Your Secret(ary) Wife

"You know I already have a wife, don't you?" Aditya's voice sounded emphatic, a sharp warning. He pinned Merliana's body against the wall, gripping his secretary's jaw with a cold, piercing stare. Merliana squirmed uncomfortably as Aditya's hand moved to grip her waist, as if demanding an answer. "Y-yes, sir, I know," Merliana said, her voice nearly disappearing, swallowed by fear. "I'm sorry for what happened. You can divorce me right now, sir." "Divorce?" Aditya repeated the word bitterly. "Do you think marriage is a game that can be ended that easily?" "I'm sorry, sir. I never expected things to turn out like this. Please forgive me." Aditya clenched his jaw. As the sole heir of the Mahatma Group, being trapped in a marriage with his own secretary was a disgrace, especially since he already had a lawful wife. His father would kill him if he ever found out. "I won't divorce you that easily, Merliana!" he hissed dangerously. "No one must know about this marriage, especially my extended family. You are completely unworthy of me!" Aditya brought his face closer until their breaths mingled, creating a suffocating distance. "From now on, you will take responsibility for every loss I have suffered because of your actions!" *** Merliana Garavani, or more familiarly called Mega among her friends. She asked permission from her boss, Mr. Aditya, to return to her village after receiving a call from her younger brother that their father was sick. Even though there was an important meeting the next day, Merliana still mustered up the courage to ask for permission to go back to the village. After seeing her father lying weak in the hospital, Merliana decided to go home to bring her father a change of clothes. However, upon arriving at the house, Merliana was shocked to see Mr. Aditya's car stopping in front of her parents' cramped and small house. Merliana thought it was a dream or just her hallucination because she hated that man for always demanding her to work so perfectly. That was why she thought what she saw was just her imagination. There was no way her boss would follow her all the way here, right? However, when the man got out of the car and approached her under the heavy downpour of the night rain, she then realized that what she saw was real. She couldn't believe what her boss was doing here. "Mr. Aditya... why are you here, sir? Please come inside first, sir. Your clothes are wet." Mr. Aditya complied with Merliana's request to come inside the house. The man observed the small house with a critical look. His secretary's house was no bigger than the bathroom in his own house. Just looking at it made him feel suffocated. "Where have you been? Don't you know that I've been waiting for you? Why can't you be reached? Don't you realize how confused I was looking for the document?!" Mr. Aditya snapped, while trying to flick off the remaining water soaking his clothes. "Wh-what document, sir?" "The collaboration document that I have to bring tomorrow morning! Where did you put it?" "It's on the desk, sir. I just—" Her sentence suddenly stopped as she remembered something. Merliana covered her open mouth as her eyes also widened perfectly. She quickly walked toward the room to check her backpack. And it turned out, the document had been brought by her. Ah, s**t. Merliana blinked her eyes. Smiling timidly, Merliana turned to face Mr. Aditya, who was now standing in front of her bedroom door. "Turns out the document was brought by me, sir." "Youuuuu!" Aditya let out a long breath, his fingers squeezing the wet document he had just snatched from his secretary's hands. Stupid. Absolutely stupid. Once again, he had to clean up someone else's mess. The image of tomorrow morning's important meeting—the presentation that would determine the fate of his project—played vividly in his head. Every second wasted in this remote village felt like a knife carving away at his patience. "Do you think I have time for this?!" he hissed through his clenched teeth. "If it weren't for Priyanka recommending you, I would never have made you my secretary!" "I-I'm sorry, Mr. Aditya. Please forgive me. I really didn't know." Aditya just blinked and tried to swallow his nearly explosive emotions. The cold wind blew, making the hairs on his neck stand up. His clothes were still wet, clinging to his skin; the rainwater had seeped all the way to his bones. Aditya shivered. The flu—his old enemy—would surely come if he insisted on going home in this condition, especially since the trip back to Surabaya would take about three hours. But in the car, there were no spare clothes he could change into. Only a stack of documents and files, useless for the moment. Merliana stepped closer, holding a worn-out t-shirt and a pair of faded long pants in her hands. "These belong to my younger brother. You can wear them for now, sir," she said fearfully, her voice small beneath the roar of the rain. "They might be a little tight." Aditya glanced at the clothes out of the corner of his eye. Thin cotton fabric, faded dark blue stripes, and—yes, definitely too small for his muscular body. But he had no other choice. With a rough motion, he removed his wet shirt right in front of Merliana's eyes. However, Merliana quickly lowered her face when her eyes caught sight of the man's body. The cold air immediately gripped Aditya's skin. Just as he reached for the worn-out t-shirt— "He's here!" But just as he was about to put on the t-shirt, a loud commotion erupted from outside. Heavy footsteps, shouts, and the scraping sound of dragged wood seemed to