Matheo kept his eyes down, staring at the cover of the marriage certificate for a long while.
Then, he opened it.
At first glance, there was nothing unusual about it; it looked exactly like the one he had.
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“So what?” he finally lifted his gaze, his voice cold as he spoke to Jean. “You wanted me to look at it; I looked. What exactly are you trying to say?”
Jean raised an eyebrow–and then, suddenly, she smiled, strange and sly. “Didn’t you notice—”
“That this marriage certificate is fake?”
Fake? Matheo wasn’t the only one stunned–Dominic and the others looked shocked, and even Sienna, lying weak in bed, suddenly opened her eyes wide.
How could a marriage certificate be fake?
“Impossible!” Matheo’s fingers started to tremble; he scrambled to examine the document more closely.
This doesn’t look fake at all…”
He and Sienna had gone to the Civil Affairs Department in person to register back then. How could this be fake?
If the certificate was fake, that would mean—
His marriage to Sienna was fake too…
He wasn’t legally her spouse. He had no legal claim to the inheritance!
As the realization struck, cold sweat gathered across Matheo’s forehead. He clutched the certificate tightly; even his shoulders started to shake.
Sienna said nothing.
She lay frozen in bed, eyes slightly unfocused, as though searching through her memories.
Then it hit her–things she’d almost forgotten.
Before she and Matheo officially married, her parents had voiced their concerns more than once.
They were worried about Matheo’s intentions, afraid she’d been blinded by love, and deeply suspicious that all he wanted was the Ginger family fortune–that he’d take everything and leave them with nothing.
Back then, she’d been so naive, so foolish. She thought her parents were overthinking it; she’d believed Matheo was her one true love.
The day they got their certificate, she and Matheo had dressed up, walked into the Civil Affairs Department together.
But the staff at the main registration hall hadn’t been there that day. They’d been guided into a side room to complete the paperwork.
She hadn’t thought much of it at the time.
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Chapter 325 Strategic Thinking
But now, looking back-
It had all been part of her parents‘ plan.
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They must have seen this coming; they’d spun an elaborate web for her back then–and somehow, in the end, it had saved her.
The registration had been fake; the marriage certificate was fake. She and Matheo had never been legally married.
Now that she thought about it, her parents had probably tampered with more than just this document…
Any official paperwork that could prove her marriage to Matheo–her parents might’ve quietly altered those too. No wonder she’d never noticed until now.
Sienna bit her lip; a rush of tears stung at the corners of her eyes.
She missed her parents–those two people who had loved her to the bone.
They hadn’t just loved her; they’d seen farther than she ever could. They had protected her–and protected the Ginger family fortune.
“Impossible!” Matheo still refused to believe it. His eyes scanned the document over and over again. The fragile booklet was now creased and bent from his tightening grip.
“What’s so impossible about it?” Jean said coolly, her gaze razor–sharp. “I went to the Civil Affairs Department myself. This thing’s a fake. If you look closely, the flaws are obvious—”
“The font, the official seal–none of it matches. I noticed it right away. Something was off about the font and stamp; it didn’t look like a real certificate. So I went to confirm it. The staff told me flat–out that it was fake. They even offered to destroy it for me.”
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