Lauren Porter threw a wedding photo at me, along with the marriage certificate.The photo stung my eyes.With trembling hands, I picked it up. In the picture, my husband, Arthur Hughes, and Lauren were smiling happily.I lifted the marriage certificate and ran my rough fingers over the embossed seal. The cold stamp felt like a seal burned straight into my heart.Suddenly, something came to mind. I ran to the cabinet and pulled out my own marriage certificate with Arthur's.There was no embossed seal. Just a crooked, barely legible red seal.I had touched this certificate countless times.This was my only anchor while I stayed in the village, enduring the constant torment from my senile, paralyzed mother-in-law, Paula Rodriguez.It had been the courage I held onto to raise my daughter, Tessa Hughes, on my own.And now, Lauren was telling me it was all a lie.I opened my mouth to argue, but my throat felt blocked. My words came out in fits. "But Arthur and I are married… We hav
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