CHAPTER 6: The License in the Plastic Sleeve

Officer Lane asked Maya for identification.
Vivian almost smiled again. She thought grief made people forget practical things.
Maya took a small plastic sleeve from the inside pocket of her jacket. It held her driver's license, her marriage certificate copy, and a folded card from Aaron's attorney with a direct number written in blue ink.
Lane compared the names. Rain dotted the plastic but could not blur what mattered.
'Maya Calder Graydon,' he read.
Vivian's mouth tightened at the second surname.
She had refused to use it since the wedding. She called Maya 'Aaron's wife' when donors were listening and 'that girl' when she forgot servants had ears. To Vivian, family was not love. It was a locked room, and Maya had been invited only because Aaron stood at the door.
Now Aaron was gone, and Vivian wanted the room sealed again.
Reyes handed the sleeve back. 'Ma'am, at this point I do not have grounds to remove her.'
Vivian's eyes flashed. 'Then you are not listening.'
Maya bent and picked up the photograph from the rain. The glass had cracked across Aaron's face, but his smile was still there, stubborn beneath the damage.