Then a third.
Edwin glanced at the screen lighting in his grip. ‘That will be security from your office,’ he said. ‘They were instructed to meet you at noon. Based on the timestamp, they may have started early.’
By 7:42 the next morning, Gregory’s badge did not open the glass doors at Hale Mercer Urban. A junior associate inside pretended not to see him through the lobby. At 8:10, the firm’s ethics partner met him in a conference room with IT already imaging his laptop. At 9:03, Monroe Urban Concepts received a termination notice and demand for records. At 9:27, the county clerk’s office marked one civil marriage appointment as no-show. At 12:14, a photographer I had never met wheeled two garment bags and a vase of white roses back into an SUV outside the clerk’s building while Ashley stood on the curb in the same burgundy silk dress, now covered by a camel coat, staring at her phone like it had betrayed her personally.
