He looks up from his phone. “Of course. An annulment. Makes sense. Pain in the ass, but here we are.”
“Yes. Here we are. Two billionaires who got married willy-nilly with no prenup or anything.”
“Ah, shucks, honey, you’re so romantic.”
He says it humorously, but I can hear something uncomfortable beneath his tone. Leave it to me to find the one man in the world who would want to marry me.
Look, I know how awful and ungrateful that sounds. But I swear, if this turns into a huge emotional mess between us... I don’t know what I will do. It’s not the first time we’ve done some stupid things drunk. Apparently we need a chaperone.
“I’m gonna call my lawyer,” I say, cutting into hash browns. “You should too, just to make sure this goes smoothly.”
Ian bites the inside of his cheek before picking up a fork and stealing half my eggs in one bite. “Yup. Sounds good. Let’s do it after this. Fly them out here.”
“Fly them out here?”
“What choice do we have, babe? We fucked up in Vegas... gotta fix our problems in Vegas. That way they don’t follow us home.”
“Yeah, I guess. So much for our trip.”
Ian leans on the table, hand taking mine. “Oh, I dunno. Never been married before. Should be fun.”
He’s being cheeky, and I hate how cute I find it.
Ian
I’m taking this whole marriage thing pretty well. Probably because by dinner time we’ve got both our lawyers sitting in our trashed hotel room and looking at us like they’re our disappointed parents.
(Don’t tell my mom what’s happened. Please.)
“Of all the things I’ve bailed you out of...” Clarence, my lawyer since the tender age of nineteen, says. He’s a good thirty years older than me, which makes me feel great in a court of law, not so much in a personal setting. He’s wizened. Churlish at times. His wife is the same age as him but looks twenty years younger—and she hasn’t had any work done as far as I know, so Clarence is that aged. “This even tops that DUI I made go away when you were twenty-one.”
Kathryn glares at me. She doesn’t say anything, though. Pretty sure she trashed a car once too. We rich kids have a tendency to be stupid fucks, especially when alcohol is involved.
“You’re usually a lot smarter than this, Kathryn,” says Miguel, her lawyer. What, did they take their plane ride we paid for to consult on how they were going to make us feel bad? “What in the world brought this on?”
We both look pretty sheepish when we admit we were blasted off our asses.
“Blasted off what? Don’t lie to me.”
Okay, Dad. “Alcohol. A lot of it.”
“You sure that’s it?”
“Well... there was a lot of coke at that first party, but I did not partake.” Kathryn sniffs, which would make me laugh, but I know better right now. “You didn’t snort any, did you?”
“What? No way.” She’s right, though. I saw so much blow get blown last night that I think I might actually have a contact high. Still. “Just alcohol. Legal shit. Ahem.”
Both lawyers study us before consulting their folders and then one another. They take turns looking at the marriage license. Clarence phones his assistant back east and gets an immediate response—the license is legit.
“You’re lucky we’re both licensed in Nevada,” Miguel says. He’s in his late 30s, a good looking fellow from a prestigious firm. I can see why Kathryn hired him. Tanned eye candy. “We’re pretty sure you have grounds for an annulment, if even one of you was as intoxicated as you claim to be.”
“Oh, we were.”
“Nevertheless, this is serious. You two aren’t Joe and Jane in Vegas for a weekend and fucking up your lives for a month, or at least until the local courts dissolve your fake marriage.” Clarence looks up from his folders and right into my eyes. Grandpa’s here, and he’s pissed as fuck. “Your two’s combined personal assets are worth over two billion dollars. Did you hear me? Two billion.”
We both shift uncomfortably in our seats.
“No prenup. This is a mess.”
“Why do you think we called you guys as soon as we figured out what happened?” Kathryn scoffs. “We know it’s a mess! That’s why it needs to go away!”
Both lawyers glare at her. “This is Nevada, Ms. Alison,” Clarence says. “The courts are backed up with annulment requests. We can grease some wheels with your help to get your hearing sooner rather than later... but you will need to be on your game. That means no spending together. Do not purchase anything, do not invest, and do not gift one another money until further notice.”