‘Baby, I know that.’
‘I knowyoudo, but every single one of your friends think that I’m with you because you’re rich.’
‘And since when do I ever care for what others might think, honey,’ Quaddra came back.
‘It’s not about you caring or not for what others might think, honey. I know that you don’t. This is about the future,’ Mary explained, her performance impeccable. ‘It’s about me not having to forever endure the looks that I know I’ll be getting from everyone, whenever I enter a room, with or without you, simply because I’m your wife. It’s about the onslaught of criticism that’s about to come my way, as soon as they know we’re engaged. It’s about all the jokes that people will make… the behind-the-back comments…the digs.’ She lifted both hands at him. ‘I know that that’s not something personal. People won’t be doing it just because it’s me, Mary Smith. Whoever married you would get it. I know that you know that. It comes with being too successful.’
Quaddra did know that. Unless he married someone who was publicly known to be at least as wealthy as he was, there would always be talk of ‘gold digging’.
He gave Mary a sideways nod, accepting her argument. ‘You’re right. People are dicks.’
‘I am marrying you because I’m in love with you,’ Mary said again. ‘But we live in a paranoid society – one where couples actually require a court of law document to prove that they are in love and that they aren’t marrying each other for money.’ She paused for effect. ‘Please, honey, it will make me feel so much more comfortable knowing that we have it.’
It took Quaddra a couple of seconds before he nodded backat Mary. ‘Sure, my love, if that’s what you want… I’ll get my lawyers to draft a prenup as soon as we’re back.’
‘That’s what I want.’ Mary smiled and kissed his lips again.
‘Then that’s what you’ll have.’
No, Mary wasn’t crazy. On the contrary, she knew exactly what she was doing.
She couldn’t give a flying fuck for what Quaddra’s friends thought of her. That was just what she told him as an excuse. In truth, the prenuptial agreement was to puthismind at ease.
Quaddra was a billionaire, and Mary was just someone who he’d met at an art exhibition. Not matter what he told her, no matter how much in love he truly was with her, the worry of her being a ‘gold digger’, however small, would always be there, lurking in the background. That, after all, had been the reason why Quaddra had developed the habit of giving strangers a false name in the first place – to try to avoid the opportunists. He was a very intelligent man, he wouldn’t be so successful if he weren’t, and if there was one thing that success had taught him it was that no matter how well he thought he knew someone, he never really knew someone well enough – everyone had secrets. And that had been why Mary had played the prenuptial agreement card. A prenuptial agreement, especially one suggested by her, would go a long way towards easing Quaddra’s doubts about her real intentions. This was Mary proving to Quaddra that she wasn’t after his money.
Yes, she knew that a prenuptial agreement would completely overrule the traditional 50/50 split that had become the base for negotiations in most divorce settlements in the USA. In their particular case, she would make sure that their prenuptial agreement stipulated that should Mary and Quaddra ever get divorced, Mary would have no rights to any of Quaddra’s already existing fortune and none of his properties. Whatever wealth he’d accumulatedbefore their marriage would be completely out of her reach and there would be nothing that her lawyers would be able to do to overturn that… but Mary wouldn’t just be divorcing Quaddra. She would be suing him for criminal domestic violence, physical abuse, battering, and false imprisonment and captivity – and that was a criminal lawsuit, not a divorce settlement – in which case, a prenuptial agreement meant absolutely nothing.
Her lawyers would be requesting compensation for physical injuries and for all the psychological torment and trauma that he had caused her… and with that, they would be able to take everything – prenup or no prenup.
Seventy-Three
Quaddra proved to be a true romantic at heart, suggesting that they hire out the Legion of Honor as the venue for their wedding. That was where he and Mary had gone on their first-ever date, even though Mary had always insisted that it hadn’t been a date ‘per se’. He’d also suggested that they got the Malay couple, who ran the restaurant that they’d gone for dinner afterwards, to prepare the wedding buffet and dinner. In short, Quaddra wanted to give his wedding guests a quick snippet of his and Mary’s first-ever night out.
Mary had found the idea adorable, and if that really was what Quaddra wanted, she’d be fine with it, but she did argue that hiring out such a public venue, like the Legion of Honor, would, no doubt, attract its fair share of unwanted attention, like tabloids and paparazzi, something that neither of them were very keen on. In the end, Quaddra agreed with Mary, and they decided to use the grounds of Quaddra’s mansion for their wedding.
It had been a simple but very classy ceremony, four months after they got back from Europe, and with only a handful of guests. Mary had invited Harvey and Cory, the owners of the gallery that she worked at, but unfortunately, they couldn’t attend, as they were holidaying in Europe at the time. Mary also invited Betsy, who had flown over from LA specially.
Unsurprisingly, Quaddra had asked his childhood friend, Tyler,to be the best man at their wedding, and to keep things simple, Mary had asked Kristie, Tyler’s wife, to be her bridesmaid.
Since Kristie and Mary met, all those months ago, at Quaddra’s cheese and wine party, they had become quite good friends, but that hadn’t been the real reason why Mary had asked Kristie to be her bridesmaid. Kristie was Megan’s best friend, who was Quaddra’s ex-girlfriend. True, since that same cheese and wine party, Mary had also managed to win Megan over, somewhat, but Megan clearly still had feelings for Quaddra, and she could still be a real bitch when she wanted to. Having Kristie as her bridesmaid had been a tactical move by Mary, not a friendly gesture.
With the wedding finally out of the way, Mary was free to properly begin implementing the rest of her plan… and since Quaddra had pushed for a speedy wedding, she also decided to move things forward a bit.
Mary and Denise had run this same con three times before. It was a long-game con that if done properly would pay very well – in the past fourteen years, they had both made several millions each – but sending people to prison for something they hadn’t really done had a special way of pissing them off. For that reason alone, once the con was over, both Mary and Denise would always move cities – states, preferably. They’d also undergo a full looks and identity change – something that didn’t really pose that much of a problem when you were a millionaire – documents could be bought, and so could privacy – but what really set their con apart from most regular cons was that theirs had a legal side to it. They weren’t simply stealing the money and running, like regular criminals. The money was awarded to them by a judge – it was all completely above board and legal – and it was that legal side of the con that Mary and Denise both knew had a very short shelf life.
In the US, people could easily get divorced twice, with a veryhefty settlement, and no one would bat an eyelid, even if both divorces came in a relatively short amount of time. The statistic was that over 55 percent of marriages in the USA, within three to five years, would end up in divorce. A third divorce was still doable, but was much riskier, and that had been why Denise had said that if they were to run their con again, especially inside the USA, it was her turn to play the wife, but Mary wasn’t exactly worried. Yes, this would be her third wedding, but only her second inside the USA. The first time that Mary had gotten married, she was over five thousand miles away, in London, England.
Seventy-Four
Nineteen Years Ago
London
Grace and Julia both knew how vindictive Dylan and his traveling funfair mates could be, so after they left him bleeding on the floor of his dirty caravan back in Leeds, they didn’t stick around for the consequences. They made their way straight to the railway station and jumped on the very first train they could. They didn’t really care where it was heading. They just wanted out of Leeds… fast… any direction would do.
At that time in the morning, they weren’t exactly overwhelmed with choices, but the second train on the departures board – leaving in just fifteen minutes – was heading to London, a city so big and so populated that they could both easily become the proverbial ‘needle in the haystack’ – and right then, there was nothing that Grace and Julia wanted more.
Two hours and fifteen minutes later, they were stepping out of the train and onto Platform One at King’s Cross Station, Central London.
