My husband is a Villain

Marriage only in name

Marie

I was fuming as I walked into the Madigan mansion. I had been fuming since my husband had walked away. I had been stuffed into the back seat of Theo’s SUV with one of the twins in front and the other one by my side, and we had made the one-hour drive to the estate. It had never crossed my mind that that whole family would be living in a single building.

“What about my things?” I had asked during the drive.

“They’ve been moved to the estate.” Theo replied. “During the ceremony.”

“Who packed my things? They had better not have ruined any of my designer shoes. They’re delicate and need careful packing. They need to go in the silk bag first before the box, and I hope whoever’s packing packed my hair extensions.”

I saw one of the twins roll his eyes from the side view mirror. I could never tell which was which. They were like perfect mirror images of each other.

“Which one are you?” I asked the one beside me.

“I’m Keenan.” He said, “He's Keeler. There’s no identifying mark, so you’ll probably end up asking this question a million more times. We’d really prefer if you didn’t bother trying to sort us out and just called us either name. We respond to both.”

I looked at Keeler; he just grunted.

I smirked. One of them was talkative, and the other obviously wasn’t.

My room in the Madigan mansion was, thankfully, not Jude’s. There was no way in hell that I would even be comfortable sharing a bedroom with a man who kissed me one second like he had been waiting his whole life to kiss me and then abandoned me the second like I was dirt on the sidewalk.

Cameras had gone off as I got into a car that was obviously not my husband’s. I wondered what kind of news would be in circulation tomorrow morning. I would be a laughing stock for years and years to come.

The room I had been stashed away in contained all my things neatly tucked away. Whoever had packed up my room and moved it here had done a helluva job. The bed, though, was the best part of the room; it was a four-post bed that stretched endlessly and felt like you were laying on a cloud.

I grabbed my phone and called River immediately, falling into bed still in my wedding dress.

“Marie, are you okay? Someone said they saw your husband leave before you.”

I sighed. Yup. I knew there was no way in hell that news wouldn’t spread like wildfire. “Does everyone know? Is everyone talking about it? I bet the whole internet is buzzing about it.”

There was a long pause, so long that I had to check if the call was still on.

“Hello?”

“Actually, Marie, it’s just rumors so far; no news station or magazine is carrying the story. It’s really weird. As if Jude silenced them or something.”

I sat up hurriedly. “really?”

“yeah. Just like all the news about him. There’s always little to no information about major news surrounding him.”

I laughed. “God, you sound like one of those conspiracy theorists.”

“You also googled him. I know you did.” I could practically feel her eye roll. “Anyway, what’s his house like?”

“I didn’t really look, to be honest, but my room is gorgeous." It has one of those curtain beds, and it’s huge and so freaking soft.”

“No wedding night for you then.” She giggled.

“Ewww. I don’t want to sleep with some ancient stranger anyway. He’s thirty-five! He could be my father.”

Rivers let out a peal of laughter. “Not unless he had a kid at thirteen.”

“Thirteen-year-olds could have kids.” I argue.

“I miss you. The house feels empty without you.” Rivers said it in a small voice. “I’m in your bed right now. They didn’t take your silk pillow cases. How are you going to be able to sleep without it?”

I groaned. “I hate it here. I just want to be at home. And I have no idea how I’m supposed to take off this dress. There’s like a million buttons and ties at the back.”

“You’re still in your wedding dress. That sucks.”

“How's dad?” I asked, suddenly worried about him. I had always fantasized about going away and marrying into the Madigan house, going shopping, and living this wonderful married life with River, but I had never thought about what life would be like without the constant presence of my father. He was the one staple I could always count on, and he was never too busy for his girls.

“I don’t know. I haven’t seen him since the wedding. Am I the only one who thinks he’s been weird?”

Before I could respond, the door creaked open, and my new husband stood at the door frame, tall, large, and imposing. My mouth dried up at the sight of him.

“I'll talk to you later, Rivvy.” I hung up. “What are you doing here? I thought you had a plane to catch.” I glared at him.

He didn’t move from the doorstep.

“You had better not be here expecting a wedding night from me.” I huffed. “I’m not letting the guy that walked out of me to go say one last tearful goodbye to his mistress touch me.”

He raised a brow at me, amused. “I don’t want to touch you, Marie. You’re a child.”

Fury ignited my blood. “I’m not a child. I’m twenty-two, almost twenty-three. You’re just terribly ancient.”

“This is a marriage in name only,“

“Oh, is it? Is that why you kissed me like that?”

“That kiss meant nothing. You can rest assured that I won’t demand s****l favors from you.”

I wanted to claw his face to ribbons. “You should never have married me if you were just going to dump me here to rot.” I roared. “If you think I’m just going to stay here for the rest of my life and die a virgin, you had better think again, Jude. I’m not going to be a married virgin; if you won’t do it, someone else will.”

His eyes went from blank to glacially cool. I swallowed. I should never have opened my big mouth.

Fuck.