well, you understand."
Lydia sat across from him and said, "I had my attorney double-check his findings."
"And?"
"There's no doubt about it. The divorce wasn't legal."
"Well, that can be taken care of quite easily."
"I still can't believe," Lydia said, "that you never told your, well, what, exactly should I call her?"
"My wife," Carl answered, "and the reason I never told her is that I considered our relationship a part of the past that was best left in the past."
"Well, I'm in your future now," said Lydia.
No," Carl replied, "you are in my past. We are going to get another divorce, and this time," he concluded, "I'll make damned sure that it is legal."
"I don't think you will," Lydia said.
"Oh, I assure you I will," answered Carl. "And after you and I are divorced, I will tell Rachel everything,
and marry her again."
Lydia lowered her voice.
"No, you won't. If you value Rachel's life, you will do exactly what I tell you."
