My husband is a Villain

Far from Okay

Marie

“You cannot give your daughter to that man!” Tamara spat as soon as the Madigans had left. “Do you know what they say about him?”

I had heard all the rumors. Jude had so many horror stories attached to his name. There were rumors that he had business rivals murdered, kidn*pped, and blackmailed to get his way. And the worst was that he had strangled Josephine Pierce, his fiancée, to death. I had never seen him before.

In fact, the media stayed far away from the oldest Madigan, and nobody in our circles talked about him. That was why I hadn’t realized who he was as soon as I had walked in.

How could my father give me off to that monster?

“It's wrong, Davis.” Uncle Gunn growled. “Theo was the plan. Why did you suddenly change your mind?”

“I don’t want to marry that man, father, please.” I wailed.

The whole time, my father just sat there, gazing into nothing.

“Father!” I cried.

He looked at me. “Everything I’ve ever done is for the both of you. My angels. My princesses. You and your sister. I need you to trust me now.”

“How can we trust your judgment right now?” Tam growled. “You made this decision without consulting either of us. Why? I’ve worked for you for close to two decades, and this is the first time you’ve done something like this. I cannot trust it.”

“Tamara is right.” Uncle Gunn said. “This is so out of left field.”

“He killed Josephine Pierce. Everyone knows he killed her. What if he?“ I began.

Father brought his open palm down hard on the table. “Enough.” He roared. “My decision is final. You’ll marry Jude in two weeks.”

“Two weeks?” Tamara and I cried out in unison.

“What has come over you, Davis?” Uncle Gunn shook his head in disappointment. “This is going to end badly. Mark my words. And when it does, I can safely say that I had no hand in it.” He marched towards the door, squeezing my shoulder with an apologetic look on his way out.

“Davis, please.” Tamara said.

“I think you should allow me to worry about my own family, Godwin.”

Tamara shot him a stricken look. I had long suspected that my father's secretary had feelings for him, and sometimes I thought the feelings were mutual. I couldn’t believe my father had spoken to her like that.

She whirled around and walked out of the room.

“Dad.” I muttered.

He walked towards me and took my hands in his, giving me a kind look. “Princess. "He trailed off. “I need you to trust me. Can you do that for me?”

I hesitated before nodding.

“There are things I can’t talk about, but I just want you to know that Jude is your best option right now.”

“What things?” I asked, my eyes narrowing. “Things you can’t even tell Tamara?”

He gave me a look.

“Marie.” River said from the door, her face twisted with worry. “i-I heard.”

The last thing I wanted was for my sister to worry. She could be really sensitive. “It’s alright, River. It’s not that bad.” I walked towards her with a feigned smile. “Jude’s a little old.” I twisted up my face. “But he’s so handsome.” I faked an excited giggle.

The worry cleared from her face. “Can I live with you when you get married?”

“So eager to leave me.” Father said. “I’m hurt.”

They delved into a teasing argument, and the whole while I kept the widest smile on my face and pretended like I wasn’t breaking down inside me, all my hopes and dreams falling apart in the blink of an eye.

That night, I obsessively searched the depths of the internet for any scrap of information about Jude, trying to find reasons to convince myself that this was the best alternative for me. He couldn’t be that bad. There was no way the law wouldn’t have caught up with him up until now if he really did all those evil things the rumors said.

No matter how wealthy and influential he was, he couldn’t just go around being a villain.

Josephine Pierce had been a wealthy heiress; there was no way he would have killed her without incurring the wrath of the Pierce family. But then again, there was power, and then there was Madigan's power. They had over two hundred years of generational wealth; it was said that they helped to put in some of the first presidents of this country, and they had a hand in running the shadow government.

Nothing on the internet was particularly assuring, though.

On the contrary, by the time I was done scrolling through the pages I had bookmarked, my stomach felt queasy, and I felt like I was about to hurl. Jude was a black stain on society, and nobody could speak up about him because of their terror of him. Journalists and reporters who tried to speak up against him often went missing. Some just retracted their stories abruptly and for no reason at all.

And this was the man my father wanted me to marry?

How did he expect me to just go along with this?

And why two weeks from now?

It was too soon. Suspiciously hasty. Everybody would think I was pregnant. I would be the talk of the city. My reputation would be in tatters. Well, at least I was assured that nobody would dare say anything to my face. Not if they didn’t want my psycho new husband to make them disappear.

Too uneasy to fall back asleep, I found my way to River’s room and crawled into bed beside her.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“Nothing. I just realized that I won’t be able to do this anymore when I get married.” I replied. It was only half of the truth.

“I think you’re not as excited to get married to Jude as you make it seem.” She said it quietly.

She was way too intuitive. “I just need to get used to the idea of it. Going from envisioning a future with Theo or the twins to one with Jude is a huge leap.”

“He’s scary.”

I huffed. So she had googled him too. “Don’t listen to any of that stuff on the internet. Most of it is just made up anyway. I’ll be okay.”

“Okay.”

I was going to be far from okay.