Alpha Billionaire’s Bride, Part Four (BWWM Romance Serial) Read Online Free Page B

the only way to search for and copy the actual document is to
physically find it in the filing cabinets.”
    “It’s a terrible chore, let me tell you,” Mrs. Nell added.
“You have to bend over those drawers and it takes a long time to hunt through
it all. Hurts my back something awful. Worse than washing dishes, or mopping.”
    “Which is why you ...” Ophelia prompted.
    For the first time, Mrs. Nell looked chagrined. “Well, I’m
not proud to admit it, but that’s why I lied to the rude woman. I told her the
license wasn’t in the office and that it would take a few days to get it from
somewhere else. I shouldn’t have lied, Lord knows it, but I was tired and I
didn’t want to get an aching back for someone who would be nasty when it took
me a while to find what she wanted.”
    “I don’t blame you,” Jada said. “I’d have done the exact
same thing if I’d been you.”
    “Me too,” Ian added.
    Mrs. Nell reached across the table and tapped Jada’s and
Ian’s hands in turn. “Thank you both. That makes me feel a little better.”
    “Did the woman argue with you when you told her you couldn’t
give her what she wanted?” Jada asked.
    “No. She paid for her printout and ran off. She was in a
hurry like all you young people.”
    “I’m a little confused,” Jada admitted, thinking the
interview had raised more questions than it had answered.
    Ian looked thoughtful. “Ophelia, you said there’s a hard
copy of the license and an electronic entry in the official database which
states Jada and Sasha were married. There’s also an entry in the official
database which says Jada and I were married, but there’s no physical document
to support it. Is this correct?”
    “It is,” Ophelia said.
    “So the next question is, where’s the actual marriage
license that claims Jada and I were married? Could someone have stolen it?” Ian
asked.
    “No,” Ophelia answered. “Grandma, will you tell them the
rest, or shall I?”
    Mrs. Nell made a scrunched-up face. “Oh, I suppose, if we
have to. Go on and do it yourself. I’m worn out. I probably need a nap.” She
let her crocheting drop onto her lap, clasped her gnarled hands over it, and
closed her eyes.
    Ophelia opened the manilla folder, pulled out a sheet of
paper and slid it across the table. “Take a look at this. It’s the printout of the
computer entry from the allegedly-missing license.”
    Jada’s heart thumped when she got a glimpse of the document
which had turned her life upside down. She and Ian scanned it together.
    It was a simple printout, a compilation of the pertinent
info on a typical marriage license: the date, names of the bride and groom,
witnesses, who performed the ceremony, where the wedding took place and so on.
    There it was in black and white. The groom was listed as Ian
Buckley and it was followed by his address, which Ian pointed out was
incorrect. The bride was listed as Jada Howarth, also followed by her address,
which also was incorrect. The person listed as performing the marriage was Fred
Smith of Everywhereville. Ridiculous, Jada thought. That couldn’t be anything but
fake.
    But what particularly drew her up was when she read the
witnesses: Trey Russell, which she expected to see, and someone named ... Fanny
Blue?
    “Oh come on,” Jada said when she read the name. “That’s
obviously as phony as the officiant.”
    “Surprisingly, Fanny Blue is real,” Ophelia said, “It took a
while to work it all out, but I’m confident I know what happened.”
    Mrs. Nell shifted slightly, leaning back in her chair and
sighing gently. It appeared she actually was going to take a nap.
    Ophelia continued with hardly a sideways glance at her
grandmother. “Like I mentioned before, after Sylvia left the office on
Wednesday, Grandma wanted to help her out with her work, so Grandma took some
of the new documents from Sylvia’s inbox which hadn’t been entered into the
system and did it herself. Apparently, when she came to