Deceived 4 - The Wedding by Eve Carter Read Free Book Online

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.