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“So you’re saying there’s no way to prove we weren’t here?” I asked.
“Is there security footage from that day?” Arthur asked, his jaw clenched.
Once safely inside the taxi, I let out a long breath. “Victor,” I said into my phone, “I need your help.”
I froze, suddenly remembering that he didn’t know I already had his number saved as “Grandson.” That would require explanations I wasn’t prepared to give.
“You’re worried he’ll try to claim part of your companies?”
Arthur opened his laptop, trying to focus on work, but his thoughts kept drifting back to Elara. Her calm demeanor. The way she stood up to her mother. Her apparent lack of interest in his wealth.
“I have no idea,” I admitted. “But I need this handled quietly and quickly. My Avora IPO is in three months, and this could complicate everything.”
Arthur nodded stiffly. “Goodbye, Ms. Dubois.”
“Of course,” I said, stepping back. “I have appointments of my own.”
“We should end this-”
“May I see the signatures?” I asked.
“Goodbye, Mr. Sterling.”
“Thank you for your time,” Arthur said curtly, collecting the certificate.
Philip stepped forward, clearly eager to separate us. “Mr. Sterling has a meeting in thirty minutes. We should leave now.”
Arthur’s face had turned to stone, but I could see a muscle twitching in his jaw. Behind us, Philip looked like he’d swallowed something sour.
“I’ll find you the best,” Victor promised. “What are we looking at in terms of assets?”
Just as he was processing this, Philip burst into his office.
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“There must be some mistake,” Arthur added, his voice tight.
“Yes, divorce is the only logical solution,” I replied, surprised at how calm I sounded.
“What do you want me to do about the divorce?”
She turned her monitor toward us. There they were–Arthur’s precise, commanding scrawl and my own looping signature, unmistakably mine.
“Do you think she arranged it somehow?” Victor asked.
I quickly pulled out my phone and pretended to create a new contact, actually just changing “Grandson” to “Arthur Sterling” in my contacts.
“I mean, we should exchange contact information,” I recovered quickly. “For the divorce proceedings.”
“Boss, I have some results on the investigation into your marriage!”
“Yours?” Victor sounded confused. “Elara, he’s worth billions.”
Of course it was. I resisted the urge to laugh hysterically.
“That’s the tricky part,” I said, lowering my voice. “I need to protect mine.”
The clerk adjusted her glasses, brow furrowing as she studied her screen. “According to our records, this certificate is absolutely authentic. You were both registered as legally married on May 18th, five years ago.”
“I know,” I sighed. “And there’s something else. I think Old Mrs. Sterling knows something about this marriage.”
“WhatsApp?” Arthur raised an eyebrow.
“My grandmother may have memory issues, but she’s not a fool,” Arthur said sharply. “There’s something more to this.”
“Married. To Arthur Sterling.” I rubbed my temple. “It’s a long story, but apparently we’ve been married for five years without either of us knowing it.”
We turned away from each other simultaneously, him toward his waiting car, me toward the street to call a taxi. The synchronicity of our movements was almost
comical.
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Victor was quiet for a moment. “I’ll draw up a divorce agreement that protects your interests. But Elara… if you’ve been married for five years, this won’t be simple.”
After ending the call, I leaned back against the seat, staring out the window. How had my life become so complicated in just forty–eight hours? From a fake marriage arrangement to discovering I was already legally married to one of the most powerful men in the country.
Victor’s shocked silence lasted only a moment. “You’re what?”
“Let me verify this in our system,” the clerk said, her fingers tapping rapidly on her keyboard as she glanced between us and the marriage certificate.
“Find me everything you can on Elara Dubois,” he ordered, loosening his tie. “I want to know who she is, where she came from, and what game she’s playing.”
“The grandmother with Alzheimer’s?”
“Of course,” Philip nodded. “I’ll make sure she doesn’t take advantage of this situation.”
