What Happens in Vegas

CHAPTER FOUR

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KATE

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I sit on the couch at home staring at the copy of the marriage certificate Mr Finch gave me. Not once, did it even cross my mind that I would have gotten married that night. On the coffee table in front of me sit the fake wedding rings I brought as part of a bet. If I had have woken up wearing a wedding ring I would have known, but I wore them before I went out that night. I hear a knock at the door but I don't look up, still staring at the Certificate in my hand. The room fills with chatter and kids as our friends filter into the lounge room. Ethan or Lucy must have called them all.

I hear the kids leave the room and look up to see only Tammy, Lucy and Nicole remain, the boys having left with the kids. Tammy disappears into the kitchen and returns with a bottle of wine and glasses. She opens the bottle and pours the wine into the glasses. As soon as she hands me the thick red wine, I down it in one gulp and hand her the glass back. She laughs and refills it.

"If there's any excuse to drink, then this is it." She says. I nod my head in agreement. The girls sit around me and Nicole takes the certificate out of my hand.

"Well, at least we figured out what happened that night." Lucy says. I nod again, unable to form words.

"Do you know anything about him?" Tammy asks. I shake my head.

"No. only that he and his family are looking for me and want me to go back to the states." I say. The girls nod in unison.

"What are you going to do?" Lucy asks. I shrug my shoulders.

"I honestly have no clue." I say. Tammy pulls out her phone and starts typing into it.

"Ok, let's see what your options are." She says. I nod my head. Tammy has always been the logical one, wanting all the facts before making a decision. "So, according to this you should be able to get an annulment." She says after a moment.

"Annulment?" I ask.

"Yeah, it'll be like it never happened, the other way is to file for divorce." She tells me. I shake my head, not wanting to go through a long and tedious divorce.

"No, I'll get it annulled. Does it say how?" I ask. Tammy looks at the screen for a while before replying.

"I think you will have to go to the states to do it." She says while biting her lip. I nod again, thinking how I wanted something interesting to happen to me, I just never imagined this. Lucy takes the certificate from Nicole's hands and types something into her phone.

"Let's see if we can find anything on your husband." She says. I cringe at those words. My husband. Who I've been married to for two years and I have no fucking clue who he is. "Holy shit." Lucy says. It's a whispered exclamation that gets all of our attention. Lucy hands her phone over to me and Nicole and Tammy scoot closer to read over my shoulder. I look at the search results from his name. The first is a photo and flashes of my night with him enter my mind.

"Wow... he's hot." Tammy observes. He definitely is. Probably the sexiest man I've ever seen. I scroll down through the headlines of articles about him.

"Heir to Caldwell industries to take over company"

"Billionaire Chase Caldwell and notorious playboy in another paternity suit"

Another paternity suit? Seriously? I click on the link and read the article, my eyes widening as I read the scalding article. Nicole reads over my shoulder out loud.

"Billionaire playboy is quoted as saying "I know the kids not mine but I'll play her little game. She's just another hungry gold digger using her own kid to extort money from me"" Nicole laughs.