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

“Go ahead,” I said, looking to Chloe for confirmation. She didn’t seem to make any indication one way or the other.

“Your father and I realize that you are no longer a child,” Beverly began. “You are an adult now, capable of making your own choices. Whether we view them as mistakes or not is irrelevant. They are yours to make.” She looked to her husband, who nodded. “We have to stop babying you and start trusting you not to intentionally embarrass us.”

“Matthew seems like a good person,” Charles said, startling Beverly by speaking calmly, his eyes trained on Chloe. “He came all the way down to us to convince us to come see you. Not because of money or fame or anything, but because he wanted us to all make amends. I respect that. As long as you are happy living like this, and he isn’t treating you poorly, then I have to get used to all this. I have to support you. Regardless of what you may think, Chloe, we love you. We only want what’s best for you. If this is what you think is best for you, then we will support it.”

Chloe’s eyes were brimming with tears, and when I looked to Beverly, hers were as well. Suddenly they all stood, and Chloe ran into her mother’s arms. They embraced, the three of them, for a few moments, her father kissing the top of her head. Beverly looked over her daughter’s head as it was buried in her shoulder and mouthed the words “thank you,” I smiled.

“I’ll be right back,” I said.

Standing up, I walked around them to go to the door and back out to my car. Thankfully, it wasn’t terribly hot, or else the chocolates would have melted. I brought the gifts inside, and when I shut the door, I heard the sound of soft laughter coming from Chloe. A low-voiced conversation was happening, and the dam that had been built up between them all seemed to be broken.

“What is all that?” Chloe said when she noticed me standing behind her and turned around.

“Some things I should have gotten you before. Congratulations, Chloe. We’re going to have a baby.”

The smile that stretched across her face was wide and genuine and pure. Tears streamed from her eyes, and she lunged to grab me in a hug around my neck. I squeezed her tight while she thanked me and pressed a kiss to my lips.

We all sat for a little while longer, discussing the baby and the timeline of things, and before we knew it, a few hours had passed. Charles looked at his watched and patted Beverly on the knee. She seemed disappointed, but also exhausted. It dawned on me that they likely hadn’t slept much last night either.

“We are going to go ahead and check in to our hotel,” Charles said. “But I insist on us having dinner together later. My treat.”

I nodded, and Chloe hugged them both tight before they called the limo service to have the pickup sent. Once they were gone, Chloe wrapped her arms around me again and sobbed gently into my chest for a few moments.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“Yes,” she said. “Finally, yes. Thank you so much for doing that. It was so sweet. I needed it.”

“I know.”

“I can’t believe it. I can’t believe they came. I can’t believe they changed their minds about me. You did that. You went down there and changed my parents’ minds. They haven’t changed their mind about anything since before I was born.”

“I didn’t change their mind. I just led them to the place they wanted to go already,” I said. “They love you. And they want to be grandparents. We are going to have a family together, and I just want you to be happy. Whatever that means, I want to make it happen.”

“I love you,” she said, squeezing me in a hug again. I was careful not to squeeze her back too hard, just in case the nausea wasn’t completely gone yet. Nothing could quite ruin the moment like that.

“Look,” I said, pulling her out to arm’s length and holding her by the shoulders so I could stare deep into her eyes. “I know that everything between us started out as fake. I know that we were just tricking people at first. But I don’t want anything to be fake between us ever again. I love you, and I love our baby, too. That is for real. That is forever.”

38

Chloe

Coming to Portland with Matt had been such a rushed, almost impulsive decision my parents hadn’t really put much planning or thought into it. That was very much not like them, and it meant they weren’t prepared to stay in town for longer than it took for us to talk things through. They promised to come back soon when they had a chance to stay longer, but they needed to leave the next morning.

I went to the hotel first thing to make sure I could say goodbye to them. The conversation the day before was an amazing surprise. It started off pretty much as I expected it to, with the taut, bitter, angry words from my parents. But Matt managed to get it under control. He snapped both sides into reality and made us do what really needed to be done: come together.

My parents were never going to be the warm and fuzzy type. That just wasn’t the type of people they were. That became very clear the longer I spent with Matt and his family. There was just a difference in how his mother radiated warmth and love toward the people around her, and my parents’ more reserved, restrained personalities. I was realizing that didn’t mean they were bad people, and it didn’t mean they didn’t love me. They just weren’t ever going to be exuberant about showing it.

I could be okay with that. As long as they kept to their word and didn’t try to control me or