The Marriage Contract, Natasha Black [thriller books to read .TXT] 📗

that I dipped out without bothering to tell Jordan. As soon as I opened the door, the cooler air hit me, and I breathed deep. The door opened behind me, and I turned to see Chloe, joining me on the back porch with a smile on her face and two waters in her hand.

“Saw you go out and thought you could use a drink,” she said.

“Thanks. You taking a break, too?”

“Yeah. Figured it might look weird if we took separate ones, you know?”

“Good point,” I said. “If you see someone coming, tell me and we can start making out.”

She laughed, and I grinned. It was good to hear that laugh again.

“Busy night,” she said.

Ahh, back to small talk.

“It is,” I agreed. “That’s why I’ll try to make this short. What’s going on?”

“What do you mean?” she asked, suddenly changing her demeanor to be a little stiffer, a little more stoic.

“You know what I mean,” I said. “Us.”

“It’s nothing, really.”

“Look, if this was a bad idea, you should tell me,” I said. “We never consummated the marriage, so we can just go get it annulled if you want.”

She turned to me, her mouth open to respond when her phone rang. It seemed to snap her thoughts out of whatever she was going to say when she looked down at the screen. Rolling her eyes in the back of her head, she swiped to open the call and hit the speaker button.

“What do you want?” she asked.

“What the hell do you think you are doing?” came the screaming voice on the other end of the line. “Who do you think you are? You stupid bitch, why would you do something like that? Do you have any idea, just any fucking clue how badly you have embarrassed yourself? How badly you embarrassed your parents? How badly you embarrassed me?”

“I only answered the phone so I could tell you to fuck off, Adam,” she said. “Now fuck off.”

“Don’t you dare hang up on me,” Adam growled. “You have made a huge mistake, Chloe. Absolutely huge. Your tiny little brain can’t possibly comprehend the mountain of shit you just got yourself into. You are too damn naive to handle the world out there, Chloe. You need to come home and let me fix this.”

“I would have done anything to not marry you,” Chloe said calmly. Then she laughed. “Why in the world would I want to marry you? You’re a complete prick, Adam.”

“You have ruined your family’s business, you know that?” Adam continued. “The relationship between our fathers… it will never be the same. Ever. That’s your fault, Chloe. You did that. You couldn’t just do the easiest fucking thing in the world and do what you were told. No. Christ. How stupid can you be?”

It took everything in me not to grab the phone out of her hand and tell that fucker exactly where he could go. But I had to let Chloe stand up for herself. She was doing a hell of a job so far. So as hard as it was, I did nothing.

“I didn’t hurt the family business,” she said. “Dad will be just fine. So will your dad. Oh, boo-hoo, they can’t merge their businesses by marrying me off like this is the fucking Dark Ages. I followed my heart. That’s what I did. I followed my heart.”

“Your heart?” Adam nearly screamed on the other end. “Are you a child? Because no one marries for love, Chloe. Not people who have any fucking brains at all. You and I both know that love isn’t real. Love is bullshit poor people tell each other when they settle for someone who can’t get them higher than their station.”

“Love is real, Adam,” Chloe said calmly. “Love is absolutely real, and I am in love with my husband. So, kindly, go to hell.”

She hung up the phone and plopped down on the stoop. I sat down beside her in silence, and we drank water for a moment while she calmed down. When she seemed like she had a little bit of a grip on herself, I started talking. Something told me that there was a lot more truth to her love argument than she was going to let on to me, but I didn’t know how I felt about it.

“So, I take it that was your ex,” I said.

“Not really,” she said. “I never dated him. We went out to dinner one time, but that’s it. Other than that, we just happened to be in the same social circles a lot. I knew him, but I wasn’t seeing him. That said, he’s who my parents picked out for me to marry since his dad has a business relationship with my dad.”

“Really? That was why they pushed you together?”

“Not pushed together—forced together. I left because they told me I was marrying him. No way out, no excuses, no objections. I was going to marry Adam, and that was that. So, I left,” she said. “I hate him. He’s cruel and vain and stupid. I left him on speaker because I thought you should hear what I dealt with before I came to Portland.”

“He sounds like a real champ,” I said, taking a sip of my water.

“Yeah, he’s a real winner alright,” she said. “My parents got my number somehow. They must have given it to him, and he called me. Believe it or not, that was him trying to make a persuasive argument.”

“With the insults?”

“He’s a child in a grown man’s body. He’s never had someone take something from him until his ex-wife left him. Now he’s worse than he was before. I’ll block him, but who knows if he’ll figure out another way to track and contact me. I hate that. He’s such an ass.”

“Well, he won’t get to you as long as I’m around,” I said. She looked at me with what looked like a tear in her eye and nodded.

“Yeah. There’s that.” I watched as she opened up the number that just