My Husband Faked Our Marriage

While cleaning my husband’s office, I found our torn and crumpled marriage certificate in the trash. Thinking it was a mistake, I went to the civil registry to get a new copy, only to discover the truth.

“There’s no registered marriage under your name with Mr. Johansen Smith,” she said. “But he is legally married. To a woman named Maureen Reid.”

Maureen. My cousin.

I stood there frozen, trying to process what she said. They’d been married for four years—long before Johansen and I ever walked down the aisle.

Worse, I overheard him talking to his friends later that day.