Deceived 4 - The Wedding (4 page)

When I lifted my head, Elyse was at my side. “Don’t worry, Chloe. Patrick
will straighten this out. It’s probably just a misunderstanding.” She pulled her chair closer and patted my hand.

I knew Patrick’s mom didn’t like me
much, but now it was obvious. I don’t measure up to girls Patrick grew up with, girls like Stephanie...rich girls. That was okay. I wouldn’t let her get to me. I was marrying Patrick whether she liked it or not. Well, I hoped so, anyway. What was taking so long?

After what seemed like an eternity
, Patrick returned to our dinner party alone. His eyes were glued to the floor. Not a good sign. He couldn’t look at me. Elyse jumped up when she saw him coming and returned to her seat. As he strode across the room toward me, I could feel the tears building up behind my eyes. Everyone was watching and holding their breath. He stopped next to me, held out his hand and said softly, “Honey, I need to talk to you. Please come outside with me.”

I pushed his hand away. “
Whatever you have to say, you say it here in front of everyone.” I knew by his demeanor and tone that it was bad news and I needed support from my family and friends. It was better to get it out in the open, so I asked him, point blank, “Are you really married to that woman?”

He hesitated for a second
and then swallowed hard. “Yes, but I can explain—”

I rose and
faced Patrick, folding my arms across my chest and speaking with a steady, even tone. “Please do. I think everybody would very much like to hear your explanation as to how you can be marrying me tomorrow and yet you’re still married to a woman I haven’t even met…no wait…a woman I haven’t even heard about, until this very moment.”

Patrick’s
gaze flicked around the room as he took in the stares from all the stunned faces leaning in our direction, waiting, sitting on pins and needles along with me, for whatever explanation Patrick could possibly have for the nightmarish situation. For once, even his mother was speechless and I could just imagine what thoughts must have been running through Gerald’s mind as he contemplated the possibility of calling off the wedding. I couldn’t believe I had that thought. I chewed the inside of my lip as I pondered. Did it mean we had to cancel the wedding? You had better have something good to say, Patrick.

“
Well, okay…look, Chloe. I had no idea about this. It all goes back to a crazy weekend in Las Vegas…eight years ago. After graduating college and being hired by Meyer and Meyer, a few buddies and I went to Vegas to celebrate.” He turned toward Ryan, “You were there, remember?”

Ryan nodded. “Yeah, but I don’t remember anything about anyone getting married.”

Patrick raked his hands through his hair and blew out a breath. “It was so…so stupid. We had a pretty wild party, drinking shots and… well, just drinking way too much. I went to look for a bathroom and ran into Stephanie. She was there with a group of her friends for a bachelorette party. I think that was what she said. We had a few drinks together and…well, I don’t remember much, except drinking a lot and waking up next to Stephanie the morning after, wearing a wedding band. She told me that we had partied all night and decided to get married on the spur of the moment. She laughed about it and said we could get it annulled. Of course, I agreed. I had no intention of staying married and later I signed the annulment papers.”

I lifted m
y eyes up to meet his. “So… you’re
not
married. What was all this about then?”

He
dropped his chin to his chest in shame. “Apparently, the annulment was never recorded, but I did sign the papers and so did she. I remember it clearly. She claims otherwise - that it was never annulled because we never got around to it, which is a lie.”

“But if you both signed the papers, who filed them?”

Patrick sighed. “My flight back to New York was scheduled early next morning before the office opened, so she promised me that she would file the papers later that day. A few weeks went by before I called and asked her if everything went okay and she assured me of that. I know now what a huge mistake it was to trust her but she had always been honest with me. I mean, we had been together for almost three years in high school and even though our breakup was pretty dramatic I would never have thought she could do something like this. I’m so sorry, Chloe. Whatever it is she is trying to pull, I’ll fix it. Don’t worry.”

Ryan pushed back the chair and
sprang to his feet. “I think that’s bullshit! She must be lying about those papers. She is just trying to stall your wedding. I don’t believe a word of what she says, that bi—” The words flew out of his mouth. With one look around the room, Ryan curbed his choice of words and lowered his voice. “Are you sure, Patrick? You know she is just manipulating you. Be sure to check the records yourself before agreeing to anything.”

Elizabeth chimed in, “Yes, dear,
you need to take charge and check the records yourself. You can’t trust that woman.”

“
I will, I will, but I honestly don’t think she would go to all this trouble if it wasn’t true. I have a feeling we’re still listed as married.”

