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“Jimmy, do you take Natalia to be your lawfully wedded wife?” the judge asked and I nodded, picking up the pen to sign under my name.
“I do,” I told him, then signed, placing the pen down in front of Natalia. She looked down at it as if it were a snake waiting to bite her.
“Natalia, do you take Jimmy as your lawfully wedded husband?” the judge asked.
She looked up at me as if studying my face. I made sure to keep it blank, not wanting to give her anything. It had to be her decision because it was her life. I chose to do as my father asked because, really, what did I care about a piece of paper that said we were married? Ray had requested me for whatever reason, and that was fine. Daniel, my younger brother, would probably treat her even worse than I would, and my older brother Patrick was married already. So I was the best choice.
And for me, it sure beat cleaning blood and brains out of the carpet of my office. But I had been given the choice already, and she had not. Her father took her choice away from her when he decided not to tell her until she got here. If she said no, I would not only understand, but I might actually be proud of her.
I couldn’t tell if she found what she was looking for in my face or not, but finally she said, “I do.”
She picked up the pen in her slender fingers and signed under her name.
“Then, by the power invested in me by the State of Massachusetts, I now pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss the bride.”
“I would prefer not to be kissed, thank you,” she said and shot me a glance.
Whatever. I hadn’t exactly wanted to anyway. I shrugged at her.
“Well then, all that’s left is for you to sign the name change paperwork,” he said and handed her another piece of paper, this one with a lot more writing on it. She picked up the pen and signed her first name with my last name. She was officially Natalia Morelli. My wife. I had a wife.
A wife who apparently didn’t want to talk to me because she immediately turned around and headed for the door. My father and hers called out to her, but I stayed where I was. She was upset, and talking to her wasn’t going to help. Not right now, at any rate. She needed space, and she needed time. I could give her both those things and would.
As far as I was concerned, we didn’t ever need to talk. She could go about her life as before, and I could do the same. It would be great—no actual relationship necessary.
Though I had a horrible feeling that this wasn’t part of the plan. There would be specific standards I would have to meet, I was sure of it. Nothing in my life was easy. Everything I had, I had to work for. This was going to be no different, whether I wanted her to be my wife or not.
I looked at my watch again. I had to be in a meeting in twenty minutes. Time to go.
“Look, Dad. I have to go. If she comes back, try to straighten things out for me, and let me know how it goes. I’ve already missed lunch, and now I’ve got a meeting,” I said and started walking out the door.
“You’re going to have to look out for her like a husband should, you know,” my father pointed out, following me. I rolled my eyes.
“Yes, I get that. But right now, her father has to clean up his mess and take care of her. When she’s ready for a husband, I’ll be her husband. Until then, I have money to make,” I said and headed for my car.
Chapter 4
Natalia
Imarchedoutofthat room, ignoring all the calls from behind me to stop. I noticed my lovely husband wasn’t one of those who were calling for me. I guess he didn’t care if I left—not that I was surprised at all. He had just met me, so what would it matter to him if I left? Besides, he kept looking at his watch, so clearly he had someplace to be.
So did I. Anywhere but there.
I left the courthouse, almost knocking over a woman carrying a briefcase and dressed in a suit. She told me to watch out, but I wasn’t paying attention. I had to get away from that building. Just the thought of it was making me nauseous.
What had he done?
What had I just done?
Marriage wasn’t necessarily a permanent thing, but in my head it was. I was raised that the man you married was it for you. That he was the one you spent the rest of your life with. Divorce was a nasty word and didn’t belong in my world. Maybe it was an old-school way of thinking, but that was what I knew.
My mother hadn’t believed in divorce either. No matter how much she and Daddy fought, they stayed together until the end.
I knew this because, after her death, I read all her journals. She had kept them from the time she was in high school up until the day she died. As I read them, I learned who she was, and who I wanted to be. Who she had wanted me to be. She had had so many plans for me, all of which I had been trying to live up to.
Marrying a total stranger was not one of those plans.
I opened the passenger side door of the car and got inside, slamming the door shut behind me. Daddy wasn’t far behind. He had been following me as closely as he could. When he got in, he rolled the windows down and sat a moment, trying to catch his breath. His weight made even the most basic physical activities difficult for him, but I was done trying to explain that to him. He thought I didn’t know about the snack cake wrappers hidden under his bed or the chocolate bars in his suitcase. I prepared him balanced meals at home, which he ate, and that was the extent of what I could do. If he wanted to lose weight, he had to do it for himself, not me.
