Her Substitute Groom

Her Decision

Carys

I fiddle with the sash belt on my dress. Annis dressed me tonight and did my hair and makeup. I take a deep breath ready to step into Nonna Leoni’s when I hear my name called angrily. I turn looking for the source and find my mother stomping my way. Great…..

“Hi Mom.” I say and she scowls.

“Don’t hi mom me! What are you doing going to Nonna Leoni’s? It is the poshest most expensive Italian restaurant in town. We are trying to save our house and your father won’t even let me go visit the nail salon!” Her face is an angry mask and I see several passersby stare at us.

“Mom could you keep your voice down or could we talk about this later? I am meeting a friend here for a work meeting.” I mumble feeling like I am ten years old again.

“I knew you were wasting money. I told your father you don’t deserve to keep your car. Absolutely ridiculous. You are leaving with me right now.” She grabs my arm and I flinch at the painful squeeze. She takes two steps and I dig my heels in. “No Mom I am staying here.”

She gives me a withering look “I don’t think so.” I wrench my arm free fury finally making itself known. How dare she?! Humiliating me in front of anyone who walks by because SHE caused the mess my family is in.

“I am going in. Your unhappiness is all your fault not mine!” I yank the door open more forcefully than I meant to and stumble into the restaurant. The hostess gives me a concerned look and I assure her I am fine. My voice sounds so shaky though so I take a few deep breaths before telling her I am meeting Lorenzo Taylor. She nods and leads me to a table secluded in the back.

“Carys! You look lovely.” Lorenzo rises from his seat with a friendly smile and pulls out my chair.

Once we order, he looks at me. “Did you think about my idea?”

Here we go. I take in a shaky breath. “I have some questions first.”

“Fire away.” He leans back relaxed.

“Would I be hidden in your house all the time? Would I be allowed to work still? I have a job as a book editor and I would also like to get back into writing my own books.” He smiles slowly.

“You can work as the editor and writing your books. Not at like a coffee shop or anything. I will take care of you completely. You will have a spending allowance each month and no you will not be hidden away. I travel a good bit for business and I would like you to come along. Keep the gossip to a minimum so the business investors stay quiet and Maxim stays off my ass. You would not be hidden in the house. I have a reliable house staff though so you would not need to do any housework. Also I will pay your family’s debts off the day after we marry. You will have your pick of a new car and are free to live your life. The only thing I will ask is for you to be ‘faithful’ to me for the duration of our contract. More unnecessary issues and gossip. I will also be sticking to that. Did I forget anything? I think that about covers it.”

“Oh forgot you will get to leave with a monetary settlement also. I thought two million dollars would set you up nicely. Do you agree?” His eyes are calm and we could be talking about the change in temperature outside not giving me two millions dollars.

I gasp “Lorenzo I don’t expect that.”

He nods “I know and that’s why I am sure this will be a great decision for us. But you are giving up three years where you could be dating and getting married to start your real family. It is my gift to pay you for your time and sacrifice. I won’t take a no on that.” He grins easily. I will be free of my mother is the only thing I can think of after her actions outside. With what she did pushing me I know this is right.

I take a deep breath and find myself nodding. “Alright then, I agree to marry you.”

“Wonderful. I will have our family attorney draw up the contract and we’ll get it signed. I should have warned you we need to marry quickly. How does having the ceremony in two weeks sound?”

I almost pass out. Two weeks?!

“Lorenzo are you sure you aren’t planning to use me as a human sacrifice or hunting object like in that horror movie, Ready or Not? Why the rush?” I was only half joking.

“I have a deadline for my trust by the end of this year to begin my marriage. Your parents’ foreclosure deadline is in three weeks. Also this will be a very talked about event. I’d rather hurry and be wedded by the time they figure it out.”

The panic must show on my face. He squeezes my hand “Don’t worry. I will hire a wedding planner and she will take care of everything. We own a resort in the virgin islands. We’ll have it there so it can be much more private. Now once you’ve recovered from all that, maybe we can go apply for a marriage license and tell our parents tonight.” Oh no, my parents! I need to warn my dad and pray my mother doesn’t try to use this to her advantage.

So much work for a fake wedding. “Lorenzo couldn’t we, I mean do we really need a wedding? It seems a big wasteful. Couldn’t we just go to the courthouse and have the judge marry us?”

He laughs. “No we can’t. Grandfather’s stipulations are very clear. It has to look real to his decision maker. I have no idea who that is so we need a good show. I will warn you, we will leak to the press we’ve been secretly dating for a while.”

The rest of the day is a whirlwind. We applied for our marriage license, Lorenzo booked the wedding planner, Belinda and we had our first meeting with her. Now we are sitting in my living room telling my parents and then we’ll go see Lorenzo’s family for dinner.

My parents are shocked. Dad practically pulls my arm out of its socket yanking me to the kitchen before whispering “blink four times rapidly if you are in danger.” I roll my eyes whispering “Dad it’s not like that. He needs a bride for his inheritance and has agreed to help us if I’ll do that. Business partnership only, nothing umm physical or emotional.”

“Sweetie this is not what I want for you. You deserve a real husband.” He looks so pained.

“Dad this will do a lot for me. It will take care of you and I can be free to write my books during the marriage. I won’t have to work three jobs. And Lorenzo plans to give me a settlement when we part to pay me back.”

We rejoin Mom and Lorenzo. Immediately I saw Mom’s satisfied smile and it set my mind to worrying and racing. “Lorenzo is going to take such good care of you Carys. I couldn’t be happier about this wedding.”

I saw my dad look at her sharply and she manages to look at him innocently. Oh no! What is she up to?