Irrational
thoughts spun through my mind. Did I really know the man I was about to marry after all? And the words pressing on my mind just fell out of my mouth. “Do you love her?”

Patrick looked at me
with sincerity and the soft touch of his hand graced my chin. There was the familiar look in his eyes that I knew. The muscles in my shoulders relaxed as I exhaled. I hadn’t even realized that I had been holding my breath. “Of course not. Trust me, hon. I love no one but you.”

“
Well then, can’t you just get it annulled now? We can postpone the wedding a couple of weeks, get an attorney and file the paperwork. End of story,” I said, as if it were as easy as that.

“I will,
and Stephanie agreed. A new annulment is what we need to do. It will be as if it never happened, at least as far as the law is concerned,” Patrick said. “There’s just one hiccup; Stephanie wants to be compensated for this. Quite handsomely, in fact.”

“How much?”
I asked.

Patrick cleared his voice and paused before he spoke. “She wants half my net worth before she
will sign an annulment.”

The whole room exploded in gasping noises and mumbles.
Ryan interrupted vehemently, “I fucking knew it. That bitch is a money hungry lunatic.” This time his disgust let him hold nothing back and he said what was on his and my mind alike. The minute I saw Stephanie walk in the room, I should have followed my first instincts and shoved her face into a plate of hors d’oeurves. Maybe, if it wasn’t too late, I could catch her in the hotel lobby and hold her head under the water of the large Venetian style fountain.

“She
’s not going to get away with this. We’ll find a way to fix it...we’ll hire the best attorney in the country. I know just the guy,” Ryan said.

Patrick grabbed him
in a warm hug. “Thanks, buddy. Absolutely, we will. There‘s a way out of this. And don’t worry, Chloe, I
will
fix this.”

My mind was in turmoil. I wanted to join th
e hug but the disappointment of not having the wedding go forward tomorrow rattled me and my heart sank to the floor. Although it wasn’t my fault, I somehow felt guilty about ruining everyone’s plans.

A
n elegantly dressed receptionist ushered us inside the oak lined walls of an office on the twenty third floor of a mid-Manhattan high rise. It was a typical law office, regal and stately with bookshelves filled to the brim with leather bound volumes. Pages and pages of rules and laws by which society organizes itself. You would have thought it would all be on the internet, mysteriously floating on a virtual cloud somewhere in cyberspace, in today’s world but there was something earthy and authentic about the hardbound books.

As we stepped into the room we were met by the outstretched hand of none other than Mr. Brad
ley Falcon, Attorney at Law. He gave us a short, fast hand shake and signaled for us to have a seat with a wave of his open palm.

“C
ome in, come in,” he greeted us. His speech pattern was fast and energetic. One stray lock of his dirt brown hair continuously fell out of place as he talked and he continuously pushed it back with his hand. It was distracting. Ten minutes into our conversation, all I could focus on was the flop of his hair.

Ryan had accompanied Patrick and
I to meet with the divorce lawyer to straighten out the little disaster in our lives called Stephanie Patterson.

I didn’t see the need for me to be
there, but Patrick had insisted. I suppose he felt the need to prove to me that he really was fixing the situation so we could get married sooner rather than later. Needless to say, the trust between us had taken a hit the day of the rehearsal dinner and he knew it.

I crossed my legs and adjusted my skirt as I took a seat in a black leather chair. Ryan pulled up a matching chair, with brass studs
holding the leather on the arms. Patrick looked tense as he took the chair directly opposite Mr. Falcon’s desk and the meeting got underway.

“So, Mr. Collins, I was told by Mr. Barrick, that Miss…” Falcon cocked his head and turned the papers in the file folder to read the name, “…Patterson wants half of your net worth before she will agree to the annulment of your marriage. Do you have an estimate on how much your company is worth, Mr. Collins?”

“
Yes. Last month my bank valued the company in respect to extending a new line of credit.”

“Excellen
t, so how much are we talking about?”

“Forty two million,” Patrick said.

Falcon looked up from his papers. “Did you say forty two million dollars?”

“Yes, I am
a fifty-fifty partner with Ryan, Mr. Barrick here, so my net worth from the company alone is twenty one million dollars.”

Mr. Falcon
punched numbers into an old fashioned calculator, a strange juxtaposition with the two sleek computer monitors sitting on his heavy mahogany desk. It was one of those adding machines with a roll of paper attached. I speculated that he had a flair for the unique and was a little “old school” when it came to office technology. Nothing wrong with that. As long as he could get that bitch unattached from my fiancé, he could use a hammer and chisel for all I cared; if it weren’t for her, I would be calling Patrick my husband by now.

