The Registry Said I Was Single, So They Assigned Me My Husband's Boss novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: Which One Is True

The hearing room had beige carpet, a flag, and a long table with a pitcher of water nobody touched.

I sat at the left side in my interview blazer, with Silvan in the row behind me.

He had not asked to sit beside me.

I had told him to sit behind me, so I could feel him there.

Lydia sat next to him with a laptop on her knee, and Deborah beside her with her cane across her lap.

Dina had taken the morning off and brought a thermos of coffee, which the guard had confiscated.

At the right-hand table sat Spencer, in a navy suit, and his lawyer, a thin man with a leather folder.

Spencer did not look at me.

The three members of the panel came in and sat.

The one in the middle was a heavy woman with half-glasses and a tired voice, and the clerk who sat at her elbow was the same clerk who had started the printer for me on the first day.

She gave me the smallest nod.

"We are here," said the presiding member, "on a notice of dispute. Mr. Albrecht's counsel will state it."

The lawyer stood.

"My client's position is simple. He and Ms. Prentiss were lawfully married last December. The match assigned to her is therefore void, and she has been in unlawful absence from a marriage."

"Do you have a filed certificate?"

"The ceremony took place. The paperwork, regrettably, was delayed."

"By whom?"

The lawyer glanced at Spencer.

"Mr. Albrecht, I'll ask you directly," said the presiding member. "Was it ever filed?"

"No, ma'am. I intended to."

"For eleven months."

"I was busy."

A small sound came from the row behind me, and it was Deborah, breathing through her nose.

"I'll move on," the presiding member said. "Your own application to marry Ms. Lydia Hallam was filed in October. Is that your signature?"

The lawyer opened his folder, and Spencer looked at it for longer than he needed to.

"Yes."

"On the line that reads: I am unmarried and legally free to marry, did you sign under penalty of perjury?"

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