Chapter 4

Instead of going home to wait for his explanation, I got into my car and called Ryan Mercer.

Ryan was an attorney and an old friend.

"I need you to check something for me."

"What?"

"I need you to check whether Ethan and I were ever legally married."

There was a brief silence on the other end.

"Why are you suddenly checking that?"

I looked down at the ring on my hand.

"Because I met his wife today."

Ryan didn't ask anything else.

After we hung up, I stayed in the parking lot.

My mind kept going back to the wedding three years earlier.

The venue.

The officiant.

The vows.

The guests.

And the certificate I had kept at home ever since.

After the wedding, I had asked Ethan when the marriage license would come through.

He told me everything had already been handed off to someone who was taking care of it.

I asked again later.

Harborline had been chaos at the time.

He had been sitting at the dining table answering emails without even looking up.

"Anything involving multiple states is a mess. It's easier to let professionals handle the paperwork."

I hadn't asked again.

Our finances had always been separate.

So had our insurance.

I hadn't changed my last name, and I had never added Ethan to my employee benefits at the center.

None of that had ever seemed strange before.

My phone stayed silent.

I rested both hands on the steering wheel and watched the parking lot empty.

A teacher from the afternoon program came out carrying a tote bag and waved at me through the windshield.

I lifted one hand.

She kept walking.

Ten minutes later, the family parked two spaces away pulled out.

Then another car left.

The lot slowly changed from a place full of parents and children into rows of empty pavement.

I checked my phone.

Nothing.

I turned my left hand over.

The ring caught the light coming through the windshield.

For three years, I had worn it without thinking about the weight of it.

That morning I had washed paint off my hands with it still on.

Opened snack containers with it.

Signed classroom forms.

Answered parents while it rested against the pen between my fingers.

Now I could feel every place the metal touched my skin.

I thought about taking it off.

I left it where it was.

Not because I still trusted what it meant.

Because I wanted the answer before I decided what the ring was.

Another five minutes passed.

I went back through the facts I already had.

Caroline had said four years.

Our ceremony had been three years ago.

Ethan had never shown me a filed marriage license.

Those facts did not need more imagination added to them.

My phone finally lit up.

Ryan.

I answered before the first ring finished.

"I found it."

I tightened my grip on the phone.

"Tell me."

"The certificate you sent me isn't a government-issued marriage certificate."

I said nothing.

"What is it?"

"A commemorative document from the wedding vendor."

My fingers slowly went cold.

"What about the registration?"

"I couldn't find any record of a legal marriage between you and Ethan."

I stared through the windshield.

On the other side of the parking lot, a father was bending down to buckle his child into a car seat.

"Could it just be a filing problem?"

"What I can confirm is that there's no record showing the marriage was ever legally recorded."

I closed my eyes.

For a few seconds, all I could hear was the fan from the dashboard and a shopping cart rattling somewhere beyond the lot.

Then I opened my eyes again.

The ring was still on my hand.

That morning, I thought I had discovered that my husband had another wife.

But that wasn't what had happened.

Ethan had always had a wife.

I was the one who didn't.

My phone vibrated.

Ethan.

Let me explain tonight.

I stared at the message.

Then I pulled the ring off my finger and set it in the cup holder.

A pale line circled the skin underneath.

For three years, Ethan had always asked me to wait.

Wait until he got home.

Wait until he finished working.

Wait until things settled down.

I opened our message thread.

Come by tonight. Bring your key.

His reply came almost immediately.

Maya, what did you find?

I locked my phone.

Started the car.

And didn't answer.