Chapter 1
Yasmine
“Getting a prenup is one of the most romantic things you can do before marriage,” Yasmine said, then grinned at the skeptical expressions on the faces of the college students in front of her.
All women. Not that she excluded men from her Feminist Finances class, but either they rarely signed up, or it was too difficult for them to get in.
Her waitlist was a mile long since she only taught one class per semester at the local community college.
The rest of the time, she was running her own investment firm.
“Isn’t that like preparing for the marriage to not work out?” one of the women in the front row asked with a frown that was repeated throughout the classroom. There were only a few college students who hadn’t made a face at her statement.
“Yes and no. A prenup can be a lot more than that. If you go into it thinking you’re only getting it because you’re assuming the marriage will end, then yes, that feels unromantic.
But the truth is, a lot of couples go into marriage thinking about love and children and never consider hard financial and legal facts.
Financially and legally, a marriage is as serious as a business merger, but we rarely look at it that way. ”
Although Yasmine had tried the business merger marriage plan. Let her parents arrange it. Met the guy.
On paper, they were perfect.
But then, he’d fallen for someone else, and Yasmine understood. She’d even released him from their arrangement and helped give them a push together because she was a romantic. And when it came to securing a life partner, emotions mattered as much as the rest of it.
Even if she was better at helping others find their happily-ever-afters than she was herself.
She still encouraged all of them to get prenups, though.
“It’s extremely rare that anyone gets married already planning for what they’ll get at the end of it, but life happens.
People sometimes lie. Or don’t talk through the things they should.
What happens if you get married and find out that your fiancé was hiding thousands of dollars of debt from you?
What happens if they cheat on you? What happens if you start a wildly successful business and they get insecure and jealous and the marriage falls apart, but they’re entitled to half your business because you didn’t have a prenup?
” Yasmine raised her hands on either side of her, palms up, as she shrugged, looking around the classroom to see their reactions now.
Good. They were listening.
“That happened to my mom,” one of them in the back said. “She started making more than my dad, and he demanded that she quit her job. It’s not her own business, so he can’t own any of it, but he’s still mad she’s making more than him. He tried to get alimony from her in the divorce settlement.”
“My sister married her high school boyfriend, and he cheated because he wanted to know what it was like to sleep with someone else,” one of the other women offered up.
Yasmine’s phone screen lit up with a text message that she ignored as she listened to her students.
Her phone was sitting beside her on her desk, and it was going to stay that way.
If someone called her, she’d glance to see who it was and decide whether or not to pick up, but her friends and family all knew her schedule, so they should only call if there was an emergency.
A text was not an emergency.
“One of my cousins started a body care business, and her husband wasn’t working at all, but he still gave her a hard time about how much she was working, even though he was living off her money,” another student said.
“She finally left him, but like Miss Yasmine says, they split her business fifty-fifty. She’s trying to start a new one so he can’t profit off her anymore, but it’s hard. ”
“It is hard, and my sympathies are with her. If she wants to get a consult anytime, have her reach out to me,” Yasmine said with feeling.
Yes, she loved numbers and investments, but what she really loved about her job was getting to help other people.
Especially women. She was well aware that these opportunities had not been open to her grandmothers’ or even her mother’s generations when they were growing up.
Anything she could do to help give women a leg up with finances and business, she was there for. Which was why she taught this class at the local community college, as well as doing a volunteer class for a women’s shelter run by her friend Naomi.
There were still a few skeptical expressions in the class, though a lot of them were looking more serious and engaged now.
“It’s not just about divorce, either. Let’s say you have a business you started and an unsupportive spouse.
You’re planning to leave them, but then you both get hit by a car and die.
Anyone in here have a will?” She looked around and was unsurprised that no one raised their hand.
“Who gets the business? Your family? Your spouse’s family? ”
“My family should. It’s my business.” One of the young women who still looked skeptical frowned as she answered.
“‘Should’ is not a legal definition. If you do not have a prenup or a will, it’s up to the courts to decide, and they’ll do so according to the legal definition.
Your family could be tied up with lawyers and probate for months, if not years, fighting over who gets the business.
” Yasmine looked around the room again. Realization was now dawning on everyone’s faces.
Good. “Prenups are protection. Now, let’s get deeper into talking about it. ”
It was a good class, with a lot of great discussion, and Yasmine felt positively buoyant by the end of it.
“Everyone write at least two pages on what you’d like to see in your prenup for the next class,” she said as they hit the end of their time together. “Next week, we’re talking about how retirement funds work and why you should already be thinking about them.”
She grinned at the chorus of groans. It might be a lot to expect college students to think about retirement, but the sooner they got started, the easier retirement would be for them.
While she was a firm believer in the idea that almost any age could start saving and investing for their future, the earlier it happened, the better.
Which she would convince them of next week.
Waving at the chorus of thank-yous from her students, Yasmine quickly packed up her bag and grabbed her phone to check the text message that had come in. It was from Grace, a former client who had become a friend despite the difference in their ages.
Grace
Call me ASAP, please.
