Chapter 62
Dorothy’s POV:
:.
I hung up the phone, sighing deeply as I placed it on my antique side table.
“End things with the Bailey girl,” I muttered to myself, rising from my chair. “Perhaps not the worst idea.”
After that disgraceful incident with the stolen painting, I’d developed serious doubts about Sienna Bailey’s character.
If Caspar wanted to terminate the contract, I couldn’t be more supportive.
The only problem was that I couldn’t remember where I’d put those documents. It had been five years, after all.
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I’d only looked at them once when they first arrived, then filed them away somewhere safe and hadn’t touched them since.
I made my way to my study, determined to locate the marriage contract and certificate.
They had to be somewhere among my personal files. What had started as an organized search quickly devolved into chaos as I pulled out
drawer after drawer, emptying filing cabinets and boxes.
Three hours later, my normally immaculate study looked as if a hurricane had torn through it.
Papers lay scattered across the Persian rug–financial statements, property deeds, old photographs–but the one document I desperately
needed remained elusive.
“Where is it?” I muttered, yanking open another drawer.
A soft knock interrupted my thoughts.
“Come in,” I called, not looking up from the antique writing desk I was now examining,
Martha entered, my housekeeper of thirty years and the only servant I truly trusted.
Her eyes widened at the chaos surrounding me.
“Mrs. Thornton, what’s going on here?”
“Lock the door, Martha,” I instructed, cutting her off. “I am looking for a file.”
Martha immediately complied, then approached me with concern etched on her face. “May I help you, ma’am?”
I tapped my lower back with my fist, straightening a posture that had been bent over for too long. I need the marriage contract between
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Chapter 62
Samuel West and that Bailey girl. I know it’s here somewhere.”
Martha’s eyes registered understanding. Everyone in my household knew of my disappointment in Sienna Bailey.
“Have you checked the hidden compartment in your desk?” Martha suggested.
I paused and smacked my forehead in frustration. How could I have forgotten there?
With Martha’s help, I pressed the hidden lever beneath the third drawer. A small panel slid open, revealing a compact wall safe I hadn’t
accessed in years.
“The combination,” I murmured, closing my eyes to recall. “Harold’s birthday and our anniversary.”
The safe opened with a satisfying click.
Two copies of the marriage contract slid out, along with the marriage certificate itself.
Martha bent down to retrieve them, and as she gathered the papers, the marriage certificate flipped open.
She paused, staring at something on the document, her expression shifting from confusion to astonishment.
“Mrs. Thornton,” she said slowly, “isn’t that the young lady who teaches Noah at the gallery?”
I frowned in confusion. “What do you mean? There shouldn’t be any photo of Audrey here.”
I leaned forward to see what Martha was pointing at–a photograph paper–clipped to the second copy of the contract–the bride’s signed photo required for the documentation.
My heart skipped a beat. The woman in the photograph was decidedly not Sienna Bailey.
I reached for my reading glasses with trembling hands. “That can’t be right,” I whispered, adjusting the glasses on my nose. “Let me see
that.”
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The photo showed a woman with the same delicate features, the same expressive eyes as Audrey. She looked younger, with longer hair and
a solemn expression, but it was unmistakably her.
I suddenly remembered why Audrey had seemed so familiar when I first met her at the Luminous Gallery.
A wave of realization washed over me–I had been wrong from the very beginning.
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Sara Lili is a daring romance writer who turns icy landscapes into scenes of fiery passion. She loves crafting hot love stories while embracing the chill of Iceland’s breathtaking cold.
