The Kidnapper's Wife

44. Before

Dedicated to @redtoadmedia for her extremely helpful review of Chapter 1! Thanks again!

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Today marks three months of married life! Two and a half months ago, Connor and I returned from our honeymoon and celebrated our first night at home as husband and wife by sleeping off the jet lag Hawaii left us with.

Afterwards, life went on in pretty much the same fashion as it had before we were married, but ever since, everything has had a new, shiny feeling of foreverness. When I cook dinner, I think to myself, 'meal 25 of thousands that I will cook for my husband,' emphasizing the word husband in my head.

I don't know how long this rose-colored-glasses, overly exciting view of our otherwise ordinary life will continue, but so far I'm enjoying both it, and married life in general.

What I'm not enjoying quite as much is changing my name. The paperwork I've had to go through to make the switch from Abernathy to Carter has been a nightmare. At the firm, they are reluctant to allow me (as if it's something they can decide. "Oh no actually you can't change you're name. We won't allow it." What a joke.) to change my name because my clients will apparently have a hard time comprehending the switch.

They sat me down and asked if I could possibly not change my name professionally. I told them my current clients could keep calling me Abernathy and I would just instigate the change with new clients, but they didn't like that either. My boss even had the audacity to ask me, "Now Jade, just because you're married now doesn't mean that you can forget that the clients come first. If you ever want to make partner, you need to consider your career with every decision you make."

After that, I wanted to give him a few choice words to convey my thoughts, but I settled for telling him very calmly that I was changing my name, and there would be no debate about it, and that if he wanted me to keep using Abernathy with my old clients I would be happy to do so, but future clients would know me as Ms. Carter. If I ever do make partner, I told him, I want the name Carter added to the firm's name, not a name which isn't even legally mine.

On top of that, we've been working on getting Connor's passport so we can go on some international trips during the winter, and it's been like pulling teeth trying to get the documents we need.

When we planned the wedding, I asked Connor how we could get word to his parents that we were getting married, so that they could attend. At first, he told me that he would let me know soon. When 'soon' became two months, I started getting more insistent. He told me to just give him the invitation and he would send it, but I told him that made no sense, we were paying the invitation company to send all the invitations out for us, I needed their address to provide the company.

He gave me an address, somewhere in Spain and we sent off the invitation. When it came back as undeliverable, he told me they must have moved on and forgotten to tell him. He said he was sure they'd call and update him sometime before the wedding but they never did. He didn't seem concerned, and every time I tried to bring up whether it upset him that his parents wouldn't be at the wedding, he'd brush it off. So I let it go.

But now, we need his birth certificate to get his passport, and he tells me that they have it.

"Why would your parents want to carry your birth certificate around the world with them?" I asked him incredulously, "That doesn't make any sense! Why wouldn't they just give it to you?"

"They think I'll lose it." he told me, shoulders up with a 'what can you do?' expression on his face.

"But whats the point if you can't even get in contact with them to get it back?"

"I don't know Jade, you'd have to ask them."

"Well I can hardly do that, can I, considering they have yet to contact you at all since I've known you."

"Thats not true, they called me while we were dating, but I told you-"

"Yeah, yeah, I wasn't around when they called and there was no way to call them back."

"Sorry."

"Why couldn't you just have told them to call back again when I'd be home so I could say hi?" This was a conversation that we'd had more than once.

"I don't know, the calls are always so short, they don't have the money for long international conversations babe, I've told you this."

At that point in the argument, I'd usually walk off in a huff, and he'd have to calm me back down, usually by making me hot chocolate and bringing Ruby up to the bedroom to snuggle.

But after a few months of this, the international trips loomed closer and closer, and Connor had no calls from his parents, no birth certificate, and no passport.

"You're just going to have to go to Connecticut and get it." I pronounce to Connor now, over breakfast.

"What?" he's startled enough to look up from his newspaper, an old fashion tradition we consider ourselves cool enough to carry out every Saturday morning.

"Connor, we leave for Thailand in 2 months, at this point you're going to have to expedite your passport as it is, we don't have any more time to wait for your parents!"

"But-"

"Don't worry! I have it all figured out!" I'm beaming at him, proud of myself, "I booked us flights to Concord next Friday night, we'll make a weekend of it! You can show me where you grew up, it'll be fun! While we're there, we'll swing by the records office and as long as you have your drivers license and social security card, you can pick up your birth certificate that day!"

"What! No!"

Surprised, the grin drops off my face. "Why? What's wrong? I thought you'd be excited."

"I-I, I just don't think I'll have time to go next weekend."

"Why not?"

"Work is really busy right now."

"Well I booked SouthWest, we can change the flights to another weekend."

"No I, look, I didn't want to have to resort to this, but my parent's lawyer will know where they are. The only problem is...he doesn't have a phone."

"What? What kind of lawyer doesn't have a phone."

"Well, he's not a lawyer anymore. He's retired but he's a family friend, and he still takes care of my parent's legal matters, as a favor to them. He doesn't have a phone because he's spending his retirement in the wilderness, off the grid."

"Well that sounds like a terrible relationship. A lawyer who can't be contacted, and clients that can't be contacted. How does that even work?"

"I don't know. It's not my problem. But I know where I can find him. I'll go by myself because it'll require camping and hiking and I don't want to make you do that again after you suffered through our honeymoon so gracefully."

"I don't mind going, I can change our flights from Connecticut to wherever we need to go."

"No, no! you shouldn't have to deal with this, it's my own fault for waiting so long and not taking care of this sooner. I'll go. I'll go the weekend after next when work calms down a bit. I'll get my birth certificate, and take it right away to get my passport."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. Thank you for planning the trip babe, I'm sorry I've made this part a hassle for you."

"That's okay. It's not your fault."

"Thanks, but it definitely is. Don't worry though, I'll have my passport within the month, with plenty of time to spare before Thailand. I'm so excited for that trip."

"Me too."