The Marriage Contract

by Natasha L. Black

  I wanted to argue, but I didn’t. The truth was, I was so tired, it was a fight just to keep my eyes open, and I didn’t know how I was going to get all the way through the rest of the night if I had to.

  I got home and went inside. Part of me was hoping Matt would be there, ignoring his phone for some inexplicable reason. He wasn’t, and one more last-ditch call to his phone went unanswered. I took off my work clothes in favor of soft lounge clothes. Within seconds, my exhaustion won, and I fell asleep on the couch.

  35

  Matt

  The emotions of the last day and a half had been overwhelming, but I had to get a grip on what I was doing. The next few hours would be extremely important. I had a mission, and if I was successful, I thought I might be able to make everything I had been through, everything Chloe had been through, worth it.

  The plane touched down in LA early in the morning. I took the red eye not just because it was cheaper but because I wanted to be there at first light. I had only been to LA twice, and both times had been with one of my brothers on sightseeing trips more than anything else. Getting around the city without one of them with me and with no real memory of where I was going or what I was doing was going to be rough.

  Or at least it could have been.

  Tom had been extremely generous when I called him and explained what I needed. Annoyed, but generous. Tom was historically an early to bed, early to rise kind of guy, and my phone call caught him square in the middle of both of those time frames. Still, he had gotten up and done what I asked him without question or hesitation. The most recent text from his wife, Amanda, confirmed it. I knew where I was going and how I was going to get there.

  Exiting the plane, I bypassed the luggage station. I had nothing but a small carry-on. One bag. In it was a change of clothes in case of an emergency, a file with some articles I’d printed out about the bar, and an extra pair of shoes. The shoes were a personal touch I always carried with me. Having been caught in a strange city suddenly missing my shoes on a wild weekend with my brother Tyler in Las Vegas got me in the habit of always having a backup pair.

  I checked my phone as I walked out of the airport and followed the directions in the text. A limo was waiting for me, and I grinned. All I asked for was for Tom to set me up a car if he could, since he was in LA often and had drivers he often used. The limo was clearly a rib on me, but I’d take it. Where I was going, it might actually help.

  I hopped in the car and told the driver where we were going. It would take about an hour, which apparently was normal, day-to-day LA traffic from the airport to Beverly Hills, so I sat back in the seat and closed my eyes. I hadn’t had much sleep, and an hour nap might do me a little good. I had to be on top of my game when I got there.

  The limo pulled into the posh neighborhoods I was expecting but was still impressed by. The houses were incredibly opulent, to the point where after a while it started to just feel like showing off. Tom had found the address for me through his network of friends and associates, and the driver ended up pulling me into a gated neighborhood where all the houses also had their own gates. It was so ridiculous it made me laugh out loud as we drove to a house at the end of the long, narrow street.

  “Thanks, man. Did Tom say anything about how long you’d be here?” I asked as the driver opened the door for me.

  “No, sir. Just that I was to be at your service all day. To call my superior if I needed to be relieved. Also, that all tips were to go through him,” he said.

  “Really? Tom told you that I wasn’t going to tip?”

  “Not in so many words, sir,” the driver said.

  I suddenly realized I was being watched. Someone was at the door of the massive white marble home, looking out over the driveway where we were. I needed to play the part. I pulled out my wallet and handed the driver a fifty without looking him in the eye.

  “We will just keep this between us, then, yeah?” I muttered.

  “As you wish, sir,” the driver said, and I caught the faintest grin on his lips.

  With that, I walked up to the steps and began my ascent. When I crested the top step, I saw that the person waiting at the door was wearing a suit but was clearly not who I thought it was. It was one of the help, and I nodded to him as I approached.

  “I’m here to see Charles and Beverly Beckett,” I said, as confidently as I could manage under the circumstances.

  “Very good, and you are?” said the older gentleman by the door. I could have taken offense at how quickly he snapped that question off, but I had to remind myself that was literally his job. I was, to him, riffraff that needed to be kept away, until such time as I was proven not to be.

  “I’m their son-in-law.”

  After some hushed discussion between the doorman and some other members of the house clad in black, I was ushered into an enormous home with high ceilings and a stunningly crass amount of gold. I shook my head as I was led into a parlor. There was a bar on one side, and I was tempted to make myself a drink to calm my nerves but chose against it. The last thing I needed to do was to be so bold as to help myself to someone else’s liquor without asking.

  As I sat in Chloe’s parents’ parlor, I thought about why I needed them. It would certainly be easier to avoid this whole step, but I felt like it was necessary. She needed her family, whether she thought she did or not. It would mean so much for her to have their approval and to be part of her life going forward, and if I didn’t take this shot, I didn’t know if that would ever be possible.

  At least I was able to get there early. Both the Becketts were known to be out of the house early in the day, and this time of the morning was about the only time I was pretty sure I could catch them. Sure enough, the door to the parlor opened, and a rather surprised-looking Charles and Beverly Beckett came into the room.

  “It’s that boy Chloe married,” Charles said to his wife. “What do you want? Here to ask if we will take her back?”

