From Cast-off To The City's Queen

ross the desk and

ntify the sensation in his chest. It wasn't guilt-he didn't do guilt. It wasn't regret-regret implied error, and he didn't mak

r-she was adaptable, accommodating, endlessly patient. She would spend tonight in a hotel, perhaps, or with some friend he didn't know she had. She would cry.

rent for a year, ease her transition back to the obscurity she had escaped by marrying him. It was more than she deserve

ld feel anyt

a helicopter cross the sky above the Hudson. The secon

s polished stone, carried an edge of strain. "I need

development could

he Office of the City Clerk approximately two hours ago.

individually-seen, City Clerk, marriage, another party-but t

ceremony was performed by Judge Morrison.

blanc he had given Hadley to sign their divorce, now

number. I can have my as

. She doesn't know anyone, she doesn't have anyone-" He stopped, remembering the exit line, t

appears on the marriage certificate, which we were able to a

end of the line. "I don't care what it costs. I want everything. Birth, education, employment, criminal record, credit h

Mr. Gr

ing pace. This was shock. That was all. The unexpectedness of it, the sheer illogicality. Hadley, who had never made a spontaneous decision in her lif

le woman and moved in for the kill. Blair would expose him, save her, re

ed Alex

avored. Alex was thirty-four, Harvard MBA, former intelligence analyst with the kind of connections that bl

tart with property records, vehicle registration, corporate filings. If he's legitimate, I want to know his net w

making note

terd

pped himself. "I'l

sn't what I'

reports for Gregory Capital's Asian investments, but the numbers swam before his eyes. He kept seeing Hadley on the s

colors fading, the edges softening, until he could no longer be certain what was real and what he had imagined. But he

then every two, then every thirty seconds. When his phone fina

le

tion required. "I've completed the pre

nd

hing our parameters. No social security number on file. No driver's license in any state. No credit history, no property ownership, no c

's impossible. He married someone. He sign

acing methods. Our system attempted to access federal da

nd

irewall, sir. Something else. Within thirty seconds of our query, we received a cease-and-desist notic

wh

rrived in your private email a

nt, from an address that was simply a string of numbers and letters.

hammering against his ribs like something trying to escape. "Keep looking," he said.

ever this man is, he has protections in place that I've ne

e a whip. "Whatever it takes. Whateve

. He still didn't open it. Instead, he called Keely, needing her voic

nswer. He le

he awards, the photographs with senators and CEOs-and felt, for the first time in his lif

nd ghosts, he was learning, were far more fri