“Eh, but is it though?” Eric frowned. “We have to convince a judge. After that nonsense with those celebrities getting annulments, judges in the area have been cracking down. They don’t just hand out annulments like they used to. Could go either way.”
“Shit, what am I going to do? I need to move all my money,” I said, pulling out my phone. “I’m setting up a shell corporation right now to protect my assets.”
“Absolutely not,” Eric said, grabbing my phone. “That looks super sketchy to a judge. Just hold onto your balls. We need to proceed carefully to try to be granted an annulment. But worst-case scenario, we are going to do a no-fault divorce.”
“She’s going to take my money!”
“Not if Grace agrees to no payout,” Josh said. “From what you said, she seems pretty stable.”
“She looked unhinged at the wedding,” Eric said in concern.
“To be fair, so did Chris.”
“She’s going to clean me out,” I moaned, resting my head in my hands.
“No, she’s not,” Eric said, adopting the tone of voice he used with difficult clients. “You’re going to play nice and be your charming handsome self. Try to become friends with her. Do nice things for her. Be generous. Don’t piss her off, and I’m sure she’ll agree to a no-fault divorce.”
“Maybe we could pay her off?” I said helplessly.
“Bad idea,” Josh said. “You don’t want her to think this relationship is transactional. You want her to be doing a favor for a friend. After all the paperwork is signed, then if you want to give her money, we can do that.”
He grabbed my shoulders and shook me. “Be friendly.”
Except the problem was, I had probably already ruined my shot at a friendly relationship with Grace, and over a cheeseburger and fries, no less.
11
Grace
“I refuse,” I said. “I refuse to be married to that animal.”
“Animal? Was your wedding night amazing?” Sophie asked breathlessly.
“Yep. Ordered room service, took a bath, and read. It was great.”
“So you’re still a born-again virgin?” Amy joked.
“What’s the point of having a husband if you can’t grab his dick?” Brea remarked, looking up from the embroidery she was doing on a veil.
“I’m not sleeping with him. I’m divorcing him,” I said angrily. “You should have heard him yesterday. He’s a cheap-ass bastard. He’s like a man-child—totally obsessed and thinking that I’m about to wrong him somehow. Shoot, I bet he didn’t even leave a tip. I left an extra tip just in case he tried to stiff the cleaning people.” My eye was twitching.
“You’re stressed,” Elsie said, bringing me a mug of tea.
“Oh my God,” I exclaimed, having a horrible thought. “What if he tries to take part of our company in the divorce?”
“Surely he couldn’t do that,” Ivy said in concern.
Elsie, the former accountant, frowned. “Alimony is all based on who has the greater net worth. If he has all his assets in shell trusts and corporations and doesn’t take a salary, the judge could rule in Chris’s favor. He could potentially win part of Grace’s ownership in Weddings in the City.”
We were all silent for a moment. We had all worked with entitled sociopathic billionaires in our time in the wedding trenches. Based on some of the billionaires we’d dealt with, I wouldn’t put anything devious or underhanded past them.
I slumped back on the couch.
“Fuck Chris Winchester.”
I could not afford to pay alimony. I was already supporting not only myself, but Gran and a rescue parrot. But Chris was a rich frat-boy douche, and I knew how they operated—hello, freshman year at college. And I definitely was not giving up part of the company that I had built—that my friends had built—without a fight.
If Chris thought he was taking a piece of my hard work, he had another thing coming.
The wedding I was photographing that evening was in full swing. I-Dos had been said, and I had just finished the nerve-wracking reception entrance shots. For me, those were more difficult than the ceremony shots. The ceremony moved fairly slowly, so I could be sure to compose the best photos.
But during the reception entrance, the lighting was usually something fun, meaning something difficult to photograph nicely, plus the bride and groom were dancing and moving erratically.
Now the speeches were starting while Elsie and the catering staff began bringing out the food. I caught my breath in a corner of the room, snapping a few pictures of the crowd while I mentally calculated the best shots