The other male official leaned forward on his elbows, shaking his head with exaggerated disappointment."I have to be honest," he said, voice loud enough that it carried across the whole waiting area. "Every time a woman like her walks in here with someone decent, I think, good for her. Then she walks in with something like this." He waved a hand toward Alex as though presenting a failed exhibit. "A worm in a pressed shirt. What a waste.""It is always the beautiful ones," the female official agreed, clicking her tongue. "No sense. Absolutely no sense. She could have anyone and she drags in this slug and asks us to stamp it official."The man with the cup set it down and looked directly at Alex with something between pity and disgust."No offense to you personally," he said, in a tone that made it clear he meant every offense possible. "But what exactly are you bringing to this woman? You look like the type that cannot afford the bus fare home. Men like you should not even be allowed

The man beside her nodded slowly, folding his arms across his chest."The Vinda name is not small," he added. "Even damaged, it is not something you throw into the garbage overnight. If people find out what happened in that villa, if they find out what Tom Vinda decided about you, the kind of stories that will follow you out of this city will be impossible to outrun."He exhaled. "Reputations like yours do not recover from that kind of exposure. Not easily. Not quickly."The female official leaned slightly closer to the glass, lowering her voice another degree."So here is my advice," she said. "Free of charge. Think very carefully about this marriage registration. Think about whether signing that document today is worth what comes next. Because whoever is on the other side of your secret already knows you are here. They already know what you are trying to do."Her painted nail tapped once on the glass panel. "Reconsider. Go back. Fix things with your family. Marry the man they chose

Alex's hand tightened on Mia's shoulder, and she could feel the tension in his touch, the particular stillness that came over him when he was processing information and deciding what to do with it.Mia tried to think through it.She had checked the news this morning. There had been nothing about the Vinda family crisis, nothing about her father disowning her, nothing about the broken arrangement with Simone Greene. The information was private, contained within the family sphere, known only to those who had been there last night or who had been explicitly told.Yet somehow, the bureau officials knew.Which meant someone had told them. Someone had ensured that the flag on the marriage application came with context, with information designed to undermine her position and render her unable to fight back. Someone had weaponized her circumstances against her."Who told you," Mia asked, and the question came out with a kind of terrible clarity. "Who gave you this information.""Again," the o

The mockery poured out of them, each official trying to outdo the others in cruelty, as if volume and viciousness could somehow restore the comfortable position they had been in moments before."Look at him," the woman said, gesturing at Alex with exaggerated disgust. "He actually thinks he can walk in here and challenge us. He actually thinks his words matter. What could he possibly do? Report us? To whom? Do you think anyone is going to listen to a dismissed firefighter who is trying to marry above his station?""He probably borrowed money for this marriage license," another official chimed in. "Borrowed it from the woman, obviously. Probably has to borrow money from her for everything. Food. Clothes. That suit that does not fit." The laughter that followed was directed and cruel.Alex stood completely still.He did not react to the insults. He did not defend himself. He did not attempt to explain or justify or push back against the narrative they were constructing. He simply stood

"A review that was triggered within minutes of us arriving, based on personal information that could only have been obtained through an unofficial channel." Alex's voice remained level. "That is not a review. That is targeted obstruction. And somewhere in this building, there is documentation of who made the call that triggered the flag on our application."The officials went very still."You are bluffing," one of them said, though his voice had thinned slightly."I am stating a fact," Alex replied. "Every call made to this bureau is logged. Every flag on an application has a source. And the person who made that call, whoever they are, used official channels to handle a personal matter. Which means they left a record."The room stayed silent for a moment.Then the woman leaned forward, and what was left of her composure had hardened into something that was partly defensiveness and partly genuine warning."You are a nobody. You are a dismissed firefighter who came in here with a woman