Yvonne had been there from the beginning. She was the COO of Mistress, and Madison’s right-hand woman. From a business perspective, Yvonne essentially ran the company. She had better business sense than Madison, a former journalist, so Madison deferred to her in that department. Generally, Yvonne didn’t work well with others, but herself, Madison, and the three others who ran Mistress made an excellent team.
Yvonne reached her office and sat down at her desk, settling in. She had several emails to send, and only half an hour before the Monday morning meeting started. She and the four other women who made up the Mistress executive team held a meeting every Monday morning so they could catch up on everything, business and personal. They were a tight-knit group, most of whom had been friends long before they’d started Mistress Media together.
By the time Yvonne finished with the most urgent of her emails, it was almost time for the meeting to begin. She headed to the conference room. Through the glass walls, she spotted a slender brunette sitting at the head of the table. Of course Madison was the only one of them who was already there. This was despite the fact that it had been Madison’s bachelorette party they’d been in Vegas for over the weekend. Madison had still shown up at work on time and looking none the worse for wear.
Yvonne opened the door and strode inside.
Madison gave her a nod. “Good morning.”
“Madison.” Yvonne sat down at the table. “Recovered from the weekend already, I take it?”
“I’m fine. I didn’t go as crazy as the rest of you.”
“Speaking of the rest of us, where are the others?”
“I saw Lydia earlier,” Madison said. “She should be here soon. I’m assuming Gabrielle and Amber are still recovering, but I’m sure they’ll turn up. By the way, did you take care of whatever it was you needed to do in Vegas?”
“More or less.” Yvonne had told the others that she needed to stay back in Vegas to take care of something. She’d needed time to work out how to break the news of her ‘marriage’ to her friends. However, she still hadn’t come up with a way to do so.
“What exactly did you need to take care of?” Madison asked.
Yvonne folded her hands in front of her on the table, stalling for time. She didn’t realize her mistake until Madison’s eyes fell to Yvonne’s hands.
Madison tilted her head to the side. “Is that… a wedding ring?”
Yvonne rearranged her hands. “Yes.”
“And why are you wearing a wedding ring?”
“Because I’m married.”
“What? Since when? And to who?” Realization dawned on Madison’s face. “Did you get married in Vegas? Is that why you stayed behind?”
“Yes,” Yvonne said.
“Yes? That’s all? Aren’t you going to explain yourself?”
“What is there to explain? I got married to a woman in Vegas. Her name is Ruby.”
“And?”
Yvonne gritted her teeth. “It’s a long story.”
Madison frowned. “Yvonne, what’s going on? Is everything all right with you? Are you having some kind of crisis?”
“Christ, Madison, you think it’s more likely that I’m going crazy than that I genuinely got married?”
“You have to admit, this is completely out of character for you. And you seemed a little off while we were in Vegas.”
“I assure you, I’m not having some kind of breakdown.” Yvonne paused. She’d been planning to maintain the marriage ruse with everyone, including Madison. She didn’t like the idea of lying to her friends, but the ends justified the means. She needed the world to believe her marriage to Ruby was real.
But as she faced her closest friend, Yvonne found she just couldn’t lie.
“Look, if I tell you the truth, you can’t tell anyone else,” Yvonne said.
“Yvonne, we’ve known each other since we were teenagers,” Madison said. “You know you can trust me.”
“Then promise me that you won’t tell anyone, no matter what.”
“All right. I won’t tell a soul.”
Yvonne gathered her thoughts. “When my father died, he left me an inheritance.”
“He did? You’ve never mentioned it before.”
“Because I was never able to claim it. It came with strings. The biggest one being, I need to be married within ten years of my father’s death in order to claim it, otherwise it all goes to Nicholas. It’s been almost ten years since he died.”
“That’s why you got married?” Madison asked. “For the money?”
Yvonne nodded.
“Are you having financial problems? You know you could have asked me for help. I can lend you something. Or you could ask Amber if you need something more substantial. She’d help you out in a heartbeat.”
Yvonne shook her head. It had occurred to her to ask one of her friends for a loan, but she hated asking anyone for help. “I don’t need the money. I could really use it, that’s all. At the moment, all my money is tied up. I have my eye on some investments. I simply need some capital for it.”
The truth was, her current financial situation wasn’t great. She’d made some risky investments in the past year that hadn’t panned out as she’d predicted. She was far from bankrupt, and she had plenty of money invested, but they were the kind of investments that paid off in the long term and couldn’t simply be withdrawn on a whim. She didn’t have much liquid capital right now.
Which wouldn’t have been a problem if she only had herself to worry about.
Madison raised an eyebrow. “You decided to marry a woman you met in Vegas for money for investments?”
“The marriage is only temporary,” Yvonne said. “We only need to stay married for a year for me to get the money. It’s not a big deal. It isn’t like I’m going to get married for real any time soon.” Yvonne didn’t have room in her life for romance. “Ruby is on the same page about our arrangement. It’s purely business. She pretends to be my wife for a year, I give her a small part of my
