The Video Called Me His Mistress, But I Was His Wife novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: Not Legally His Wife

Hazel's POV

Gavin told me in the car, with the engine off, outside the jail.

"Five years ago, the day we married, my father had a man at the county clerk's office."

"A man."

"A clerk who owed him a favor. He saw our names on the license and took the record out of the system. The paper certificate went to my father's safe."

I sat with my hands in my lap.

"So I'm not married to you."

"On paper, in the county's files, no."

"For five years."

"Yes."

"The video called me your mistress," I said.

"Yes."

I started to laugh.

I couldn't stop.

I laughed until I had to put my forehead on the dashboard, and Gavin put his hand on my back and did not say a word.

"I wore a gray dress," I said, when I could. "I stood in a courthouse with my hand on a Bible, and he made me a mistress with a clerk and a pen."

"I should have checked the record."

"You should have."

"I'll check it every year for the rest of my life."

"You'll check it every month," I said, and wiped my eyes. "Where is the certificate?"

"My father says he'll hand it over in court on Thursday. In front of everyone. He asked for that."

"Why would he ask?"

"I think he wants an audience for the one decent thing he's done," Gavin said.

On Thursday the courtroom was full.

The old machinists sat together in the third row, in suits that didn't fit, with their caps in their hands.

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