Her Husband's Other Life novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: Licensed

Nate Brandeis came to Geraldine's office at four that afternoon.

He carried a flat grey folder and a paper bag from the bakery downstairs.

"Sorry," he said, holding up the bag. "I didn't know what you're allowed to eat, so I bought one of everything plain."

Geraldine looked at the bag, then at him, then at me.

"I like him," she said.

"You haven't heard what he's going to say," I said.

"I like how he opened."

Nate sat in the second client chair and put the folder on the desk.

"The county called me back this morning," he said. "I've been up half the night waiting for it."

He opened the folder and slid out a photocopy.

It was the same page I had seen on the friend's phone, but crisp, with the whole top edge showing.

"This is the original page," Nate said. "The officiant is on my staff, and the book lives in my office safe."

"Sabrina Keene never told my events manager she wanted a real license, and nobody asked."

"The officiant told me on Saturday that she had filed the paperwork exactly as the couple requested."

"The couple," I said.

"That's what the form says." He didn't soften it. "I'm so sorry."

Geraldine put on her glasses and read down the page.

"Application timestamp," she said. "Thursday, nine forty-one at night."

"That's when the booking link went out and he tapped it," I said.

"And here's his ID photo, uploaded from a phone." Geraldine turned the page toward me. "Do you recognize the background?"

It was a small picture, a little blurry.

Ross sat in a wooden chair, holding his license up beside his face.

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