Love’s Cunning Ruse

Chapter 144

“Married?” Julie’s gaze instantly locked onto the man’s face and her tone grew tense, “You and me?”

“Yes, you and me.”

Upon hearing Kieran’s answer, Julie suddenly burst into laughter, “You want to remarry me?”

“No, I don’t.” Kieran responded.

Julie laughed even more brazenly, “Then how on earth could we be married? We divorced five years ago…”

At this point, Julie suddenly noticed the expression on Kieran’s face. Although she wasn’t sure she knew Kieran well, she was certain that he was extremely confident at the moment.

Seeing Kieran’s expression, Julie began to doubt herself…

She looked up at Kieran, “Five years ago, I signed the divorce papers and we went to the City Hall the next day. I personally signed the divorce papers and I personally took the divorce certificate out of the City Hall. We ceased to be husband and wife five years ago, so if we’re living together now, we’re cohabiting. How could we be married?”

“No. 88, Evergreen Avenue, Dreamscape District, the office on the left as soon as you enter. Take your divorce certificate there tomorrow and see if it’s valid.” Said Kieran.

No. 88, Evergreen Avenue, Dreamscape District? Julie had been there twice, once when she married Kieran and once when she divorced him. That’s the address of the City Hall.

Julie’s expression turned from stiff to shocked, “You mean the divorce papers I signed back then are fake? And the divorce certificate is fake too?”

Kieran remained silent. In Julie’s eyes, this meant he was admitting it.

She forcefully pushed Kieran’s chest, “Get up and explain!”

Julie’s action was too big, causing Ivan next to her to suddenly roll off the bed.

Julie quickly ran to Ivan. He was sleeping on a folding bed for accompanying patients. The bed was low, so he wasn’t hurt. Ivan just rolled over, mumbled some incomprehensible sleep talk, and continued sleeping.

Kieran was sitting on the edge of the bed, loosening his tie. Looking at Ivan who was sound asleep on the floor, he got up, picked Ivan -up, put him-back on the bed, and covered him with a blanket.

Julie lowered her voice and grabbed Kieran’s sleeve, “Was the divorce certificate I got back then invalid?”

“Tomorrow morning at seven thirty, I will have a breakfast meeting with the director of the finance bureau. The City Hall opens at nine. You can go check for yourself at nine. I’ll pick you up at nine thirty to go home.” Kieran said.

Julie was still holding onto Kieran’s sleeve, “Explain now!”

“I’ll explain tomorrow. Let’s sleep for now!”

After Kieran finished speaking, he walked over to the sofa, grabbed a pillow from it, and threw it in the middle of the bed.

“We can rest now. You’re on the left, I’m on the right. Don’t cross this line tonight.”

As if she was about to do something bad to him.

They were in a hospital, so Julie figured he wouldn’t actually do anything to her.

She lifted the blanket, got on the bed, and planned to go to the City Hall to check the truth the next day.

At first, she had her back to Kieran. After thinking for a while, Julie suddenly turned around and warned Kieran, “Don’t you dare come over here, and don’t move.”

“Okay, I won’t move.” He promised.

After a day of exhaustion, Julie drowsily closed her eyes. She fell into a deep sleep.

The next morning, Julie, in a semi-conscious state, suddenly felt something like a feather brushing against her cheek.

She lazily reached out to swat it away, but instead, her hand touched a patch of warm skin. After several seconds, Julie suddenly opened her eyes.

She saw her hand resting on Kieran’s face. He didn’t seem angry. Instead, he leaned down to kiss her forehead, and then used his hand to tousle her messy hair, “I didn’t mean to wake you. Noah has already picked up Ivan. Karl will be here soon to handle your discharge.”

As he draped his jacket over his arm, he said, “I have to go now. It’s still early, so you can sleep a bit more.”

Julie stared blankly at Kieran’s retreating figure, his jacket in hand, and it took her a long time to snap out of it.

A nurse pushed open the door to take Julie’s temperature, only to find Julie sitting up like a zombie.

The nurse was so startled she almost dropped her thermometer.Content provided by NôvelDrama.Org.

Karl walked in carrying the medicine prescribed by the doctor in one hand and Julie’s change of clothes in the other, “Mrs. Hernandez, Mr. Hernandez asked me to take you to the City Hall later.”

