Chapter 10 - The Marriage License
I checked the county records before Daniel finished his sentence.
Nothing had been filed.
Maya checked too.
“No marriage record,” she said.
I stayed on the call.
“What did you mean, it was filed?”
Daniel cursed softly.
“I mean the officiant signed it.”
“He did not. The unsigned license is in my possession.”
For the first time since the wedding, Daniel sounded genuinely afraid.
“Where?”
“That is none of your business.”
He hung up.
Ten minutes later, the officiant called me.
Reverend Paul Greene had performed weddings for the Mercers for years.
“Elena, I need to tell you something strange.”
He explained that Patricia’s assistant had contacted him that morning asking whether he had “forgotten” to complete a second copy of the marriage certificate.
“There is no second copy,” he said. “I refused to sign anything after what happened.”
Maya asked, “Did they send you a document?”
“Yes.”
He forwarded it.
The certificate looked official.
My name was typed beside Daniel’s. The date and venue were correct.
A signature resembling mine appeared at the bottom.
It was not mine.
Neither was the officiant’s.
Maya stared at the screen.
“They were preparing to create proof of marriage.”
“Why bother if the county record would expose it?”
“To show a lender first. Maybe not to fool the government forever. Just long enough to close a deal.”
I thought about Friday’s guaranty application.
Closing had been scheduled for Monday.
The day after the wedding.
My phone buzzed with a message from a number I did not recognize.
STOP LOOKING AT BLUE ALDER.
A second message arrived immediately.
ASK WHY THE SAFETY ACCOUNT IS EMPTY.
Then a photograph appeared.
It showed a collapsed scaffold from one of Mercer Construction’s job sites.
On the back, someone had written a date.
May you like
Three months earlier.
The same week Daniel asked me for the payroll loan.
