The Contract Wife novel · Chapter 3 of 5

Chapter 3: The Courthouse

A six-minute ceremony with Mom in tears, believing it is real. Lily squeezes Ava's hand. Damien kisses her cheek in front of them and Mom whispers to Damien that if he hurts her he answers to her. Outside, a photographer already waits.

The car is black and warm and silent.

Marcus Bell drives it. He's built like a door and he calls me ma'am.

"Your mother's already there," he says. "The sister too."

I didn't call them.

He did.

I sit in the back with my hands in my lap and watch Fifth Avenue slide by.

We stop at a stone building near the courthouse, and Marcus opens my door.

Inside, the room is small and bright, with a judge's bench and two rows of chairs.

Mom is in the front row in her church coat.

Lily is beside her in a cardigan, holding a pharmacy bag.

They both stand up when they see me.

"Oh, honey," Mom says. "Look at you."

I'm still in my scrubs.

I haven't slept in twenty-six hours.

"Honey, sit down before you fall down," she says.

Then she sees him come in behind me.

Damien in the charcoal suit, folder under his arm, and Mom's whole face changes.

She straightens her coat.

"Mrs. Sinclair," he says.

"You're the young man who bought our loan."

"Yes, ma'am."

"And now you want my daughter."

"I do."

"Why?"

The judge is watching from the bench. Lily is watching from her chair.

Damien doesn't look at me.

"Because she asked me for three things and held her ground on all of them," he says. "I've never met anyone who does that."

Mom studies him for a long time.

Then she sits down and pats the chair beside her.

"Then sit here, and don't make me regret it."

The judge begins.

I hear the words. I answer them.

There's a ring he produces from his pocket, a plain gold band, and it fits like it was measured.

Lily's hand finds mine under the chair arm and squeezes hard.

I squeeze back.

"You okay?" she whispers.

"I'm okay."

"You're lying."

"Later," I say.

"Now I pronounce you husband and wife."

Mom starts crying.

She cries through the whole thing, quietly, into a tissue she's had balled in her fist since we walked in.

Then Damien turns to me, and I see it coming, and I can't stop it.

He leans in and kisses my cheek.

It's quick and warm and it lands in front of my mother and my sister and a judge.

Lily's fingers dig into mine.

Mom gets up.

She walks over to him and takes his sleeve in her hand, and she's small next to him but she isn't looking up at him like he's tall.

"Mr. Kastar."

"Yes, ma'am."

"My daughter has spent her whole life taking care of this family. She's never once asked anybody for anything." Mom's voice is steady. "So I'm going to ask you one thing in her place. If you hurt her, you answer to me."

"I understand."

"I don't think you do." She lets go of his sleeve. "But you will."

Marcus appears at the door.

"We should move," he says.

We go out the side entrance onto a narrow street.

The first flash goes off before I'm off the step.

Then another.

Three men with cameras are standing at the corner where they can see both exits.

"Mrs. Kastar! Mrs. Kastar, over here!"

Damien's hand comes down flat on my back and moves me toward the car.

"How long were you dating? Is it true about the debt?"

"Keep walking," he says, low.

"Did you buy your wife, Mr. Kastar?"

Marcus gets the door open and puts his body between us and the cameras.

I'm in the car.

Lily is in the car.

Mom is in the car, and she's looking out the window at the photographers with her mouth open.

"How do they know?" she says. "We just left. How do they know?"

Damien doesn't answer.

He's already on his phone, and his voice is flat and quiet.

"Find out who tipped them."

The car pulls out.

Lily leans across me and looks at the back window.

"Ava," she says.

"What."

Her phone is up in her hand, and her face has gone the color of the pharmacy bag.

"There's already a story," she says.

She turns the screen so I can see it.

A photo of Damien walking me into the courthouse, taken through the car window an hour ago.

And underneath, a headline with my new name in it.

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