Half an hour later, Karl dropped Julie off at the City Hall right on time.

Julie looked at the bag Karl had returned to her, and then glanced at her watch. The hands were pointing at nine.

“Are you here to get married? Where’s your partner?” The newly on-duty staff casually asked.

A bit embarrassed, Julie shook her head, “I’m not here to get married.”

“The divorce office is next door.” The staff member replied indifferently. When she raised her head to look at Julie, she couldn’t help but take a second glance.

Thinking there might be something dirty on her face, Julie rubbed her face and said, “I’m not here to get a divorce either…”

“Then what are you here for? You look kind of familiar.” The staff casually commented.

Julie gave a small smile, “I’m here to ask you to check my marital status…”

“What?” The staff member seemed to find the request hilarious, “You’re not sure if you’re married?”

Julie felt quite embarrassed, and finally asked softly, “So… can you check?”

The staff member gave her a helpless look, then logged into the system. Her eyes widened soon after, “Mr. Hernandez from Simpo Co. is your husband?”

“… Ex-husband.” Julie corrected.

“What ex-husband? The system says you two are married! You’ve been married for over eight years.” The staff member looked at Julie, “Your husband is really Kieran, the CEO of Simpo Co.?”

“Married couple? No way! I’ve been divorced from him for five years, five years!” Julie exclaimed, a tad too dramatically, to the clerk. “We’ve been divorced for five years. How could we still be a married couple? Did you misread something?”

“This is the national official system, how could I misread?” The clerk countered back, a bit exasperated. “You’ve got such a great husband, why wouldn’t you want the bliss of marriage? Why did you even consider divorce?”

“No, no…” In a frenzy, Julie hastily fished out her divorce papers from her bag and handed them to the clerk, “Look, we have our divorce papers. We came here together years ago to get it done, signed it and everything. It was even issued by a staff member from here, how can it be fake?”

The clerk, still skeptical, took the document from Julie, examined it closely before frowning and saying, “This can’t be! It doesn’t make

sense!”

“Could you check again for me? Maybe there’s a glitch in the system?” Julie pleaded.

The clerk hesitated for a moment before answering, “Alright. Just wait here. I’ll go inquire for you.”

Julie nodded in agreement.

As the clerk walked towards a room, she muttered, “Sir, could you take a look at this divorce certificate…”

With that, she closed the door behind her.

A few minutes later, the door opened again. Julie anxiously followed, “Did you figure it out? Was there a mistake?”

“Where did you get this divorce certificate?” The clerk looked at Julie suspiciously.

Julie pointed to the divorce office next door, “Right there. It was handed to me personally by a staff member! I even signed it, and all the formalities were completed! It can’t be fake!”

“Do you know that forging a divorce certificate is illegal? You’ve got some nerve, coming into City Hall!” The clerk looked at Julie sternly, “Our supervisor said your fake certificate is illegal and must be confiscated by law.”

Another staff member opened the door to the room. He was holding a green file and said to the clerk in front of Julie, “Janet, the supervisor said we need to crack down on this fake certificate issue. If this lady really did forge this document deliberately, we need to call the police. Also, we must confiscate the fake certificate. The supervisor said, we need her to sign something first.”

Janet took the file and nodded, then turned to Julie, “Are you sure you didn’t forge this divorce certificate deliberately?”

“Why would I forge a divorce certificate?” Julie insisted, “Kieran and I divorced five years ago, we processed it here together. We brought our marriage certificate, IDs, and the notarized divorce agreement. It was all handled by your staff and also…”

“Enough, explaining it here won’t help. I believe you didn’t forge it deliberately, but to follow regulations, we must confiscate this fake document. Please sign here.” Janet flipped open the file, pointed to the signature area, and handed a pen to Julie.

“But my divorce certificate isn’t a forgery…”

Sign it! Please cooperate with us. If this certificate was indeed processed here, we will investigate thoroughly. Don’t worry.” Janet’s curt

words were tinged with clear frustration.

Julie, feeling helpless, took the pen and signed her name.

Janet quickly closed the file. Her swift actions left one astounded. Doubts began to surface in Julie’s mind. She reached out to Janet, “Can I see the document I just signed?”