The Stranger I Married novel · Chapter 11 of 24

Chapter 11: The Lawyer

"There never was," Carly said again, as if the words might change.

"The letter has a seal," I said. "It has a case number and a judge's name."

"Judges' names are public. The number's made up."

I stood in the corridor of the Hartwell Chicago in last night's dress and felt my skin go tight.

Elias was three feet away.

He had heard every word, and his face had gone the exact gray of the boardroom carpet.

"Maya," he said carefully.

"Not now."

"I want to..."

"Not now, Eli."

I walked past him to the elevator, with Carly trotting behind, and I said to the doors, "Who was my lawyer?"

"The guy from the ad," Carly said.

"A bus bench. 'Divorce in thirty days, from eighteen hundred dollars.' You called the number from a bus bench in Joliet."

"What was his name?"

"I wrote it down. I write everything down."

She had a notebook in her bag.

It was held together with a rubber band, and inside, in her round handwriting, was the name of the man I'd paid.

She looked him up on her phone in the elevator.

"He's got an office," she said slowly. "On Wacker Drive. Eighteenth floor. Maya, it's a real firm. It's one of those glass buildings."

"Where on Wacker?"

She read me the address.

I looked out the lobby windows, across the river, to the tower that faced the Hartwell's front doors.

It was a tower of dark blue glass.

It was four hundred feet from where I stood.

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