Well, that was concerning. Yasmine quickly hit the call button and put the phone to her ear as she made her way out of the classroom. Grace picked up on the first ring.
“Hello? Yasmine?”
“Hey, it’s me. What’s going on?” Yasmine dodged around a pair of lanky college boys, one of whom leered at her as she skirted around him.
As if.
“I hate to bother you, but I’m just so worried.
” The worry came through in her voice; it was clear she was trying to hold it back but failing.
Her words came out in a tumbling rush. “My friend Sarah… you remember my friend Sarah? She was the one who signed as the second witness on my will. We met at her house to do it.”
“I remember Sarah,” Yasmine said gently, shouldering open the door to the building her classroom was in and heading for the parking lot.
Grace had wanted people who knew her to serve as witnesses to her signing her will, and she’d chosen Sarah and Yasmine, and Yasmine had brought the notary with her.
Grace had moved to Virginia a few years ago to be closer to her daughter, who’d gotten a job there.
“Right. Well. I haven’t heard from her since Monday, and we think that she had to put her dog down on Monday, and she’s been so depressed, and there’s no one up there to check on her.
Her parents are in Florida, and our friends are all scattered about, and she hasn’t answered any of my calls or texts for the last couple of days, and I’m just…
I’m worried. I know this is a lot to ask, but do you think you could stop by her house and just see that she’s okay?
For my peace of mind?” Grace sounded like she was on the verge of tears.
Oh, wow. Yasmine blinked, trying to think as she fished her car keys out of her purse.
“Um… I mean…”
“I know, I’m sorry. If I could think of anyone else to ask, I would,” Grace said. “I’m just… I’m freaking out. She’s all alone, and if she had to put the dog down on Monday, and none of us can get there… I’m about to drive up there myself if I have to.”
It made no sense for Grace to drive all the way up from southern Virginia when Yasmine was only twenty minutes away from Sarah’s house. She might not remember the actual address, but she remembered it hadn’t been far, the one time she’d gone over there.
There had to be a way to make this work while also giving herself a possible out.
“So, she doesn’t usually go incommunicado?”
“That’s the thing; sometimes she does. Not hearing back from her immediately isn’t usually a big deal, but now it’s been a couple of days…
but if she had to put the dog down, she might just be ignoring her phone if she’s depressed…
” Grace’s voice trailed off again, and she sniffled. “I just don’t know what to do.”
“Okay, so I just got out of teaching a class. I need to go and do a few things at the office. How about you try getting in touch with her again? Leave a few text messages and a voicemail letting her know that if she doesn’t text or call you back, you’re sending someone over there.
That way it’s not a total surprise if I end up on her doorstep. ”
Plus, maybe she wouldn’t have to make the trip at all.
Just the threat of knowing someone was coming might make her respond.
Yasmine really hoped so. Trying to go and comfort a woman she’d only met once, who had just lost her dog and whose closest friends had all moved away, sounded like she would be intruding into this poor woman’s life even more.
But if it gave Grace peace of mind… Plus, Sarah had been a very nice woman. Yasmine hoped nothing bad had happened to her. Best case scenario would be that Sarah responded to prevent Grace from sending someone over to check on her.
“Oh, that’s good. That’s a good idea. I’ll do that and get back to you.” The relief in Grace’s voice was so acute that Yasmine felt it as well. Even though she knew she was the one providing the relief.
“If you haven’t heard from her by lunchtime, I’ll go over then,” Yasmine promised, crossing her fingers that hopefully, it wouldn’t be necessary.
But she also knew that she’d do the same for any of her friends if she couldn’t get to them personally, and they’d do the same for her.
At the end of her engagement with Mason, she’d gotten a ton of support from all her friends, even though it hadn’t been really necessary.
She’d been grieving the loss of her dream more than the loss of him personally.
Mason was a great guy, and he would have made her a pretty good husband, but he was going to make a great husband for his new girlfriend, Audrey. They weren’t engaged yet, but Yasmine was sure it was only a matter of time. They were definitely in love.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you. I’ll do that now and get back to you. I knew you would be the right person to call.”
Yasmine couldn’t help but smile. That’s how she wanted her clients to feel about her, even if this was outside her usual wheelhouse.
“Okay, I hope you hear from her soon.”
“Thanks, bye!”
Yasmine ended the call and looked up at herself in the rearview mirror. Her dark hair was pulled back from her face and pinned in a neat bun, her makeup enhanced her black eyes, and her cheekbones were popping, thanks to the new shimmer highlighter she’d bought over the weekend. She looked good.
“It’s going to be a good day,” she told her reflection. “Grace is going to hear back from Sarah. I’m going to help a lot of people. Then tonight, I’m going to go to the club and get some stress relief.”
Which was what she now called scening at the local BDSM club, The Outlands.
Stress relief. She’d given up on looking for a boyfriend or romantic partnership for herself.
It always ended with her realizing that her boyfriend was meant for someone else, a break-up, then him marrying the next girlfriend he got.
Happily-ever-afters for her exes, but none for her.
Because Yasmine was cursed.