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What had I been thinking? That the government would just be happy with a piece of paper, hand me a Green Card, and I could be on my merry way?
“Well, at least we’ve got one thing sorted,” Kip said, sounding as if he were coming through a tunnel. “I just finished the purchase of Fiona’s house. I’ll have her added to the title right after this.”
I snapped my head to Kip. “What?” I shrieked.
He grinned at me. “I had planned on a romantic surprise, baby,” he drawled. “But considering the time constraints and the legal process, I’ll have to save the celebrating for later.” Another brow waggle that made me want to punch him in the dick.
“Youboughtmy house?” I clarified, a low ringing in my ears.
He nodded, glancing to the lawyer and back at me. “Like I said, I wanted it to be a surprise. Now we own your home.”
“Youown it,” I ground out.
He shrugged. “But your name will be on the title.”
That fuck. That fucking fuck.
He bought my house. Because he likely knew a little bit more than me about what was required with the visa process. And because he saw an opportunity to fuck with me.
Yeah, my name might be on the title, but he’d have all the control.
I grabbed his hand. “Honey, that is such awonderfulsurprise,” I told him sweetly, digging my nails into the skin of his palm as hard as I could.
He inhaled a sharp breath, but his eyes were dancing, lips still turned up.
“Now that’s sorted,” the lawyer said, scribbling. “As I said, my paralegal will go over a bunch of forms with you, and there will be a lot of questions. But have the two of you ever been married before?”
I froze. Again, this question should not have taken me by surprise. It was par for the course. Nothing was private. Though I’d had the mad idea that Kip wouldn’t be in the room when I was asked this question, that it would be on a form with a box I could check.
“Yes,” I said, staring at the lawyer.
At the same time, Kip tensed beside me and muttered, “Yep.”
Again, I didn’t know who was more surprised, me or him.
We stared at each other. His expression was morose, somber even. He was closed off, that playful exterior he’d plastered on for the lawyer gone.
So, we both had secrets.
“Okay, well, as long as both marriages have been appropriately dissolved, that shouldn’t be a problem,” the lawyer said, jerking me away from Kip’s gaze.
I realized I still held his hand in mine. I dropped it.
“Yes, appropriately dissolved,” I murmured, thinking of the nightmare that had been. The months it took for me to even find the courage to meet with a lawyer. The endless forms, the police reports. The fear.
Then… the freedom.
Kip nodded fiercely in response to the lawyer’s statement.
Despite the need to stay out of Kip’s personal life—as much as a fake wife could—I found myself very curious about his previous wife. Obviously, it was a bad breakup. I wondered if he cheated on her. His man-whoring ways were not subtle.
But maybe the man-whoring was an aftereffect of her leaving him. Or her cheating on him.
It didn’t do good to wonder.
two
The Wedding
