My Petite Vengeful Wife

Chapter 6. Cursed Contract

Iris

A very upset Agatha enters my office at the Foundation.

"This is the 28th letter from your mother-in-law."

She slams the latest note from my in-laws onto my desk. In the last two weeks, they haven't stopped trying to see me. When they realized I wouldn't visit them at the hospital, they started sending me letters, which I never read, and now they send small notes.

My dear, we only ask for a few minutes of your time to talk. It's very important, please.

Helen

"Your way of facing the past is disappointing," Agatha's annoyed voice comes from the doorway, where she's standing to avoid pulling my hair out over my decision.

"I have nothing to talk about with them," I leave the note face down on the desk with a nonchalant air, as if I don't care... despite my heart pounding with nerves, pain, hope, and a cocktail of emotions when I receive information about the Harrises.

"You have to stop lying to yourself," her voice sounds harsh. I try not to let it affect me, but I shrink a little in my place, feeling my cheeks warm. I hear her sigh and then walk toward the seat in front of me.

"I've stayed out of it these past weeks, Iris. I know all the harm they did to you with that decision about your marriage. I know, I've been there every moment with you, listening to you... but, friend, the only way to move forward, to stop feeling pain is to face that past, starting with them," I look up at my friend who looks at me with empathy and tenderness.

She's right about many things, mainly, she understands me perfectly. When my father left me abandoned in this country, in that elite Swiss boarding school, the only one who approached me, who didn't reject me for my silence, who accompanied me in my grief over losing mom was Agatha Müller, that wild girl with blonde hair, green eyes, and boundless energy.

The wild genius girl became my best friend.

She was the one who helped me escape my disastrous marriage, who took me in when I ended up with a broken heart, for the second time, or third... She knows everything about me and knows that I have a lot of accumulated pain, perhaps waiting to come out and set everything on fire.

"Listen to them, Iris. You don't need to forgive them or even look at them kindly, your coldness and those harsh looks are deserved. But you, dear friend, you deserve and need to close this cycle and move on," she sighs as she stands up.

"You know what to do, my friend. I saw your determination to confront them that day at the hospital, don't let your fear and pain win to the point where you keep hiding within these four walls. This is not the strong, unattainable, and powerful Greek Goddess I know," she flashes a mischievous smile and leaves the office without waiting for my response.

I turn my chair towards the window as if the world outside could give me the answer or even the strength to leave the past behind, where it belongs.

"Make a decision, I don't want to be a messenger anymore, and please, let it be soon. Today Agatha threatened not to participate in the clinical trial if she doesn't see you,"Agatha's interruption makes me jump in my seat, an action she enjoys as she starts laughing out loud and finally closes the door, leaving me alone.

"She'll never stop being that crazy, impertinent girl," I say, amused.

I take the note again.

"I have to be true to myself. I decided to confront them and that's what I'll do,"

***

"Thank you so much for agreeing to see us, Iris," says Helen, very excited, for the fifth time.

Yes, two days later here we are, meeting to start closing chapters. The hospital cafeteria is the setting for one of the most uncomfortable meetings I've ever had in my life.

"My dear Iris, we want to apologize to you. No, dear, don't interrupt us," she gestures when I try to refute and say that the apology doesn't have to come from them.

"We owe you an apology because as parents we should have always protected our children's hearts, respected them, and let them make their own decisions, let them enjoy their own lives," Helen sighs with regret.

"Artemisa and I always considered ourselves as sisters, we saw the possibility of becoming family when we came up with the crazy idea of having our children marry. If they were girls, they would be great friends, but if it was a boy and a girl, they would marry and well, everything would stay in the family. We were wrong," she says with a choked voice.

"Your father and I accepted this madness because as partners and best friends we saw a promising future for our children, we trusted ourselves and that we were raising them to conquer the world. Yes, we were wrong, we focused on our feelings, our dreams, and not on the most important thing, you," Michael Harris speaks with sadness, his eyes reddening almost to the point of tears.

I hide my hands in fists under the table to resist the urge to jump up and hug them both.

"We really hope you forgive us, but we understand if you don't. We were wrong to force you to marry and not to protect you from my son's stupidity," The latter almost, almost, makes me burst out laughing. Helen's frown and the annoyed pout when speaking that way about her son only make her seem more endearing.

"We found out too late about what my stupid son was doing to you. I we only had known, believe me, we would have stopped everything. Even after the wedding, we would have lived with you for that year, and then you could have divorced," Helen slams the table in anger, making the coffee cups shake.

Once again, I feel like laughing at her attitude until I realize something important, Divorce?

"What?" is all I can articulate.

They both look at me with guilt and regret, and Michael Harris is the one who speaks up.

"There was a clause in the contract,"

"Which clause?"

"You need to know, Iris, that when you got married, the investment company went into crisis, and your father gave us a loan. He and I decided it was a good time to unite you in marriage, merge the law firms, save the company, and, well, fulfill the promise we made to Artemisa," he takes a long breath, and I'm on the verge of collapse. Something tells me that what he's about to tell me could change everything.

"You both accepted the marriage almost without complaint. Michael didn't put up much resistance. But even so, we were very worried that the marriage wouldn't work, so we included a clause. It stated that if, after living together for a year under the same roof as a real marriage, meaning attempting to have a relationship, but if you didn't get along, didn't love each other, or didn't want to be together, you could divorce without either of you losing your inheritances, and the loan, well, it could be paid in installments over the following years, when we had greater financial stability. They both look at me cautiously, expecting my outburst over what I've just heard.

I simply lower my head and look at my hands.

I don't know how to react.

“But what the hell did I sign?”

I chastise myself for my stupidity and naivety.

I remember being so in love with Michael that I didn't object to going back and being his wife, and so, without further a do, I signed a document that I thought was the one that bound me to the love of my life, and which I later considered a cursed lock that kept me imprisoned in a dreadful marriage.

Yes, it's a cursed contract.

A cursed contract that held the very keys to freedom, my freedom. It was only a year.

"A year, and I only lived with him for eight months," I say with a trembling voice.

If I had endured just four more months, I wouldn't have spent so many years in such pain. I lift my fierce gaze toward that pair who have been accomplices in making my life horrible.

"Why didn't you tell me anything about that clause at the time?!" I shout, not caring about the place we're in.

Well, my pain has just exploded, and now everything and everyone is going to burn.