  They both chuckled like the joke was actually funny. I shook my head.

  “Quite the opposite,” I said. “I’m Chloe’s husband. Not because she’s rich, because as far as I know she doesn’t have a dime to her name. I’m Chloe’s husband because we’re in love. And we mean to be married the rest of our lives.”

  “Hah,” Beverly said. “Who are you? How did you get here? How did you find our home?”

  “Did they add us to the star tour again? This is why we have our own gate,” Charles said, again acting like the entire situation was a humorous anecdote.

  “I’ll have you know I’m a successful businessman. I found you because I have contacts that run in the same circles as you. It wasn’t hard.”

  “And what business would that be?” Beverly asked, nearly sneering.

  “I own a bar in Portland with my brother,” I began. I was cut off by more laughter. I was seriously getting annoyed by their attitude and could easily see why Chloe wanted nothing to do with it. Maybe this entire thing was a huge mistake. I should just cut my losses and run.

  “A bar? In Portland?” Charles asked, laughing. “What is your next business venture? A gas station in Cleveland?”

  “The bar in Portland is our second, actually,” I said, my voice a low growl. “The first is in Astoria, our hometown, and it’s so popular that we usually have a line outside every evening. We’ve been in several nationwide magazines in the last few months.”

  “Wait, Astoria?” Beverly asked, suddenly becoming somewhat serious.

  “Yes. We’re renowned for our theme nights.”

  “Charles,” Beverly said. “A moment, please.” She beckoned him to the side, and there was a hushed conversation. When they turned back around, Charles’s eyes were wide and his eyebrows halfway up his heavily Botox-laden face.

  “This bar,” Beverly continued, “what would be the bartender’s name? The famous one?”

  “Ava,” I said. “My brother Mason’s wife, Ava.”

  “I told you,” Beverly said, turning on her husband. />
  “This is ridiculous,” Charles said. “So what?”

  “So what?” Beverly responded indignantly. “Do you remember how close we were to everything falling apart? Do you?” Charles’s head bowed as he took in what she was saying. His lips pursed to one side, and he seemed uncomfortable with the memory. “Then you suggested we get away somewhere no one would know us. Somewhere that no one would recognize us if we dressed down. And where did we stop?”

  “Astoria,” Charles said, huffing.

  “And what did we do there?” Beverly asked.

  “We stopped at a bar that was doing a fifties theme night and karaoke,” he said, begrudgingly.

  “Our Astoria bar kept the two of you together,” I said. “The one in Portland drew your daughter and I together. Your daughter still loves you both, perhaps inexplicably. You have treated her like trash, but she is still desperate for your approval.”

  “Why?” Charles said. “She left. She has her own life. She doesn’t need us.”

  “She’s pregnant,” I said. Beverly dropped the glass she was holding, and it shattered on the floor. One of the maids came in from some beforehand unseen crevice in the wall with a dustpan and broom and began to sweep it up. Beverly took a few steps toward me and seemed like she was studying my face.

  “She’s pregnant?” she asked.

  “Yes,” I said. “We just found out. But she needs her parents in her life. I can provide for her. I can take care of her and our baby and give her everything they need. But she still needs her parents in her life. I cannot imagine what it would be like to try to live without my family. My brothers and my mother are everything to me. Without them, I would be lost. Especially now that I’m going to become a father. For her not to have her parents, at this time in her life, it’s cruel.”

  Beverly acted as if that word in particular hurt her. She put one hand over her chest and turned to her husband for a moment before turning back to me.

  “I am a good man,” I said. “I may not be what you wanted for her, but I am a good man. And I will not make a fool out of your daughter. I promise you that. I love her.”

  “Charles,” Beverly said, going to him.

  “What would we even do?” Charles said. “There’s been so much said. So much done.”

  “You start by just being there. Don’t say anything, just be there. That will be enough. Then we take it step by step,” I said.

  “Where is she now?” Beverly asked. There was a new softness in her eyes. I recognized that softness. It was the same one that was in my mother’s eyes when she heard she was going to be a grandmother for the first time.

  “She’s in Portland,” I said. “Will you come with me?”

  There was a tense moment as the two Becketts looked at each other. Slowly, Charles began to nod.

  “Yes,” he said. “I’ll fetch a car.”

  “No need,” I said. “I have one waiting.”

  I opened the curtain that covered the window overlooking the driveway, and the Becketts peered out to see a limo that apparently was much to their surprise.

  36

  Chloe

  I was so emotionally and physically drained when I got back home after the bar the day before, I fell asleep as soon as my head touched the pillow. Unlike the last several nights, I slept deeply and soundly. When I woke up, it felt like I hadn’t moved at all during the night. My body felt sore and heavy, and I groaned when I started to move.

  The ache in my bones distracted me from thinking about Matt for only a few seconds. But then he flashed back into my mind, and I strained for any sound that might indicate he’d gotten home. The bed was empty beside me. I’d fallen asleep in the main bedroom in the hopes that I’d wake up with Matt wrapped around me.

