Her Husband's Other Life novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: The Chapel Ledger

Nate's POV

The county clerk's office opened at eight, and I was at the counter at seven fifty-five with my grandmother's ledger under my arm.

It was a green cloth book with a cracked spine, and it had the date of every wedding at Willow Creek since 1971.

The clerk was a heavy man with reading glasses pushed up into his hair, and he had been three years ahead of me in school.

"Nate," he said. "You look terrible."

"I need to ask you something I can't un-ask."

He looked at the ledger, and then he looked at me, and he took the glasses down.

"Is this about the Keene license?"

"You know about it."

"I know a lawyer named Penrose called me yesterday and spelled two names." He lowered his voice. "Is it true that the groom was already married?"

"Yes."

"Then I can't touch it." He rubbed his eyes. "Once it's recorded, only a judge undoes it. They'll want sworn statements from the officiant and from the venue."

"From me."

"From you. You'd say what that ceremony was, and who filed what."

"What happens to the hotel?"

He didn't want to answer, and I watched him decide to.

"Your officiant married two people she knew were a prank, on paper that wasn't. Your insurer will ask why. The state may look at your ceremony permit."

"For how long?"

"A season, maybe. Maybe not."

Willow Creek books forty weddings between May and October, and those weddings pay the heat bill for the rest of the year.

I opened the ledger on the counter to the page for the first of April.

My grandmother had kept this book herself until she was eighty-one, always in pen.

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