The Wrong Groom

by Emelia Blair

  She was about to stand up, and I murmured in a low voice, anger thinly veiled, “That’s it?”

  She looked at me, startled at my tone.

  I grit my teeth, “We’ve been friends our whole lives and suddenly you decide to treat me like some bug you can’t wait to get rid of?”

  Charlotte blinked, “What are-“

  “You didn’t even invite me to your wedding.”

  There. It was out.

  I hadn’t realized how bad it had stung me.

  Even though I didn’t want to attend, the fact that she had deliberately excluded me had hurt.

  She must have seen the flash of hurt on my face, because she straightened in her seat, and studied me, “Would you have come if I had invited you?”

  Would I have?

  I wasn’t sure.

  Charlotte studied me, and then struggled with something, almost physically, before asking, “Why did you do it?”

  My jaw tightened.

  Surely, she couldn’t be referring to-?

  “Why did you marry me? There were a number of ways you could have handled the situation. I spent these past few days thinking of all them. But you chose to marry me, knowing how it would complicate both our lives.”

  This woman had a way about her that made me lose my composure.

  That was the way it had always been with her.

  Nobody else could make me lose my cool faster than she could. Her words, her expressions, her actions, they pushed at me in a way that made me reckless.

  It had taken me ten years to ditch my playboy lifestyle and become a successful businessman and take over my father’s empire. Five of those years, I had spent on setting up and establishing McCoy Security Enterprises. I had become more calculating, had put a tight leash around my famous temper, honing that leash until I was one of the most dangerous opponents in the boardroom.

  And yet, this woman drove me insane, throwing all my years of hard work down the drain.

  “The words your fiancé threw at you, I disproved them.”

  My words were chosen slowly, with great care, as if I had not spent the past few days forming this reply to the same question that Ian had posed to me.

  “Bullshit.”

  My eyes widened at the words she so casually threw my way, “Excuse me?”

  Charlotte gave me a look, “You can fancy up your suits Philip, and you can wear your civilized veneer like a second skin, but you haven’t changed that much. You’re still the same Philip that I grew up knowing. But me? I changed. I don’t wear my heart on my sleeve anymore.”

  I stared at her, her words were harsh and I realized she was right about one thing.

  She had changed.

  The woman giving me that cold look might no longer hold any feelings for me.

  And just like that, my plan changed.

  4

  Charlotte

  Coming into the coffee shop, I never expected my heart to skip on seeing Philip sitting there. His dirty blonde hair all messed up, a cup of coffee in hands.

  I put up my shields and barriers before I approached him.

  And right now, as I tell him in so many words that I no longer love him, the look of shock on his face shifted to something more calculating.

  I had come here with the intention of ending this relationship, this faux of a marriage, but as he studies me now, that air of arrogance that he wore so well, ate away at my shields.

  “So, what you’re saying is, that once I sign the annulment papers, it’s farewell?”

  His voice cuts into my thoughts, and I bit my tongue, forcing myself to remain calm, “What else is there? We both have our lives. I highly doubt we’re going to be running into each other any time soon.”

  His words were soft, “Is that so?”

  Something was wrong.

  I had misstepped somewhere along the way.

  He watched me with those cool, unaffected eyes and then took out his wallet, placing a few bills on the table for the waitress, before standing up.

  “I’m afraid I can’t have that.”

  With that, he just walked away, making me gape at his retreating back.

  Wait, did that mean he wasn’t going to sign the annulment papers?!

  I glared down at the table.

  He hadn’t even agreed to sign the papers. What the hell was he after?

  I took a few deep breaths and forced my tensed frame to relax. I didn’t understand what he was thinking. When I said he hadn’t changed, I had been lying.

  The man in front of me was a far cry from the playboy who had thrown the wildest parties in Chicago. He was no longer the boy who had stolen my heart and then crushed it, within the same night.

  Of course, I knew what he had been up to all these years.

  I had been unable to help myself from searching for his name in the news or hearing about him from Agatha.

  After all, he had been one of the most important people in my life before I had gone and fallen in love with him.

  Stupid me.

  I stood up slowly and made my way to the bus stop.

  It was nearing nine in the morning, and I had to get to work. As I sat on the bus, I rested my head against the glass window. I had cut ties with Philip ten years ago. I had walked out of that house. But could anyone blame me?

  When he had returned from college, a dashing twenty-two-year-old who no longer looked at me as if I was a child, my feelings for him had morphed into something stronger. I had seen the way he was with other women; always flirting and touching, but with me, he was gentle, as if I was special, as if I mattered.

  He would talk to me for hours, just sitting on the edge of the fountain in the garden of his estate. He would tell me all about his plans for the future, and I guess the girl in me had felt important and desired.

  My eyes gazed dully at the cars as they whizzed past the bus, recalling the small things about him that would catch my eyes and make my heart beat faster. The way his beautiful blue eyes would laugh at me, or the tender exasperation when I would insist that I could walk home alone.

  Nobody had ever treated me like that before and I had handed my heart over to him without a second thought. In hindsight, my eighteen-year-old self was desperate to be loved and that was the only reason I had slipped up.

