Page 96 of The Marriage Auction 2: Part 3

“I understand. I apologize for being forward. I forget American women and men culturally greet one another differently.”

“Mr. Castellanos, you called us here today because you had news on our situation. A situation I’m paying you handsomely to manage. One which does not include you ogling my wife. I’d prefer we get right to it.”

Bruno nodded curtly. “Again, I apologize for my forwardness. Please, have a seat; we have much to discuss.”

I walked over to a chair and pulled it out for my wife. Julianne kept silent and sat, crossing her long legs over one another. She smirked when our eyes met. She knew I was riled up, and though I’d likely get a talking to for acting rather rash about Bruno’s advances, a part of her liked my jealous side.

“I’ll leave you to your meeting,” Joel announced and then left the room, shutting the door behind him.

“Thank you both for meeting me here,” Bruno started.

“Why are we meeting you here, anyway? Do you not have your own offices in New York?” Julianne asked.

“I do my business in a variety of places,” Bruno responded.

“Do you live in the city?” she asked, wanting to win our bet and get something personal out of him.

“I live wherever my work takes me. Now, I have some bad news…”

“But,” Julianne tried, and I held up my hand.

“Jules, let the man explain why we are here.”

She let out a long sigh. “Please continue,” Julianne waved her hand, clearly annoyed with me interrupting her attempts at getting information from the enigma that was Bruno.

“As I was saying, I have bad news.”

“Please, feel free to be as candid as possible,” I ordered.

“I had my tech wizard do a full search on Bianca Cameron-Myers.”

“And?” I prompted.

“She doesn’t exist.”

“How so?” I frowned.

“Well, for starters, the marriage license she and Brenden Myers filled out and submitted to the court system wasn’t legal. Neither was the one you submitted several months prior to them marrying,” Bruno continued.

“Explain.”

“The marriage licenses are fake,” Bruno said coolly.

“What do you mean by the licenses are fake? I was there when Bianca and I filled one out. We went to the county recorder’s office and applied in person. I was standing right next to her. We both provided our IDs and birth certificates.”

Bruno nodded. “I think I’m using the wrong term. The documents and the marriage certificates themselves were real, they just aren’t legally binding.”

“Well, I know mine wasn’t to Bianca since we didn’t end up getting married. Brenden, Julianne’s brother, however, did marry her.”

He shook his head. “It’s not legal.”

“How is that possible?”

“Because Bianca Cameron doesn’t exist.”

“You said that, but I don’t understand what you mean by it, seeing as I was engaged to her and then assaulted by the same individual, which I assure you, was a veryrealexperience. One I won’t be able to forget any time soon.”

“I mean that there is no record of Bianca Cameron before five years ago. It’s a fake identity. She made it up. And she has some of the most impressive forged government documents I’ve ever seen. Top notch. The best quality available on the black market. She would have had to pay an exorbitant fee for such work. I know of only a handful of people who could create an identity like hers out of thin air. All of whom I’m working on contacting for more detailed information.”

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