Forced to Marry My Brother's Best Friend

Prologue

14 years ago

Jennifer stood at the front door of her brother's best friend's house. Well, technically it wasn't just her brother's friend's house, their families were friends. That's actually how her brother, James, became best friends with Shawn. The friendship between the Grays and the O'Connors went back decades. Both of their families came from old money but the O'Connors had held on to their money a little better than the Grays had. Jennifer's great-grandfather had lost much of their family fortune to bad investments and her grandfather lost even more to his gambling habit. Regardless of this, the families had remained friends, so while Jennifer and her family didn't live in a mansion or have drivers or servants her father James Sr. and Shawn's father Tim had remained good friends, as their fathers were before them. Jennifer's grandfather had since passed but Shawn's was still alive and loved to regal them with stories about their wild days growing up.

She waited anxiously for their butler to open the door so they could start their yearly Christmas party. Jennifer loved coming to their house, really she loved any reason to be around Shawn. She had had a crush on him for as long as she could remember, being 10 that might not have been very long but she had a big crush regardless.

"Good evening, please come in." Their Butler said as he answered the door. She was pretty sure his name was Alex but she couldn't remember. He brought them into the large sitting room where Shawn along with his parents Tim and Grace were waiting for them. Her brother James immediately went over to where Shawn was sitting and they started talking about their upcoming graduation, and college next year.

Tim and Grace walked over and started talking with her parents, James and Sophia, so Jennifer walked over to her brother and sat down beside him. "Hey Jenni girl, how's school going?" Shawn asked her, he always made sure to include her in their conversations since she didn't really have anyone to talk to.

"It's good, I can't wait for summer break though."

"Best part of the school year if you ask me," her brother responded.

"Yeah, I can't wait to get away from some of those boys in my class."

"Why's that?" Shawn and James asked at the same time.

"Because they're mean to me, they like to pull my hair and push me when we go outside."

"What, who's doing that to you? Why didn't you tell us?" Her brother asked her sounding rather angry.

"I'm sorry" she whispered out, she hadn't wanted to get anyone in trouble and she knew her brother would be mad if he knew.

"Why didn't you tell James Jenni?" She loved it when Shawn called her that, he was the only one that did everyone else just called her Jen or Jennifer.

"I didn't want anyone to get in trouble. I thought maybe they would stop being mean next year."

"Well that doesn't always happen and you shouldn't have to put up with that s**t. Tell me who's bullying you and I'll take care of it."

"We'll take care of it" Shawn added as he fist bumped her brother.

"Ok, that would be good thanks guys."

"What are big brothers for" Shawn said with a wink.

She knew that Shawn thought of her as a sister, sometimes he seemed to think of her as an annoying sister which was much worse. She was hoping he wouldn't think of her like that forever. As their night went on they had dinner, played games, opened presents, and watched It's a Wonderful Life. Shawn and James had included her in everything they did, it was one of the best nights of her life. As they said their goodbyes and got ready to leave, Jennifer had no idea that what had been the best night of her life was about to turn into the worst.