Read Deceived 4 - The Wedding for Free Online Page A

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