A cold, contemptuous curl at the corner of my mouth.
The hands gripping my shoulders shook.
Marian stared at me, and tears slid down her face.
"Marian, how can you not see through something this obvious?"
Frederick Delgado picked up the death certificate.
"Look. Doesn't it remind you of the one I forged for you three years ago?"
He pointed to the stamp at the bottom.
"It's not even as good as the one I made.
"See here? That's not how an official seal gets placed."
He let out a scoff and looked at me. "Mr. Graves, we've both been through this before. Trying to fool us with something like this? That's bringing a knife to a gunfight."
Marian blinked, coming back to herself.
Frederick kept pointing things out to her.
"Look at the signature. It's so stiff you can't tell? And this paper, it's obviously been aged on purpose. You went through the whole process three years ago. Mr. Graves here is actually pretty experienced. He even predicted you'd come find him today, dressed himself in rags and waited for you at the dump."
"You're full of it!"
My eyes burned red.
Marian only frowned.
After examining the death certificate front and back several times, Marian looked at me with undisguised contempt.