My Husband and My Best Friend Betrayed Me on Our Wedding Day. Twice. novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: Annulment

The hallway outside Family Court had a bench, a water fountain and sixty people waiting for their names.

Stefano stood at the far end of it in a navy suit.

The bruise on his nose had turned yellow, and he turned his face so people could see it.

A thin lawyer in a grey suit stood at his shoulder with a leather folder.

Stefano saw me and smiled.

"Good morning, wife," he said, loud enough for the bench to hear.

Three women on it looked up.

"I'm not your wife," I said.

"That depends on a judge." He tipped his head toward Luca. "Hello, brother. Have you picked a lawyer?"

"I don't need one."

"You will. Forgery is a felony. Five years, maybe more." Stefano shrugged. "I'd write a letter to Dad and say goodbye."

The thin lawyer cleared his throat.

"Mr. Sorrentino, we shouldn't discuss the petition."

"Why not? Everyone here is going to hear it anyway."

He was right.

A man with a phone had stopped near the fountain. A woman in a blazer was writing in a notebook.

The church video had followed me here.

I took a breath.

"Luca," I said. "Stay with me."

"Where are you going?"

"To the clerk."

The clerk's window sat at the end of the hall, behind a sheet of scratched glass. A woman with reading glasses on a chain looked up from a stack of files.

"I'm Valeria Morandi," I said. "I'm named in a petition today. Case number on this paper. I need to make a sworn statement before the judge calls it."

"You can do that after the hearing."

"I'd like to do it now."

She read the first page.

Then she read it again, slowly, with a finger under the line.

"Miss Morandi," she said. "Do you want to dispute your own signature?"

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