The Marriage Contract

Chapter 3

A child.

A five-or six-year-old child lying face up on the floor, laughing and shrieking.

When she noticed me standing there, she stopped, and for a moment we both paused, staring at each other, wondering what the hell was going on.

"Are you alright?" I asked, crouching close to her.

A smile suddenly spread across her face and all her features lit up. She got up quickly, and the speed almost made me topple over.

The entire room was filled with toys of different types and sizes. But the one she held in her hand looked older and more worn.

"I'm Mia," she squealed. "And this is Gerald." She said, holding up the battered stuffed toy.

"He likes you." She laughed.

Now I could match that terribly high-pitched scream to her voice.

"Thank you, Mia. I'm sure he's a good friend."

"What's your name?"

For a moment, the truth almost slipped through.

"Call me Anna."

"Anna, do you want to play a game with me?"

I didn't even have the chance to give an excuse before she was tugging at my arm. But why was a child in a room all by herself in a house this big?

Didn't I have something else to do, like get acquainted with my surroundings? I guess one round of play fighting wouldn't hurt.

A slight nudge brought me back to reality.

"Anna, come on, play with me."

"Okay. Just one round. How do I start?"

She handed me Gerald and picked up her other stuffed animal, continuing their argument as if I was just expected to understand and go with it.

"How old are you?"

Before I could finish asking she put one finger to her lips and made a long shhh sound.

"It's Daisy's turn now." She said whispering, then paused. "I'm five years old."

I watched as she made the stuffed rhino walk on all fours and give Gerald a fatal blow.

"Your turn."

I wondered whose child she was. Maybe one of the workers. A parent who stowed their child away in an abandoned playroom while they worked their hours. How safe was it here for a child, though? Didn't it seem unlikely? I was about to ask her who her parents were.

But before I could speak, familiar footsteps came trudging into the room. And Mia squealed as she ran to the sound.

I turned.

Marco appeared, followed by Rita, who remained standing by the door.

He crouched low and scooped her up just as she jumped right into his arms.

Something about watching that interaction left a metallic taste in my mouth. Why was Marco, a drug lord, being so kind to a staff member's child? I looked away. But I caught Rita looking at me right as I did.

"Daddy!"

The world stopped spinning for a full minute once that word crossed my ears. And the hairs on my skin went up.

I stared at her for a moment. Did that mean that...

"Where have you been? I missed you, daddy." The child squealed, hugging him even tighter.

How was this possible?

How did Marco Belucci have a child?

And worst of all, how had I not known?

The Bureau had spent years investigating the Beluccis. I'd gone through Marco's files, his known associates, his assets, his entire history.

There had been no mention of a daughter.

Nothing.

I looked around the room again.

Aside from the litter of toys everywhere, there were books, drawings, some of them hung on the wall. In a corner there was a small table covered in crayons.

This wasn't some occasional visit from a relative. She lived here. With him.

I didn't know what unsettled me more—the fact that Marco had a daughter or the fact that I had just married a man whose life I thought I understood and had apparently known almost nothing about.

Marco's eyes went to Mia. Then to me. Then to Gerald in my hand.

Something changed in his expression.

I couldn't quite identify it before he buried it.

"I see you two have already met."

I wasn't sure what my face was giving, but I looked at him. I could tell that he was nervous, even if only slightly, because of the situation. He had a daughter, and he had kept it from me all this while. And I was finding out he had a daughter only after I'd signed the damned contract?

How could this have happened?

Before I could finish the thought, I could feel someone small tugging my hand.

I looked down.

Mia was holding my hand. Something inside of me suddenly went alert. Being around children always made me feel that way.

Marco had gone completely still.

I looked at Mia. She looked up at me.

"Daddy said Mama's not coming back."

My heart stopped. Then it splintered right in the middle into two halves.

I looked at Marco.

For the first time since I'd met him, he looked as though he had no idea what to say.

"Are you going to be my mama now?"

The room went silent.

I looked down at her small hand wrapped around mine.

I'd agreed to become Marco Belucci's wife.

I'd prepared myself to lie to him.

I'd prepared myself to lie to his family.

I'd prepared myself to lie to the entire world.

But I hadn't prepared myself for this. Also, what had happened to her mother? Where did she go?

"Come now, Mia," Rita said, stepping forward. "Rosy baked your favourite pie."

The girl, oblivious to the gravity of the things she'd just said, skipped away merrily.

"We can be a family now!" Her excitement was contagious, and even Marco did something close to a smile, but inside me I felt only one thing. Fear.

"Anna's going to be my new mommy!"

"Go with Rita and eat your pie, okay?" He said, ruffling her hair in the gentlest way. She gleamed, then she was out of the room. Leaving a gaping silence in her wake.

I was furious. From the moment I noticed Marco avoiding my gaze, something hot flared in my chest. Surely, if you were seeking to marry someone, contracted or not, the least you could do was inform them you had a child.

But I couldn't confront him immediately with Mia still there. And now that she was gone, I could sense him beginning to withdraw. Still, I tried.

"We need to talk about this—"

I couldn't finish my sentence before he interrupted.

"Your things have arrived and are in your room now. You should settle in."

Something hot burned right at the centre of my chest. I stared him down, but Marco, being more than a foot taller than me, was unaffected by this.

I realised then that this was a man who wasn't used to answering to anyone, and because of that he treated everyone with a kind of dismissive attitude. Except Mia. And his long-term housekeeper, Rita, who probably raised him as a boy, and... Maybe this weird attitude was just doled out to me?

"I don't want you lurking about the house and going into children's rooms."

He said, and his voice was laced with a layered warning.

But of all things to address now, that was it?

This was a mess. A complete and total mess.

Was this his way of saying we would talk about this later?

The presence of a child here, of his child, changes so many things. He wouldn't even begin to fathom how much, and he didn't think it was important to talk about it with a stranger he brought into his house, under the guise of a fake marriage.

Before I could say anything else, he was gone.

Something was wrong. I tried to understand it, piecing together all the little things I'd observed so far. The need for a wife in the first place, the extra security, a hidden daughter... But how were they all connected?

Another thing to add to the list of things I was going to investigate. Quietly.