Chapter 4 - PAIGE THOUGHT SHE HAD BECOME DEREK’S WIFE, UNTIL HER OWN LAWYER TOLD HER THE VEGAS CERTIFICATE WAS ONLY A PROP
Paige Mercer requested one meeting with me.
I said no.
Then her attorney requested a meeting between counsel with Paige present because she had documents relevant to both the marital-spending dispute and the financial investigation.
I agreed.
Not because I wanted answers about whether she loved Derek.
I wanted records.
We met in Rachel’s conference room.
Paige arrived with no makeup.
Hair pulled back.
She looked younger than twenty-seven.
She also looked furious.
Not at me.
At herself.
Her attorney, Melissa Grant, opened.
“Paige wants to provide copies of communications voluntarily, subject to appropriate protections.”
Daniel Cho nodded.
“We appreciate that.”
Paige looked at me.
“Avery.”
“Paige.”
Silence.
Then:
“I’m sorry.”
I did not respond immediately.
She continued.
“I know that doesn’t fix anything.”
“No.”
“I knew he was married when we started.”
There.
No false innocence.
I respected that more than denial.
“He told me you were separated.”
“We were not.”
“I know.”
“He said you stayed in the same house for financial reasons.”
“We slept in the same bed until he left for Vegas.”
Her face went white.
“He said he used guest room.”
“He kissed me goodbye before trip.”
Paige closed eyes.
Her attorney touched file.
She continued:
“He told me divorce had been filed four months ago.”
“No.”
“He showed me something.”
“What?”
She handed over printout.
A draft dissolution petition.
Names.
Property information.
No court stamp.
No filing number.
It looked legal enough to fool someone unfamiliar.
Derek had apparently created or obtained a draft.
Paige said:
“He told me it was filed electronically.”
“Did you verify?”
“No.”
“Why?”
She swallowed.
“Because I wanted him to be telling truth.”
There.
That was painfully human.
She continued:
“Before Vegas, he told me decree was entered.”
“Impossible.”
“I know now.”
“Why did you believe?”
“He sent a screenshot.”
Her attorney showed.
A cropped image of a court-document portal.
The words:
DECREE — FINAL
But when investigators later examined metadata and broader context, it appeared screenshot came from another matter or demo/template? Let's keep grounded: It was an image of a sample decree packet from attorney website with identifying parts cropped.
He had not hacked court.
He had used an image.
Cheap.
Effective.
Paige cried.
“I should’ve checked.”
“Yes.”
She looked startled by bluntness.
I continued:
“But him lying does not erase that you knew he was married when relationship started.”
“I know.”
“Good.”
“I’m not asking you to forgive me.”
“Good.”
The conversation became easier after that.
No performances.
She told timeline.
Affair started approximately eleven months earlier at sales retreat.
Derek said marriage emotionally dead.
He described me as cold.
Controlling.
Financially abusive.
That one made me laugh.
Paige looked embarrassed.
“He said you used money to make him feel small.”
I stopped laughing.
Maybe from his perspective, parts felt true.
I paid more.
Questioned spending.
Asked budgets.
Perhaps he experienced shame.
But shame does not turn consent into optional.
Paige continued:
“He said you tracked everything.”
“I’m a risk consultant.”
“I know that now.”
“He said you refused to let him make financial decisions.”
“He made plenty.”
“He just disliked consequences.”
She nodded.
Then the house.
Derek said townhouse was “basically his” because my work travel meant I was rarely there.
He said I agreed to move after divorce.
He said Paige could redecorate.
That hurt in ridiculous way.
Not sex.
Curtains.
Someone imagining changing my home before I knew marriage ended.
Paige opened another message.
Derek:
Avery will probably take investment accounts and disappear into work. The house means more to me anyway.
I laughed once.
The townhouse had been my dream before Derek.
I chose neighborhood.
Down payment.
Floors.
Kitchen.
He had mistaken my financial competence for emotional detachment from objects.
Paige then showed a message that shifted credit-line investigation.
Three weeks before Vegas:
Once the 150 clears I can pay the cards, deal with house, and stop needing her money.
Paige:
What 150?
Derek:
Home credit line. Avery already agreed.
My hands went cold.
There.
Not proof he forged.
But proof he knew about $150,000 application and represented I agreed.
His surprised “What credit application?” outside house suddenly looked less believable.
Daniel Cho asked Paige:
“Did he ever discuss Avery signing?”
“No.”
“Did he show documents?”
“No.”
“Did he say funds approved?”
“He said almost.”
“Any discussion of using Paige’s information?”
“No.”
Good.
Then Vegas ceremony.
Paige’s aunt owned Mercer Events.
She arranged package.
Derek paid deposit from joint account.
Paige thought Derek’s divorce final.
The chapel ceremony itself was symbolic because they had not completed lawful marriage license process correctly? In source says decorative ceremonial certificate. So yes.
Paige had believed legal because Derek told her chapel would “handle paperwork separately.”
She never obtained official certified license.
At attorney consultation after driveway, she learned no valid marriage existed.
Derek was still legally married.
Paige ended relationship next morning.
Not because she suddenly developed morality.
Because he lied to her too.
Both mattered.
She handed me necklace? Did he buy her jewelry? Let's not cliché.
He had given her a $6,800 bracelet paid on personal card partly serviced by joint funds indirectly. Divorce accounting handled.
Paige offered return.
I said:
“It isn’t mine.”
Daniel explained marital dissipation accounting could consider expenditure without needing physical item.
She kept or sold as needed.
Not my concern.
Then Paige said:
“There is something else.”
Of course.
“Derek said if you found out, you’d never make scene.”
I looked.
“He said you hate public embarrassment more than betrayal.”
That was true.
“He said you would settle quietly.”
Also likely.
“And he said if things got ugly…”
She stopped.
“What?”
“He could make people think you were vindictive because you worked in finance and knew how to ruin him.”
I sat back.
Preemptive narrative.
Not unlike others.
“If she comes after me, it proves she’s controlling.”
Convenient.
Paige handed message.
Avery never yells. She freezes people out and uses money. She’ll try to make me look irresponsible if I leave.
He was preparing.
Maybe because he knew credit issue.
Maybe affair.
Probably both.
I felt sick.
Paige whispered:
“I believed him.”
“Why?”
“He was my boss.”
“Confident.”
“He made everything sound already decided.”
Power.
Not just romance.
He was forty.
She twenty-seven.
Manager/subordinate.
Not erase her choices.
But context.
Her employer later reviewed workplace relationship and disclosure issues separately.
I did not participate unless requested.
Before leaving, Paige looked at me.
“I used to feel sorry for you.”
I almost smiled.
“That must be embarrassing.”
“It is.”
“Good.”
She laughed through tears.
Then:
“I’m not asking to be your friend.”
“Good.”
“You say good a lot.”
“It saves time.”
She nodded.
At door:
“For what it’s worth, you don’t seem pathetic.”
I looked at her.
“That word stopped mattering around 2:44.”
She smiled.
Then left.
I never hated Paige the way strangers later wanted me to.
I disliked her choices.
I respected her eventual honesty.
Those can coexist.
She had walked knowingly into a relationship with a married man because the story he told made it easier to excuse.
Then he lied bigger.
She learned.
Paid consequences.
Left.
That was her life.
Derek remained my problem legally for fourteen more months.
May you like
Emotionally?
Less each day.
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