“What other commodities do you po
ssess?”

Patrick threw his hands in the air
in frustration. A week ago he was planning to get married. A week ago he thought he’d be soaking up the sun in Bali by now, instead of spending the afternoon with a divorce lawyer, summing up his net worth.

He pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger.
“There’s the penthouse, my two sport cars, some antiques and other items... I would say approximately worth another five million, of which I owe two on the mortgage.”

I heard clicking sounds from the calculator as
Falcon punched in the numbers.

“Anything else?
Foreign investments or bank accounts? You know, they’ll find everything.”

“Nope, that’s it,” Patrick said firmly.

Falcon pressed the enter button on the calculator and cleared his throat. “Excellent, so in total we are looking at a net worth of twenty six million, minus the mortgage, that’s a total of twenty four million dollars. Half of that is twelve million, which would be the amount Miss Patterson is demanding for signing an annulment. That’s a pretty expensive signature.”

Patrick
leaned forward with his elbows on his knees and rubbed the heels of his hands across his face. “What are our options here, Mr. Falcon?”

“Well, there are three options
, depending on how much time you have.”

“Okay, let’s hear them, give me the run down.”

“If you’re in a hurry and if you and Miss Swanson want to get married as soon as possible, you simply take Miss Patterson’s deal, pay her twelve million to have her sign the annulment and a couple of weeks from now, you two can be on your honeymoon.”

Falcon was shrewd. He knew his stuff but I could see Patrick was not happy with the words that came out of the man’s mouth. I leaned over and touched Patrick on the forearm. “Can she just take your money like that?”

“What are the other options?” Ryan interrupted coolly.

“We could fight this
, but without her consent and testimony, I seriously doubt Clark County in Las Vegas will agree to an annulment, since it’s been more than eight years since it took place. If she testifies against the annulment and tells a story about how heartbroken she is about this divorce, you’ll have to battle this out in divorce court. But seeing that you have never actually lived with Miss Patterson, I would say there’s a very good chance that a judge would lower the amount you have to pay to maybe twenty to twenty-five percent of your worth. However, he could also rule that you would have to pay alimony on top of that lump sum, being that she’s unemployed and you have a pretty hefty income. So…that’s a gamble for sure.”

Mr. Falcon shuffled some papers on his desk. “I guess what happens in
Vegas doesn’t really stay there, after all. Sometimes it comes home with you and bites you in the ass.” Falcon gave a nasty chuckle, thoroughly amused at himself, his lock of hair flopping on his forehead. His remark held little humor for Patrick.

The smile faded from his
lips and Falcon stroked his chin with his long fingers. He could see the tension written all over Patrick’s face.

“Listen,
this is the approach I officially recommend. Only problem is, it could take a year or more to process.”

Patrick looked at me with an apologetic gaze.

All the blood drained to my feet and I felt like I was a wilting flower with no more energy to hold myself up.
I just wanted to lie down on the floor, curl up into a little ball and shut out the world. This was turning into a real disaster.

“
Officially? You said three options. What is the last option?”

Mr. Falcon
cleared his throat once again and pushed that annoying lock of hair back. “Well, you didn’t hear it from me, but there are people out there…private investigators, that will dig deep to find any dirt on people…Miss Patterson, that is. If they find something, you can use it as leverage when negotiating with her. Get her to agree to sign an annulment for a lower cost, maybe as low as fifty thousand dollars or so, if you find something good. Maybe she has a secret lover or something. Anything that discredits her would work. An annulment would be the best in any circumstance, like the marriage never existed. And like I said, an annulment could be done in a couple of weeks…
if
she agrees.”

Mr. Falcon leaned back in his chair and tapped the end of his pen against his front teeth. “
I can recommend a guy I’ve used before. He’s very discreet and always produces excellent results. If she’s hiding anything, he will find it.”

Ryan sat up straight. “That’s not a bad idea. I’m sure with her
past history of psychotic behavior there’ll be a lot of dirt to dig up. Please, give me his name and I’ll call him.”

Patrick
sat with his fingers threaded together under his chin, contemplating the options. He interrupted and stood up I leaned forward. “Thanks, Ryan, but I should call him. After all, I’m the one who fucked up.”

“
No, Patrick, I got this, buddy. You’re not the only one who fucked up. I was with you that weekend in Vegas. I should’ve done a better job of looking out for you.”

