Chapter 13: Sworn Statement

On Monday the receptionist at my new office called my desk and said a lawyer was waiting in the lobby.

"Chicago," she added. "She says it's about Mr. Sanderling."

My manager looked up from across the glass wall.

I took the stairs instead of the elevator, to give my hands time to stop shaking.

The woman in the lobby wore a gray coat and held a leather folder in front of her.

"Ms. Larkin, thank you for seeing me," she said. "I represent Brett."

"Then you can say it here."

She glanced at the two designers eating lunch on the couch.

"It's a private matter."

"It was private for two years," I said. "I'm done with that."

She opened the folder.

"Brett intends to petition for annulment on grounds of fraud. He was misled about what he signed. We need a sworn statement from you."

"Saying what?"

She slid a page across the table.

I read it standing up.

Paragraph one said I had been engaged to Brett for three years.

It was eleven months, and she had that wrong already.

Paragraph four said: Declarant knew of and consented to the bride-for-a-day ceremony as a lighthearted event.

I put my finger on it.

"I didn't consent to anything."

"You left a dress in the bridal suite and handed Ms. Floyd your ring."

"I left. I was leaving."

"If you blessed the event, it's a prank among friends. Brett didn't mean the vows. A court can work with that."

"And if I didn't bless it?"

She paused, which told me what I needed.

"Then it's a ceremony Brett stood through while his fiancée was in the room," she said. "That is harder."

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