“Sounds like Nathan.”

“How does all this turn back to Melanie and Hope?” Wyatt asked.

“A couple of ways. There’s a woman. Miss Gregory . . . who happens to be the daughter of one of Stone’s partners. I think he’s trying to ensure his place in the firm from a couple of different angles.”

Melanie lifted her hands in the air. “Okay, how does that fit?”

“Nathan needs a divorce.”

Melanie placed her palm on her own forehead. “We are not married!”

William reached under the table where he’d placed his briefcase and removed a folder. “Actually . . .”

“Oh, God, what did he do?”

William removed a paper with the words Certificate of Marriage on the top and twisted it toward her to see.

Her name was there, as was Nathan’s.

“I never signed this.”

“I studied the signature, it looks like yours.”

She peered close. It would have passed, no doubt. “I’m telling you . . . I never agreed to marry Nathan. I never said I do. There was no judge, no minister, priest, or rabbi.”

William tapped the paper. “This is a contract. Two people sign it, a court approves, and the paper is filed. The pomp and circumstance is nothing more than a party, I’m sorry to say. This is the part that Nathan needs to go away.”

“That’s karma slapping him in the ass then. He knows damn well we never got married. If he forged this, or somehow managed to get me to sign it when I wasn’t paying attention, then the joke’s on him.”

“Joke or not, he needs a divorce to marry Miss Gregory.”

She sat forward. “All right. Say we were married. Fine, file for a divorce. But leave Hope out of it.”

“He can’t.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Why?”

“Miss Gregory is from a big Catholic family, and when word got out that Nathan was a father . . . and quite possibly a deadbeat one at that, their future engagement was put on hold until he made a few things right.”

Wyatt turned to his father. “Why would Nathan forge this?” He tapped the marriage certificate with an index finger.

Unfortunately, Melanie had an answer for him. “I met Nathan’s parents once. I think they considered me a threat to him finishing law school. What they didn’t know was the only threat to that was Nathan himself. He told me his parents didn’t think he could commit to anything. When we found out I was pregnant he started telling everyone we were married. That he was settling down. A lot of that was all show for his parents.”

“Didn’t you say you only lived with him for a year?”

“Barely a year. After Hope was born he was gone more than he was home. Eventually he moved out altogether and I had to move to a smaller place I could afford alone.”

“Did you ever speak with Nathan’s parents after that?” William asked.

“No. I didn’t see the need to reach out. They weren’t my in-laws. They were about as interested in Hope as . . .” she was about to say her own parents, but didn’t. “They didn’t seem to care.”

“It certainly appears as if Nathan has wrapped himself in lies and is trying to dig his way out and earn some respect along the way. If he can prove you took Hope away from him, that he attempted to help you and you refused—”

“None of that happened.”

“He said, she said. Courts have to look at everything presented in front of them. The divorce is the easy part. It’s Hope Nathan needs for leverage. Proving you’re unfit gives him that leverage.”

“I’m not!”

“Of course you’re not, darlin’. We all know that. Let me tell you what a court is going to hear when it’s all in front of them.”

She waited, knew he wasn’t going to be kind.

“He will start with the marriage that you say never happened. The court will show you this,” he tapped the paper and continued, “and ask you to prove it’s a lie.”

“He said, she said,” Melanie muttered.

“Exactly.”

“Then he’ll say you left him . . . or moved when he was away . . . or whatever he needs to do to look good in court.”

“All a lie.”

“Did you move away?” William asked.

“Well, yeah, like I said. I couldn’t afford where we were without his help.”

“Nothing he can’t twist. Nothing I couldn’t twist if I were on his side,” he explained. “So you moved away, he continued with school, maybe he shows a little remorse about not trying harder to find you and his daughter. Or maybe he has something up his sleeve to make him look good at this point. Then you leave the state with his daughter without his knowledge.”

She was afraid of what he was going to say next. “I didn’t kidnap my own kid.”

“I doubt he’d use that. But it has happened. Nathan finds you here, decides you’re not doing right by his child. You have a home for Hope, but that has proven unsafe in the current situation. Your boyfriend.” William nudged Wyatt’s arm with a frown. “Your boyfriend here enjoys bar fights.”

“No charges, Dad.”

“Right . . . because the town sheriff is an old friend of Melanie’s. And small towns take care of their own. Lots of witnesses saw that the fight happened. And how safe is Hope in a house with a man who drinks in a bar and gets into fights.”

“Dad . . . it didn’t happen like that.”

“I know that. But the court will hear every detail of that fight from several people. The job of Nathan’s lawyer is to paint Melanie as a bad and unfit mom. Cases have been won on less.”