Falcon scratched a
name and a number on a card and handed it to Ryan. “Just tell him that you are working with Falcon and he’ll give you a discount. The Falcon always watches out for you, that’s my slogan. It’s on my ads.” He chuckled.

“That’s great,” Patrick said. “So how long do you think it will take before he finds something?”

“Oh, he’s quick. Usually a few days. No more than a week, tops.”

“Great!” Patrick said
enthusiastically and rose to his feet. It seemed the meeting was over and Mr. Falcon gave one last push to his floppy hair before he reached into the top desk drawer. He pulled out a small stack of business cards and began handing them to each of us.

“Here’s my card. Take two, or three
. Give them to friends, tell them that Falcon always watches out for them, that’s my slogan, it’s on my business card.” He grimed a tooth filled smile.

Patrick took the cards and said,
“Yes, I know, you said so already, but thanks. I’ll be sure to pass these along.” Patrick shot me a look. Falcon was a little eccentric but I had a good feeling about him.

“Well
then, let’s get on with the witch hunt, or in your case,” he leaned forward and made quotation marks with his fingers in the air as he said, “the ‘bitch’ hunt.” He bellowed out a loud laugh, once again thoroughly amused with his own wit and humor, as I mentally said goodbye to that miserable lock of hair.

Patrick reached out a hand.
“Thank you, Mr. Falcon. We will talk again soon.” We each shook hands in turn and bid each other farewell as Falcon walked us to the door, where he shut it behind us.

“
Peculiar, isn’t he?” I said and wiped the palm of my hand on my dress as we walked out of his lobby to the elevators.

“Don’t be fooled by his outward appearance, Chloe. This guy is exactly who we need. He knows Stephanie’s type. He won’t steer us wrong.”

“I don’t know. He seems a little shady.”

Ryan jabbed the red button for the elevator and said, “Exactly, it takes one to know one.”

“And to beat one at her own game,” Patrick replied.

The bell dinged
as the elevator arrived at our floor and the doors slid open. Patrick took my elbow and escorted me into the elevator car. The soft whoosh of the door transported me into a daze as Patrick and Ryan talked, speculating on how Stephanie’s secrets would be discovered to do her in. Their voices faded to a dull buzz as I reflected on the events of the past few weeks. It felt like things were back on track again. The sickening feeling of having my dreams derailed finally left my stomach. I could relax and be happy again, knowing this thing was under control and with any luck, like the quirky lawyer said; it could be over in a couple weeks. I looked at Patrick, still engrossed in a conversation with Ryan. Without missing a beat he took my hand when the doors opened on the ground floor and led me out, all the way out to the sidewalk where the three of us stepped out into the sunshine of a new summer day.

“
Thanks for helping with this, Ryan. Text me or call me as soon as you’ve talked to the private eye.”

Ryan shoved his hand
in his pockets and fished out his phone. “I’ll call him right now and set up an appointment, hopefully today or tomorrow. We need to move quickly on this.”

My brow
furrowed. I was happy to have Ryan’s help, but also a little surprised about the persistence with which he was pursuing it.

Ryan punched in
the investigator’s number and it rang a couple of times. With the phone still at his ear he looked at us and said, “It’s his voicemail…Hi, Mr. Davenport, my name is Ryan Barrick. Listen, Brad Falcon told me to give you a call. I’m representing a client who is in need of your service locating certain delicate information. Please give me a call back as soon as possible on 555-951-3030. Looking forward to hearing from you. Thank you.” Ryan pocketed his phone and turned to us. “Well, I’m sure he will get back to us soon. I have to run to a meeting, but I’ll give you a call when I hear something.”

Patrick
clapped him on the back with a friendly gesture. “Sounds great, buddy. I’ll talk to you later.”

“See you, girl
friend,” Ryan said, pointing at me, then turned to the street and hailed a cab. A few seconds later, one pulled up and he disappeared into the wash of traffic.

As soon as the cab door shut
, Patrick grabbed me in a warm embrace. “Chloe, I’m so sorry about all this. Apparently, our life will always be infiltrated by crazy ass bitches,” he chuckled.

“Don’
t worry, baby,” I said bravely. “We can handle them. And we have Ryan to help us. He always has your back. You can count on him, he’s a rock. I’m so grateful for all the times he has helped us out, like that thing with the baroness. Who knows what my life, I mean our life, would have been like if it weren’t for him.” A light breeze blew a stand of my hair into my face and I tucked it behind my ear.