Chapter 9 - The False MarriageBriggs claimed Ariel and Gerard were never legally married. Then Ariel found the missing witness.
Ariel refused to surrender.
The saloon became a battlefield.
Tables overturned.
Glass shattered.
Bullets tore through wooden walls.
Ruby led them through a secret exit.
Arthur stayed behind.
Ariel shouted:
"Arthur!"
He looked back.
"Go."
"I don't trust you."
"I know."
"Then don't die."
He smiled.
"I'll try."
They escaped.
Hours later, they reached an abandoned courthouse outside Bitter Creek.
There, Ariel finally understood the true weakness of their situation.
The marriage certificate had disappeared.
Without it, Briggs could declare the marriage fraudulent.
But the preacher had witnessed it.
So had the deputies.
Briggs could manipulate all of them.
Except one.
Ariel remembered the deputy who had unlocked the cage.
The young man named Daniel Pike.
"He saw everything."
Gerard looked at her.
"Where is he?"
"Jail."
They returned to Bitter Creek.
Daniel was hidden in a cell.
He was terrified.
Ariel approached the bars.
"You were there."
Daniel nodded.
"I saw the marriage."
"Then tell the judge."
He looked away.
"Briggs will kill my family."
Gerard stepped forward.
"How many?"
Daniel glanced at him.
"Four."
Gerard nodded.
"Then we'll move them first."
They freed Daniel's family before dawn.
Then they brought them to Black Ridge.
Daniel agreed to testify.
But when they returned to town, the jail was empty.
The preacher was gone.
Daniel's family was missing.
And on the jail wall was written:
A WIFE DOES NOT INHERIT FROM A DEAD MAN WHO WAS NEVER HER HUSBAND.
Ariel's blood ran cold.
Gerard touched the words.
"Briggs wants you scared."
"I'm not."
"You're shaking."
"I'm angry."
He looked at her.
"Good."
Suddenly, a noise came from the cell floor.
Ariel knelt.
There was a loose brick.
Behind it was a folded document.
The original marriage register.
Stamped.
Signed.
Witnessed.
Legal.
Ariel smiled.
"We have it."
Gerard shook his head.
"No."
"What?"
"Look at the date."
She did.
The marriage had been recorded one day before the hanging.
Which meant they had been legally married before Gerard's attempted execution.
Briggs had no way to challenge it.
Unless...
Ariel flipped the final page.
Her face changed.
The signature of the territorial clerk had been crossed out.
Someone had added a second notation.
Marriage dissolved by death.
Ariel whispered:
"But he didn't die."
Gerard smiled.
"Exactly."
Then a voice spoke behind them.
"Not yet."
They turned.
The preacher stood in the doorway.
Alive.
And beside him was Sheriff Briggs.
May you like
Holding Daniel Pike's severed badge.
"Now," Briggs said, "we finish this properly."
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