  He wasn’t there, and no matter how hard I listened, I didn’t hear a single sound in any other room. I reached under the pillow for my phone but didn’t feel it. Worried he might have called or texted me and I missed it, I scrambled out of bed and rushed to find my phone. The dizzy sickness hit me just as I found it and wrapped my hand around it.

  I sat down and sucked in a few breaths to settle my stomach. My medicine was in the other room, so I stuffed a couple of pieces of peppermint gum into my mouth to calm my morning sickness long enough to check my phone.

  There was nothing. No missed calls. No missed messages. Nothing.

  My heart ached, but I wouldn’t let myself give in to the urge to call him. I couldn’t be that person. He needed time, and even if it hurt to have him need so much of it and not even be willing to talk to me, I wasn’t going to chase him. I wasn’t going to be the kind of woman to try to force him to pay attention to me.

  How he reacted and what he decided to do next had to be on his terms. I was able to choose how I was approaching it and feeling about it. He needed that space as well.

  I just couldn’t help but desperately wish he didn’t seem to need so much of it.

  It was surprising enough when he didn’t show up at the bar the day before. He had come back home to try to talk to me. That meant at least for a time, he’d wanted to talk to me about this. But we missed each other. It was only a matter of seconds, the decision for me to leave to go to the bar rather than staying there alone. That was all it took for Matt and me not to cross paths.

  I was sure that would mean he was coming there to meet me. As soon as Jordan told him I was there, I thought he would have been on his way. When he didn’t show up, I had to admit, I was scared. Something might have happened to him while he was driving there. He could have been hurt.

  But that fear didn’t carry me too long. There simply wasn’t enough distance between home and the bar for something to have happened and have us not know about it. Matt wasn’t there because he chose not to be there, because he decided not to come to see me at the bar.

  And he wasn’t home now because he decided he didn’t want to be. That cut deep. But the more time that ticked by without me hearing from him, the more that hurt shifted back toward worry. This wasn’t just taking some time away or getting a breather. He had been out of communication with all of us overnight and into the next day.

  That wasn’t like Matt. But it was also bewildering. I didn’t understand where he could have been or what he could have been doing that would keep him out of sight and connection with any of us for that time.

  I called Hannah to see if she and Jordan had heard anything.

  “We haven’t heard from him,” she said without even greeting me first. “I was going to call to find out if you had heard from him.”

  “No,” I said. “How about everybody else? Could he be in Astoria?”

  “No,” Hannah said. “Jordan called the rest of the brothers and his mother to find out if any of them had gotten a call from him or if he had shown up at their house. But they all said they hadn’t heard from him since the day before yesterday, and none have seen him.”

  “Did Jordan believe them? Could they be covering for him?” I asked.

  It felt like I had started spiraling a little bit. I was reaching, searching for any type of explanation, anything that might at least make me feel like Matt was okay.

  “He does,” Hannah said. “He said they sounded worried when he explained what was going on, too.”

  I swallowed hard. “Explained what was going on?”

  “Not everything,” she said quickly. “They don’t know exactly what’s going on. Just that he left and we don’t know where he is.”

  I nodded even though she couldn’t see me. “Okay.”

  “Are you doing alright?” she asked.

  “I’m fine.”

  “Are you lying?”

  “Yes,” I said. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. Or what I’m supposed to think. This whole situation is a lot for me, too. It’s like he doesn’t even realize that. Like he thinks he’s the only one who is dealing with anything or having to figure out a whole new path in life.”

  “I don’t think that’s it,” Hannah said
. “He knows it’s a lot for you, too. He’s just also dealing with you not telling him right away and trying to hide it from him.”

  That felt like a kick to the gut.

  “So, this is my fault,” I said.

  “That’s not what I meant,” Hannah said. “I understand you taking some time to figure out what you were thinking and feeling. That makes sense. I’m just trying to think through both sides. You’re my cousin, Chloe. I love you, and I’ll always be on your side, no matter what. But I also know you’re worried about him. I want you to feel better about what’s going on.”

  “I know,” I finally said. “You’re right. I’m really worried. I don’t understand what could have happened to him.”

  “I’ll let you know if we hear anything. Try to get some rest,” Hannah said.

  “I feel like I slept forever last night.”

  “You should still rest. Your body needs it. The baby needs it. Is there anything I can bring you or do for you?” she asked.

  “No. Thank you.”

  “Alright. Call me if you think of anything.”

  We got off the phone, and I went to take a shower. I stayed in there long enough for my fingers to wrinkle, then got out and headed for the kitchen. With a pot of tea and sleeves of crackers sitting on the table in front of me, I relaxed on the couch with an old favorite book pulled up on my phone in digital version.

  It didn’t have quite the same effect as flipping through the well-worn pages, but it was still comforting to lose myself in the familiar story again. Almost as though I hadn’t just slept all those hours. I dozed throughout the late morning and early afternoon. It was getting toward the middle of the afternoon when my phone ringing startled me all the way awake.

  My first thought was it may be Matt, and I grabbed my phone eagerly. I saw Hannah’s name on the screen and felt my heart sink.

  “Hey,” I said.

  “You okay?” she asked.

  “I was resting like you told me to,” I said.