To Have and to Hold by Gina Robinson Read Free Book Online Page B

She gave me a smile of complete sympathy.
    I froze. "I—"
    She waved a hand at me. "No one looks forward to it. I have seven nieces. One of them has been married three times. Changing your driver's license, your social security card, your passport, it's all a pain in the ass." She nodded. "But worth it, completely worth it in the end. The name Green carries weight. Opens doors. Mrs. Justin Green means something in this town. Any woman would be proud to take it." She puffed up her chest.
    Magda was barrel-chested to begin with. I almost laughed at her puffery. She had a good point. I'd been so shocked at being married, I'd wanted to keep my name almost as a reflex. As if I needed to hang on to my identity. Only a few days in, though, she had me rethinking things. Damn! That woman was a master manipulator. A shiver slid down my back. Had she been a fly on the wall and heard me tell Jus as part of our agreement I didn't want to change my name?
    "Um, yes." How erudite of me.
    "You should get on it right away. No use putting it off. It doesn't get any easier. Dealing with government offices never does. The sooner you're officially Mrs. Green, the better for you."
    Yes, she was right! Crap, she really had a good point.
    Two could play the manipulation game. I wanted in to Justin's office, and she was my ticket. "Yes, you're right. I should tackle that after lunch. I'll be out for lunch. I'm meeting a friend."
    She nodded.
    "I'll need our marriage license, won't I? I think I left it in Justin's office."
    I felt her watching me as I walked across the room and tried his office door. "It's locked."
    She shrugged, as if she wasn't surprised. "It's always locked."
    "You must have the key." Housekeepers always had the key.
    She shook her head. "Sadly, no."
    "But how do you clean in there if you can't get in?"
    She wrinkled her nose. "I don't. He has valuable, delicate equipment in there. He doesn't like anyone touching it. Not even to dust it."
    So . A mystery. What was Jus hiding in there?
    Magda smiled like she had my number. "Good news, though. I know where the license is, and it isn't locked up!" She opened a cupboard in the kitchen and pulled out an envelope. "He keeps his bills and important papers here." She handed me the license.
    I took it back to my bedroom and held it in my shaking hands while I stared at the signature. It looked nearly identical to mine. Would it fool a handwriting expert, though? I wondered whether I should start trying to copy this fake.
----
    I met Brittany at a combination pizza and biscuit place near the corporate campus where she worked. The restaurant concept sounded weird, but basically it was two, two, two restaurants in one. You could go to the biscuit half and get a biscuit topped with just about anything. Gravy. Ham and cheese. Fruit. You name it. Or the pizza half and have one of the best, and most unusual, pizzas in town. The place, as always, was packed with staffers from Britt's office. The crowd was mostly our age to early thirties. Some of the brightest, most ambitious people in the city.
    Britt was a merch buyer for one of the world's largest online retailers. Housewares. They paid well, but they were demanding. You either performed or you were fired. A-minus performance was unacceptable. Every year after performance reviews, the lowest-rated workers were let go.
    Britt had already lasted three years. The company had once been known for its innovative startup environment. That had faded before Britt joined. Now they were becoming mired in established business mentality. It wore on Britt. And housewares weren't really her thing. Like me, she was dying to get her hands on a young, trendy designer fashion brand. Both of us had majored in fashion merchandising in college, though at different universities. Rival cross-state universities. Somehow our friendship had survived it.
    Britt was waiting for me. She had managed to grab a small table off the main aisle. She waved to me. I waved back and