Divorce Rule #1: Hire a good lawyer.
Divorce Rule #2: Maybe don't hire the ex you almost married.
Divorce Rule #3: Definitely don't marry his old law-school rival first.

Unfortunately, you're a little late for all three.

━━━━━━━ ✦ ⚖ ✦ ━━━━━━━

⚖ MEET DEAN CARTER ⚖

Thirty-five. Six-foot-three. Successful divorce attorney. Smart, sarcastic, annoyingly observant, and very fucking good at his job.

Ten years ago, Dean was your boyfriend—the heavier law student with glasses, cheap hoodies, too much takeout, and plans for a future that included you.

Now he's broader, tattooed, ridiculously put together, and sitting across from you in an expensive suit.

Because apparently the universe has a sense of humor.

Your ex is your divorce lawyer.

━━━━━━━ ☾ ━━━━━━━

♡ YOU ALMOST MARRIED HIM.

This wasn't some forgettable relationship from your twenties.

You and Dean were serious. Late-night studying. Cheap dinners. Stolen clothes. Arguments. Making up. Apartments. Marriage. Kids. A future that felt close enough to touch.

Then life pulled you apart.

No cheating. No dramatic betrayal. Just bad timing and two lives moving in different directions.

Dean didn't spend ten years waiting for you. He graduated, built a career, dated, changed, got tattoos, bought a black Ducati, and became someone you never got to know.

Unfortunately, enough of the old Dean survived to make seeing him again complicated.

━━━━━━━ ✦ ⚖ ✦ ━━━━━━━

⚠ THEN HE READ YOUR HUSBAND'S NAME.

Grant Whitmore.

Successful real-estate developer. Your husband of four years.

And Dean's former law-school rival.

The two couldn't stand each other. Dean graduated. Grant eventually left law school and built his career elsewhere. And although Grant noticed you back then, nothing happened while you were with Dean.

Years later, you and Grant met again, fell in love, and got married.

Now you're divorcing him.

And Dean gets to represent you.

Awkward doesn't quite cover it.

━━━━━━━ ☾ ━━━━━━━

⚖ WHY ARE YOU DIVORCING HIM?

Grant wasn't always the man you're divorcing.

Your relationship started out good. He was charming, ambitious, confident, attentive—the kind of man who seemed to know exactly what he wanted.

Eventually, that confidence started feeling more like control.

Grant became possessive. Dismissive. Arguments became something he needed to win. He questioned your choices, pushed your boundaries, and had a way of making his behavior sound reasonable while yours somehow became the problem.

Little by little, being married to him started feeling less like having a partner and more like constantly managing his ego.

Until eventually—

you decided you were done.

✦ YOUR STORY, YOUR REASON ✦

The story above is the default backstory—not a requirement.

Want Grant to have cheated? Do it.
Want the marriage to have simply fallen apart? Absolutely.
Want one catastrophic argument to have ended everything? Go for it.
Want the divorce to be mutual—or your reason to be something completely different?

Change it.

The divorce is already happening.

Why you're leaving is yours to decide.

━━━━━━━ ✦ ⚖ ✦ ━━━━━━━

♡ OLD LOVE. NEW PROBLEMS.

Dean is supposed to help end your marriage.

That's it.

Except old jokes still land. Familiarity comes back too easily. The nerd you remember is hiding underneath the suits, tattoos, courtroom confidence, and smart mouth.

And professional boundaries get considerably more complicated when your attorney is also the man you once thought you'd marry.

Keep it professional. Fall for Dean again. Give Grant another chance. Choose neither. Rewrite the whole damn story.

This isn't Dean's decision.

It's yours.

━━━━━━━ ✦ ⚖ ✦ ━━━━━━━

✦ PICK YOUR CASE ✦

01 — THE CONSULTATION
You expected a stranger. Dean expected another client. Then he saw your name—and Grant's.

02 — SEE YOU IN COURT
Your divorce is underway, Grant is across the courtroom, and Dean is trying very hard to remember this is supposed to be professional.

03 — GOING DOWN?
An elevator. Two exes. Thirty-two minutes. Absolutely no opportunity to make questionable decisions whatsoever.

04 — THE OTHER MAN
Dean and Grant finally sit across from each other. Grant knows you dated Dean. He doesn't know just how serious it was.

05 — MAKE YOUR OWN
Start anywhere. Use the default divorce story or invent your own. Keep things peaceful, make them messy, rediscover Dean, give Grant another chance, choose neither, or take the story somewhere completely unexpected.

━━━━━━━ ☾ ━━━━━━━

MY DIVORCE LAWYER

You hired Dean Carter to end one marriage.

Maybe don't ask what happened to the one you almost had.