Married To The Wrong Bride

The Contract Marriage

The reception was a performance, and Claire was learning her lines in real time.

She smiled for photographs. She cut cake she could not taste. She let Nathaniel’s hand rest at the small of her back whenever a camera turned their way, and she felt it disappear the instant the flash went off, like he could not stand to touch her one second longer than required.

Marcus Cole found her near the bar, a tall, silver haired man with the same sharp eyes as his son. He studied her for a long moment, the way a man studies a contract he did not expect to sign.

“You are not who I planned for,” he said.

“No, sir,” Claire said. “I am not.”

“Does the deal still stand?”

Claire understood the real question buried under that one. Was she going to run too. Was she going to humiliate his family the way her sister already had.

“I keep my promises,” she said. “My father’s store stays open. That is all I care about.”

Something in Marcus’s face eased, just slightly. “Then welcome to the family, Mrs. Cole.”

The name landed strange in her ears. Mrs. Cole. It did not feel like her at all.

Across the room, Nathaniel watched the exchange with his jaw tight, a glass of whiskey untouched in his hand. He had not spoken to her since the altar. Every time she caught his eye, he looked away first, like she was something unpleasant he had to manage rather than a person he had just married.

It was Dana who found Claire by the gift table, sneaking two glasses of champagne under the guise of helping with favors.

“You look like you are about to throw up,” Dana muttered, pressing a glass into Claire’s hand.

“I might.”

“He has not said one nice thing to you all night?”

“He told me I was not her.” Claire took a long drink. “Right after the vows.”

Dana’s eyebrows shot up. “Charming.”

“I do not need charming,” Claire said. “I need this marriage to last long enough to save my father’s business. That is the whole deal, Dana. That is all it ever was.”

“And if he is cruel to you the entire time?”

Claire did not have an answer for that.

The car ride to the penthouse was silent except for the hum of tires on wet pavement. Claire sat with her hands folded in her lap, the borrowed wedding dress crushed against the leather seat, and stared out the window at the city lights sliding past.

Nathaniel finally spoke when the car turned onto his street.

“This was supposed to be your sister,” he said, eyes fixed straight ahead. “I do not know you. I did not choose you.”

“I did not choose this either,” Claire said, sharper than she meant to.

He glanced at her then, surprised, like he had not expected her to talk back. For a second, something almost human passed across his face. Then it was gone.

“There are rules,” he said. “We attend events together. We are polite in public. In private, you stay out of my way, and I will stay out of yours. This is a business arrangement. Nothing more.”

“Understood,” Claire said, even though nothing about it felt understood at all.

The car stopped outside a glass tower that scraped the clouds. Nathaniel got out first, did not offer his hand, and walked ahead of her into the lobby like she was a guest checking in rather than his wife coming home.

Claire followed him into the elevator, and the doors slid shut around them both.

It was not until they reached the top floor, until the doors opened onto a penthouse so cold and pristine it looked like no one actually lived there, that Nathaniel said the words that made Claire’s blood run cold.

“One more thing,” he said, shrugging off his jacket without looking at her. “My ex wife still has access to parts of this building. If you see her, do not speak to her. Do not engage with her. Whatever she says to you, ignore it.”

Claire blinked. “You were married before?”

Nathaniel’s expression closed like a door slamming shut.

“Vanessa,” he said, “is not your concern.”

He walked away before Claire could ask another question, leaving her standing alone in the entryway of a home that did not feel like home, married to a man who had just warned her about a woman whose name still made his whole body go rigid.

Claire had a terrible feeling that Vanessa was about to become exactly her concern.