“Good,” she said, patting her sister on the arm. “You go ahead and I’ll wait here. We’ll go to the library and then pick up Adam at school.”
Darcey worried her plump lower lip. “What will we tell him?”
“Er, definitely nothing about … this,” she said, waving the crumpled piece of paper. “We’ll just say that we got a better offer from another bank.”
“Right.” Her sister gave her the thumbs-up. “Okay, give me a minute, I’ll get that info from Mr. Mack.”
As she disappeared back into the bank, Sarah’s shoulders sank. God, what the hell did I do?
“Apparently, I got married,” she said aloud. “Fuck my life.” She leaned her forehead against the cool glass windows of the building. Of course, it happened during the night of the bachelorette party. How trashed was she? Very. So wasted, she didn’t even remember getting married.
With a sigh, she uncrumpled the paper in her hand, her eyes immediately scanning down to the name next to hers. “Daniel Rogers of Colorado,” she said aloud, as if doing so would conjure him up. If only it did, then this would solve her problems. Divorces and annulments were just as easy to obtain as marriages in Nevada. She bet getting married while drunk was probably grounds for either. This is Vegas, she thought, repeating Harry Mack’s words.
With a determined grunt, she straightened her spine and stared down at the name again. Finally, she had a name to go with the face. Who are you, Daniel Rogers? Well, she was about to find out.
They said ending a marriage wasn’t easy, but this was getting ridiculous.
A week passed since the day at the bank Sarah found out she was married. Being a broke waitress, the first thing she did was turn to the Internet and Google “quickie annulment” and “fast divorce.” The paperwork could be done in minutes and the process finished quickly even without the other party’s signature—if she had the money for an attorney.
She had no choice but to do it herself which meant wading through the bureaucracy and hoping she could do it all without making any mistakes. Without her “husband’s” signature, the process could take four months. But the fastest way to do it would be to actually have the other party sign and file the paperwork for the uncontested annulment and have everything done in a week.
So, she thought she’d try to find Daniel Rogers of Colorado by herself, but that was like digging through a haystack for the proverbial needle. Social media was a bust, so she tried one of those people finder websites. There were about eighty-nine people named Daniel Rogers from Colorado, and without a middle name or birthday, she couldn’t narrow it down. Plus she had to pay that website to unlock each name so she could get an address and phone number.
“I guess I should take out that emergency credit card.” She winced, thinking about what it would cost to get those numbers. What if the right Daniel Rogers turned out to be number eighty-nine? Or what if he put down a fake name and she never found him at all?
“We’ll find a way,” Darcey assured her. They were sitting at their favorite diner just off The Strip, commiserating over greasy eggs, home fries, and potatoes.”
“Even if we did find a way, what should I say? Hi, Daniel, did you happen to be in Las Vegas about three months ago and have no memory of getting married? Surprise, I’m your wife.”
“Cheer up,” Darcey said. “We’ll fix this. You could still file the annulment without his signature, right?”
“Yeah, but that means spending money we can’t afford on attempting to find him to serve the papers and waiting up to four months for the judgement from family court, which is time we don’t have.”
“I’m sure the owner of the space we want to lease will give us some time until we get the loan if we ask him,” Darcey suggested.
Sweet, sweet Darcey. The poor girl could really be naive sometimes, which was why Sarah had to keep looking out for her; lots of people tended to take advantage of her sister. But real estate was at a premium around here, at least good boutique space in a nice area that didn’t cost and arm and a leg and a spleen.
“Sure, we can try that, but if I can find this guy then all he has to do is sign it, and it’ll all be done in a week. The loan papers are already with Mr. Ross at First Federal, and all we have to do is tell him to put them through.” Meeting with their new loan officer had been the bright spot in their week.
“Maybe we can dip into our savings, just a little bit. Or I can ask my boss for a loan.” Darcey worked at a children’s clothing boutique in one of the casino shops.
“I don’t want you owing Agnes anything,” Sarah replied, distaste in her voice. “You know that hag will lord it over you.” If they didn’t need the health insurance so badly, she would have told her sister to quit working for that bitch long ago. Agnes was definitely one of those people who abused Darcey’s good nature, often asking her to work overtime without pay or extra work a manager shouldn’t be doing.
A hopeless feeling came over Sarah, and she slumped back in her seat. God, awful didn’t even begin to describe how she felt. I’m supposed to take care of them. It was a vow she made long ago. And now, she was letting them down.
“Don’t worry, Sarah,” Darcey said. “We’ll figure it out. How about—”
“Hey, turn up the news!” a shout came from behind.
Sarah frowned as the TV above the counter blasted with the familiar “Breaking News” bumper from the local TV news station. “What the heck is going on?”
Darcey’s eyes went wide. “Shh, I wanna hear this.”
“Hear what?” Turning around, she focused on the
