The manila envelope felt heavier than it should have as I carried it from the mailbox to my kitchen counter. Seven years of dreaming about this moment—my acceptance into the State Department's diplomatic program—and now that it was here, my hands trembled as I broke the seal.
'Congratulations, Ms. Green,' the letter began, and my heart soared for exactly three seconds before my world tilted sideways.
Ms. Green. Not Mrs. Richards.
I read the line again, my coffee growing cold as I stared at the personal information section. Marital Status: Single. Emergency Contact: None Listed.
Single?
My fingers found my wedding ring, twisting the simple gold band Warren had placed there seven years ago. The weight of it suddenly felt foreign, wrong somehow. I grabbed my phone with shaking hands and dialed the State Department's personnel office.
'This is Catherine Richards,' I said when someone answered. 'There's been an error in my paperwork. My marital status is listed incorrectly.'
The woman on the other end typed something. 'I'm showing Catherine Green in our system. Are you perhaps recently married and need to update your legal name?'
'No, I've been married for seven years. Catherine Richards. My husband is Warren Richards.'
More typing. A pause that stretched too long. 'Ma'am, our records are pulled directly from federal databases. If you believe there's an error, you might want to contact the courthouse where your marriage was recorded.'
The phone slipped from my numb fingers, clattering onto the granite countertop.
An hour later, I stood in the sterile hallway of the county courthouse, my heels clicking against polished linoleum as I approached the records office. The clerk, a middle-aged woman with kind eyes behind wire-rimmed glasses, looked up expectantly.
'I need to verify my marriage certificate,' I said, my voice steadier than I felt. 'Catherine Richards, married to Warren Richards on June fifteenth, seven years ago.'
She typed into her computer, frowning slightly. 'I'm not finding any record of that marriage. Could you check the spelling?'
I spelled out both names twice, gave her Warren's social security number, our address. Each search came back empty.
'Ma'am,' she said gently, 'are you certain the ceremony took place in this county?'
'Yes.' The word came out as barely a whisper. 'Could you... could you search for Warren Richards with any other name?'
Her fingers flew across the keyboard. Then she stopped, her expression shifting to something resembling pity.
'I do show a Warren Richards, married seven years ago on June fifteenth.' She paused, clearly uncomfortable. 'To Jade Burke.'
The fluorescent lights above seemed to flicker, or maybe that was just my vision blurring. 'That's impossible.'
'Would you like me to print the certificate?'
I nodded, not trusting my voice. The printer hummed to life, and she handed me the document with the same careful gentleness one might use to deliver news of a death.
There it was, in official black ink: Warren Richards and Jade Burke, married on what I had believed was my wedding day. The signatures looked genuine. Warren's careful script, the same one that signed birthday cards and anniversary notes.
My legs gave out, and I sank into the plastic chair beside the counter. The clerk offered me water, which I declined with a shake of my head. How could I explain that I was drowning already?
The drive home passed in a blur of traffic lights and half-remembered turns. I pulled into our driveway—Warren's driveway, apparently—and sat in my car for several minutes, staring at the house where I'd believed I'd built a life.
Inside, Warren's voice drifted from his study, animated and relaxed in the way it got when he talked to his college friends. I moved toward the sound like a sleepwalker, the marriage certificate crumpled in my fist.
'...seven years and she still has no idea,' he was saying, laughter threading through his words. 'The fake certificate was Marcus's idea, actually. Brilliant, really. Jade gets the legal protection, Catherine gets the emotional satisfaction, and I get both of them.'
I pressed my back against the hallway wall, my heart hammering so loudly I was sure he'd hear it.
'Come on, man,' another voice said through the speakerphone. 'Don't you feel guilty?'
'Sometimes,' Warren admitted. 'But Catherine's happy. She doesn't know what she doesn't know, right? And Jade... well, Jade understands the arrangement.'
'What happens when Catherine finds out?'
'She won't.' Warren's voice carried absolute certainty. 'Why would she? She has no reason to doubt anything. As far as she knows, we're perfectly married.'
The certificate fell from my nerveless fingers, fluttering to the hardwood floor like a dying bird. Seven years. Seven years of believing I was a wife when I was nothing more than a mistress. Seven years of loving a man who had built our entire relationship on a foundation of lies.
And Jade Burke—the woman whose name was legally linked to my husband's—I knew that name. The woman who had destroyed my mother's heart with cruel photographs, triggering the attack that killed her.
Warren had married my mother's killer and made me his fool.
