The padlock sprung with aping, and the plywood creaked as I pulled it aside and unlocked the front door. I stepped inside, hoping my phone had enough battery power left to navigate through the house. My first stop was the kitchen for some of my small appliances. I had a blush-pink hand mixer that matched my hardly used stand mixer. I stuck it in my purse then went to the living room. I found the DVDs and scoopedPride and Prejudiceand a few others into my purse.
Behind me, floorboards creaked. I turned around, heart racing. No one was there.I locked the front door,my mind chattered. No one’s in the house.
My phone rang, and I screamed then laughed at my silliness.
“Hunter?” I said, answering it when I saw his name.
“Meg,” he said. He sounded upset.
“Look,” I told him. “I can’t talk, I—” My phone went dead. “Stupid phone!”
I fumbled around in the dark, feeling along the walls to the patch of streetlamp light coming in through the ornate glass on the front door. I’d almost made it, until something large and man shaped stepped out to block the light.
74
Hunter
“You’re married?” Greg asked in horror.
“And not to Meg?” Parker said.
“This is a disaster. What am I going to do?” I said, still reeling from the shock of Meg’s reveal.
Garrett was busy poring over spreadsheets. “I already had most of your assets sheltered in trusts or within various corporations. Your wife would still be able to lay claim to any shares you own in the corporations, though,” Garrett said. “But I think we can swing it so that you are only out millions as opposed to billions.”
“Fuck,” I said.
“Do we even know who this woman is anyway?” Mace asked, trying to give me a mug of tea. I pushed his hand away.
“She’s been off the grid for so long, it was a bit difficult to track her down,” Weston said from his desk in the home office.
I went over to the window to look out over the dark backyard.
“Okay, yes! I just received verification from a guy I know in the state government of Wyoming. Idonna Svennson. Shit, Hunter, you have a marriage license filed with the state of Wyoming. There are also a ton of birth certificates filed with her listed as the mother. No father, of course, so Dad can get that sweet, sweet welfare handout.”
Blade typed something into his computer and frowned. “Are you sure Dad filed that wedding certificate in Wyoming?” he asked Weston. “Because I just got a hit on one in Florida. But it’s under the name Idonna Wójcik.”
“You sure it’s the same person?”
“It has to be,” Blade said, turning the screen around. “The birth dates match, and her parents match. In both instances a parent had to sign for her to marry because she was underage.”
He and Weston compared the certificates. “The Florida one is older!” Weston exclaimed.
I perked up. “So I’m not married?”
“Not legally anyways.”
“It’s bigamy.” Greg started laughing.
“It’s not funny,” I snapped at him. “This was a stressful time for me.”
“Don’t be so stupid.” Greg sneered. “You’re the lawyer.”
I thought about it. “Holy shit!” I said. “We got him!”
“Got who?”
“Dad! We have a way to nail him. This is a bigamy charge. It’s fraud. Idonna was already married. She knew she was already married.”