“Maybe. But her condition is deteriorating,” I explained. “If she knows the truth, we
need to find out soon.”
The clerk clicked through a few more screens. “I’m sorry, but we only keep security footage for six months. After that, it’s automatically purged from our system.”
Meanwhile, across the city, Arthur Sterling stormed into his office, Philip trailing
behind him.
We stood there awkwardly for another moment before both speaking at once.
“You go first,” I offered.
“I don’t know what he’ll do,” I said honestly. “But I’ve worked too hard to risk losing control of anything.”
“I already have your number from last night,” he said.
“Hire the best lawyer we can get,” Arthur instructed. “I want this handled quickly and quietly. Protect all my assets. She’s not getting a penny more than she’s legally entitled
to.”
“I agree completely,” I said, nodding. “We should handle this professionally and
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efficiently.”
“Already on it, sir,” Philip replied. “But preliminary findings suggest she’s just an illegitimate daughter from the Dubois family. Probably saw an opportunity to improve her station.”
“Thank you,” I said gratefully. “In the meantime, prepare that divorce agreement. I want to send it to Sterling as soon as possible to show I’m not interested in his money.”
“Perhaps she found a way to manipulate your grandmother,” Philip suggested. “Mrs. Sterling’s condition makes her vulnerable to manipulation.”
“What’s going on, Elara?” my friend and legal advisor answered.
“And Philip,” he added, “find out everything you can about that day five years ago. Where I was, what I was doing. There has to be an explanation for how this happened.”
“This marriage is—”
Arthur cleared his throat. “This marriage is clearly a mistake. I’ll make arrangements to have it dissolved as quickly as possible.”
The air left my lungs in a rush. “That’s impossible.”
“How is that even possible?”
“The system doesn’t lie, ma’am,” she replied with finality. “Your marriage is legally binding. If you wish to end it, you’ll need to file for divorce.”
Arthur sat at his desk, his mind racing. Something about Elara didn’t fit the gold–digger narrative Philip was pushing. She had seemed genuinely shocked by the marriage certificate, and her determination to end the marriage matched his own.
I shifted uncomfortably, hyper–aware of Arthur’s presence beside me. This had to be some elaborate mistake. My life was complicated enough without being mysteriously
married to Oceanion’s most intimidating CEO.
“But I never signed this,” I insisted, even as I stared at proof that I apparently had.
“I’ll contact you through WhatsApp,” I said, reaching for my phone.
“I’ll look into experimental treatments for her condition,” Victor offered. “There might be something that could help stabilize her memory temporarily.”
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“And I’m not exactly poor myself,” I reminded him. “Sterling doesn’t know about my businesses or my research. I need to keep it that way.”
The woman shook her head. “No mistake, Mr. Sterling. The system shows your marriage was properly registered with both parties present. The signatures match our records.”
A notification popped up on his screen–an email from an unknown address containing a divorce agreement. He opened it, scanning the document with surprise. The terms were surprisingly reasonable, with Elara asking for nothing except a clean break.
“I’ll have my lawyer contact yours,” Arthur said finally, breaking the silence.
“Right.” I nodded, thinking fast. “I’ll just save yours then.”
We stopped, staring at each other.
Arthur leaned forward, his shoulder brushing against mine. “Those are our signatures,” he admitted reluctantly.
Arthur frowned. “That doesn’t explain how we ended up legally married with certificates my grandmother had in her possession.”
“Yes. She had our marriage certificate. And she seemed so certain we were married, even before we found the proof.”
We walked out of the bureau in silence, the reality of our situation settling over us like a heavy blanket. Once outside, we stopped on the steps, carefully maintaining distance
between us..
“Of course.”
Another pause stretched between us, neither knowing quite how to end this bizarre
encounter.
“Yes, boss.”
“I need the best divorce lawyer you can find,” I said, watching Arthur’s car pull away from the curb. “It turns out I’m married to Arthur Sterling.”
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