Chapter 5 - THE WEDDING CONTRACT
Two weeks after Maeve entered the Marchetti estate, Elias announced the wedding date.
Friday.
Private.
Forty-eight hours away.
Maeve nearly dropped her fork.
Salvatore did not react.
Gabriel kept eating.
Only Maeve looked as if someone had fired a gun.
Elias noticed.
“You wanted a small ceremony.”
Maeve searched desperately through Sienna’s preferences.
“Yes.”
“So did I.”
“So soon?”
Elias leaned back in his chair.
“We have already postponed once.”
Maeve’s hands went cold.
Margaret had promised time.
She had promised Maeve would only need to maintain the deception until a separation could be arranged.
Marriage had been mentioned, yes.
But Maeve had secretly hoped something would happen first.
Anything.
She called Margaret the moment she was alone.
“You said there would be time.”
“There is no choice now.”
“I cannot legally marry him using Sienna’s identity.”
Margaret’s voice became impatient.
“The license paperwork was already prepared before the accident.”
“That does not make this legal.”
“It makes it manageable.”
“I could go to prison.”
“Finn could die.”
Maeve closed her eyes.
Margaret knew exactly which knife to use.
“Three months,” Maeve whispered.
“Three months.”
“And then?”
“You leave.”
“How?”
Margaret paused.
“We will create an incompatibility.”
Maeve laughed bitterly.
“I think fraud qualifies.”
“Control yourself.”
Maeve lowered her voice.
“You are destroying two lives.”
“No.”
Margaret replied.
“I am protecting my daughter’s future and saving your brother’s.”
The line went dead.
Friday arrived beneath a gray Chicago sky.
The ceremony took place in the Marchetti residence.
No press.
No public announcement.
No society photographers.
Maeve wore Sienna’s wedding gown.
Ivory silk.
Long sleeves.
Pearls at her throat.
When she entered the library, Elias was waiting in his wheelchair near the fireplace.
For one second, his expression changed.
Maeve almost stopped walking.
There was no calculation in his face.
No suspicion.
Only something painfully human.
He thought she was beautiful.
Guilt nearly crushed her.
Salvatore escorted her forward because Margaret claimed to have developed a migraine.
Maeve understood the truth.
Margaret did not want to stand close enough for Elias to notice anything.
The officiant began.
Maeve heard almost none of it.
When Elias took her hand, his palm was warm.
His thumb rested against her knuckles.
Her entire body felt like a lie.
“Do you, Elias Marchetti, take Sienna Ashford to be your wife?”
“I do.”
His answer was immediate.
Maeve’s throat closed.
The officiant turned to her.
“Do you, Sienna Ashford, take Elias Marchetti to be your husband?”
For one terrible moment, Maeve could not speak.
Elias’s eyes met hers.
No one moved.
Maeve thought about Finn.
Then she thought about the man in front of her.
The one being deceived by everyone in the room except perhaps Salvatore.
“I do.”
Her voice barely survived the words.
A ring slid onto her finger.
The officiant pronounced them husband and wife.
Elias looked at her.
Maeve leaned forward before he could.
She kissed his cheek.
Just his cheek.
His expression did not change.
But his eyes did.
That night, Maeve stood inside the master bedroom with her hands trembling.
Elias wheeled himself in several minutes later.
She turned quickly.
“I thought I was staying in the guest suite.”
“So did I.”
He looked toward the bed.
“But the staff apparently believes married people sleep together.”
Maeve’s face heated.
He noticed.
“Sienna.”
“Yes?”
“I’m not going to touch you unless you ask me to.”
The shame that struck her was almost unbearable.
“Thank you.”
Elias looked at her carefully.
Then he said, “That answer bothers me.”
Maeve’s pulse accelerated.
“Why?”
“Because the woman I was going to marry never thanked me for respecting her.”
Silence filled the room.
Elias turned the onyx ring once.
Then he wheeled toward the adjoining sitting room.
“You can have the bed.”
Maeve watched him go.
The door remained partly open.
She sat on the mattress still wearing her wedding dress.
Her wedding ring felt heavier than iron.
Across the room, hidden by the doorway, Elias rose quietly from the wheelchair.
He stretched his left leg.
Walked three silent steps.
Then returned to the chair.
His face had changed.
May you like
The test was supposed to expose Sienna.
Instead, it had given him a wife who behaved nothing like her.
