Chapter 15 - The Signature Under the Marriage
The agreement arrived by email the following morning.
Claire claimed Emmett had signed it at a private dinner before the wedding and that it entitled her to an interest in the house.
He remembered the dinner.
He remembered signing a receipt for a deposit on the reception venue.
He did not remember seeing the agreement.
Naomi examined the scan and asked for the original.
Claire refused at first, saying she would show it only in court.
Emmett told her he would not negotiate while she withheld the document she was using to pressure him.
She finally agreed to bring it to a meeting at a mediator's office.
The conference room was quiet and deliberately plain.
Claire arrived without Vivian.
For the first time since the wedding, she looked less angry than exhausted.
“I loved you,” she told Emmett.
He listened without interrupting.
“But you never made me feel like I came first.”
“You don't have to come ahead of Margot to be loved,” he said.
Claire's eyes filled with tears.
“I wanted a life that wasn't haunted.”
“Then you should have told me you couldn't live with our memories.”
She placed the original agreement on the table.
Naomi compared the paper with the scan and asked several factual questions.
Claire said a family friend had prepared the document.
The witness signature belonged to Vivian.
The date corresponded to the evening Emmett recalled signing the venue receipt.
He repeated that he had not knowingly signed the agreement.
Naomi said the document's authenticity and enforceability would require proper review; nobody in the room could settle that on the spot.
Claire grew impatient.
“Doesn't marriage count for anything?” she demanded.
Emmett looked at his ring.
“It counts for telling the truth.”
She looked down.
Then, surprisingly, she whispered, “My mother said if I waited until after the wedding, you wouldn't be able to leave.”
I felt my heart thump.
Naomi asked whether she wanted to clarify that statement.
Claire looked toward the door, afraid of someone who wasn't there.
Before she could answer, her phone lit up.
Vivian's name appeared, followed by a message visible across the screen.
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Remember what happens if you tell them about Oliver.
