I Found His Marriage Certificate In His Suit Pocket Chapter 08

I Found His Marriage Certificate In His Suit Pocket Chapter 08

I quietly sat by my grandmother’s bed, wiped her body, and helped her into her burial clothes.

My second aunt looked at me, her eyes sad and confused. “Why did you take so long, Sophie? We’ve been waiting.”

I hesitated for a moment, then lied, keeping the miscarriage a secret-she’d been through enough pain already.

“Sophie, I know how much you and Ethan loved each other. You’ve been together since college-since you were kids. How

could he marry someone else? How could he do this to you?”

“He lied to you, didn’t he? I’ll call your cousins-we’ll all go and teach that heartless man a lesson.”

I told my second aunt everything-Ethan, Mia, the fake marriage, the dowry, the jewelry, the patent. All of it. My voice

stayed calm and steady, as if I were talking about a stranger.

My second aunt’s mouth fell open, her eyes wide with shock and disbelief.

She couldn’t understand it. No one could.

How could anyone be so crazy? To marry a stranger to help her, completely disregarding his girlfriend of eight years.

“Sophie…” she said, reaching out to touch my hand, her voice soft and gentle, “I’m so sorry. I don’t know what to say. I

wish I could take the pain away.”

I fastened the last button on my grandmother’s burial gown and looked up at my second aunt, my eyes dry and empty.

no more tears left to cry:

‘I broke up with Ethan. I should’ve left him a long time ago. If I had, Grandma would still be alive. This is all my fault.”

“Auntie, I called the police. I’m not letting this go.”

“I talked to a civil lawyer. The person who went to see Grandma, who showed her the marriage license-they knew she had a heart condition. They knew she couldn’t handle the stress. This is involuntary manslaughter. They’re going to jail.”

“Anyone who hurt her. Anyone who made her suffer. I’m not going to let them get away with it. Not a single one.”

On the day of my grandmother’s funeral, Ethan showed up at the small town in New Haven, uninvited.

He knelt in front of her casket, crying like a baby.

The relatives and friends at the funeral stared at him, confused and curious, whispering to each other.

“Who is that boy? I don’t remember Grandma having a grandson like that.”

“That’s Sophie’s boyfriend, isn’t it? The one she’s been with for eight years. They never got married, though. Always thought he didn’t love her enough to put a ring on it.”

“Shame on him. Grandma died because of him-because he married that other girl, and Sophie got called a mistress. Poor Grandma. She loved Sophie more than anything in the world.”

Ethan’s face turned red, then white, then red again, his cheeks burning with shame and guilt. He bowed his head lower. his hair falling over his face, hiding his tears.

My face was cold, my heart colder.

I just wanted the funeral to be over. I just wanted to say goodbye to my grandmother in peace, without him ruining it, without him making it all about himself.

I grabbed Ethan by the arm and pulled him into a small spare room, slamming the door shut behind us, my eyes blazing with anger:

“What do you want, Ethan? What are you doing here?”

“Grandma’s dead. Do you have to make her funeral a circus? Do you have to make her die and still be talked about, still be shamed?”

Ethan’s shoulders slumped, and he pulled a piece of paper out of his suit pocket- the same suit pocket where I’d found

the marriage license weeks before.

It was a divorce decree.

“I divorced Mia,” he said, his voice soft and broken, holding the paper out to me, like it was a gift, like it was something I’d

want. “We’re divorced, Sophie. It’s over between us.”

“I got your mother’s jewelry back too. All of it. Not a single piece is missing.”

My hands shaking. I tore open his briefcase and pulled out the velvet box.

I opened it, and there it was-my mother’s jewelry, all of it, the necklace, the earrings, the bracelet, the ring, the brooch

-safe and sound, just like he’d said.

Tears filled my eyes, hot and stinging, and I counted the pieces again and again, making sure, like I couldn’t believe they

were really back.

I closed the box gently, holding it tight against my chest, like it was a piece of my mother, a piece of my grandmother, a

piece of the family I’d lost.

Then I looked up at Ethan, my voice cold and hard, no emotion in my eyes:

“You can leave now.”