make the windows rattle. Merliana walked toward the window and pulled the curtain aside to see what was happening. However, her eyes suddenly widened perfectly as she saw a crowd of villagers now approaching her house. Their voices sounded like a wave ready to crash down. Before the t-shirt was fully on Aditya's body, the villagers had already managed to break down the door of Merliana's house, forcing it wide open. The not-so-spacious house revealed the two of them inside with their shocked expressions. "What is the meaning of this? Is this how you uneducated rural people behave, barging into someone's house uninvited?!" he snapped in annoyance. "How dare you insult us while you are the one committing a sin here!" In Indonesia, customary and religious legal norms prohibit a man and a woman from being alone together inside a house without a valid marriage bond, as it is considered a violation of ethics and religious teachings. This is because Indonesian society still holds the moral values of Eastern culture in high regard. Aditya, unwilling to accept this, was about to retaliate, but Merliana tried to stop him. Her gaze fell upon the visibly emotional villagers. "I'm sorry, ladies and gentlemen. What's going on, please? Why are you all crowding here and entering my house without permission?" She was confused. Truly. Because she had never experienced anything like this before. "Don't pretend you don't know why we came here! The two of you have just committed adultery, haven't you?!" "Who said we committed adultery, ma'am?" "Don't try to dodge. What else is this if not adultery? Coming back from the city bringing a man into the house! Have you no shame!" shouted the most outspoken woman of all. Her house was right next to Merliana's. "Your mother was a prostitute, and now that she's gone, you want to cause trouble in this village too?!" she screamed while glaring. "Ma'am, don't bring my mother into this! He's my boss, we're not doing anything wrong here!" "Do you think that just because we live in a remote village, you can fool all of us?!" she yelled. "Are our eyes blind? Just look at what an adult man and woman are doing inside a house, at night like this and in the rain—especially with him not wearing a shirt! We may not be highly educated like you, but you can't fool us!" "Merliana is my secretary, and I came here for work—I only came to get this document!" Aditya said, showing the document he had just taken from his secretary. "How dare you accuse us of committing adultery!" Aditya refused to accept it. "So many excuses! Let's drag them to the village hall!" The woman pulled Merliana's hair until she cried out in pain, while the men present also dragged Aditya to the village hall. The document he had to secure fell to the ground, was trampled upon, and ended up who knows where. Everyone gathered and came to watch, not caring about the drizzling rain that still soaked them. Aditya stubbornly denied the accusations of indecency, but the villagers, who already harbored hatred toward Merliana's family, turned a deaf ear. The pressure to marry them off escalated in order to avoid a bad omen for the village. "I swear to God, sir, Mr. Aditya was just picking up documents and changing clothes!" Merliana sobbed in fear. Just as she was about to reveal Aditya's engaged status, Aditya silenced her with a sharp whisper, "Don't say anything! Don't ruin my image." The villagers didn't care and threatened to make the incident go viral if they refused to marry. With the image of his father's face and the ruin of the company's reputation flashing before his eyes, Aditya had no choice but to agree to marry Merliana, even though he already had a wife. That very morning, in whatever clothes they had on, the two were forcibly married. Merliana's younger brother acted as her guardian, replacing Merliana's stepfather, who was currently lying ill in the hospital. ** After the wedding and uttering hurtful words to Merliana, Aditya lamented his ruined documents. His meeting with the client this morning, which should have brought huge profits to his company, had instead backfired on him. He didn't know what kind of misfortune he had committed in the past to be this unlucky. Aditya blinked to hold back his emotions, which felt like they were eating away at him. Then he stood up after picking up his important documents, which were now messy and dirty. His gaze shot daggers at Merliana, who quickly lowered her head, not daring to look at the man. His stare was truly sharp and terrifying. Then, Aditya packed his belongings and left without saying a single word or bidding farewell to the woman who was now officially his wife. "Where is your husband going, Sister??" Ferlan, her younger brother, came over to Merliana. "Don't say that. He's not my husband. He's my boss!" "But he's already your husband, and I was the one who just married you to Aditya," he said proudly. "Don't call him whatever you like—call him Mr. Aditya! He's not your brother. My marriage to Mr. Aditya was only to fulfill the demands of the villagers who misunderstood us. So this marriage is just pretend." "Pretend how, Merliana? There was a religious official, there were witnesses, and there was me as your marriage guardian. So the marriage is valid." "I know! And I will ask Mr. Aditya to divorce me as soon as possible!" "Why are you like that, Merliana? Marriage shouldn't be played with. It's a sin!" "What do you know about marriage?!" Merliana exclaimed in frustration. "Mr. Aditya already has a wife, and I will not destroy their marriage because of this forced wedding!"