  Ten years and I could still remember the way he had backed me against the wall, pressed his hot lips against my mouth. That rush of emotions foreign to me and yet so exciting.

  My body trembled as he had let me feel every muscled plane of his form as he kissed me, first wild and passionate, and then gentle and loving.

  That should have been my clue that he had viewed me as nothing more than one of the girls who hung around him. That all our years of knowing each other, the friendship we had struck up, it all meant nothing to him.

  Hours later when I had received a text from him, I had gone to his room, excited. I had thought maybe he wanted to talk. That may be, he wanted to discuss whatever we had together.

  I was floating on cloud nine; a young girl, her head full of romantic notions for the first time in her life.

  But I was shattered to find him wrapped around that blonde-haired girl, her bare legs wrapped around his waist, as he made out with her, his hands moulding her form to his.

  Was it still supposed to hurt like this, I mused.

  He had met my eyes and then pulled away, only to gesture with his hand, “Close the door, Charlotte. I’m busy.”

  And I had done just that.

  That was the last time I had seen Philip. That faint smirk in his eyes, when he had told me my worth in so many words. He had taken an ice pick to my heart and broken it into tiny pieces that I was never able to put back together.

  I had loved Erik, but a part of me had always been guarded with him, scared of giving myself entirely to him. Of course, if I thought about it, most of our time together had been spent in me helping him out with his business proposals. The pain of what he had done was still fresh, but I wasn’t p
lanning on letting it hold me back.

  Erik had my love, but only a portion of my trust.

  Trust wasn’t a commodity that would ever come easy to me again.

  My eyes hard, I stood up when I saw the familiar landscape.

  I got off at my stop and my eyes went across the road to the bakery that I was now running. I had not opened it for the past few days, and today would be my first day returning. I knew the two girls whom I had hired had arrived in the early hours of the day. I had woken up to the sounds of bustling downstairs.

  It was oddly convenient that my apartment was located directly above the bakery. I never understood how things had fallen so neatly into place. Vera had handed over the bakery to me after agreeing to minimal monthly installments, when she decided to move to Canada with her son.

  Now, I owned my own bakery and rented an apartment right above it.

  I have worked really hard for this, I mused. As I entered the shop, my lips curving slightly at the scent of freshly baked bread.

  “Charlotte!” Riley, a college student whom I had hired a few months ago, looked at me, wide-eyed. “I didn’t see you this morning! When did you leave?”

  I put down my bag, “Yeah, I took the back entrance.”

  Sonya, my other assistant, called out from the kitchen, “Hey, Charlotte!”

  She stuck her head out, and informed me, “A reporter showed up an hour ago asking after you. I told him he got the wrong woman. The Charlotte Evans who works here is fifty-four and has gone to attend her grandson’s wedding in New York.”

  I stilled, “This won’t be a problem to you guys, will it? Because I have a feeling that reporters will keep coming over till this whole mess is sorted out.”

  Riley grinned, “We got your back. I’ll put up a board outside. Anyone who has questions must buy. More business.”

  Riley had been the one who had hooted after my nuptials, and even now, she casually supported me as if it was nothing.

  “I appreciate this, you two.”

  They just grinned and moved on about their duties.

  It made me relax when I realized they didn’t plan on bringing up anything that had happened, and I felt that today might turn out to be a good day.

  As I tied my own apron, I recalled the way Philip had refused to sign the annulment papers.

  More than just angering me, his actions confused me.

  What did he want?

  There was nothing I could give him. There was no benefit he could possibly get from this marriage. So, why was he being so persistent?

  I found it hard to believe that his feelings were hurt that I had walked away from him ten years ago. Of course, he never knew the whole story of what had happened after I had left Agatha’s birthday party, the traumatizing events that had occurred that very night.

  Nor would he ever find out.

  Let him think what he wants, I told myself, as I started icing the fresh batch of cupcakes. His opinion mattered little to me.

  The part of me that was logical, knew that he had taken pity on me.

  But such a decision, even motivated by pity, made no sense to me.

  Maybe if we had been friends, it would have made more sense to me, but for someone that I knew was a very savvy businessman, for him to take such a step –

  My hand faltered on one of the designs, ruining it. I stared at it, upset.

  I couldn’t afford to waste too much of the products.

  However, since I hadn’t had any breakfast, I took a bite out of the ruined cupcake and chewed slowly, surveying this bakery that I could now call my own.

  Although it was located downtown, in a more seedy part of town, the customers were many, and that was all that mattered. I was a known face around these parts and although Vera had taught me the basics of baking, somehow it turned out that I had a natural flair for it.

  Pouring over cookbook after cookbook over the years, I had tried and experimented with different recipes, finally coming up with my own variations. The small bakery that Vera had been running for a handful of years, had slowly started picking up more business till it was one of the most successful businesses in this part of town.

  Maybe that was why Vera had handed it over to me, because she knew I could run this place and that this bakery was all I had.

  Listening to the laughing conversation from the front end of the bakery, I smiled. My life wasn’t all that bad. I was well settled here. I was working my way towards an MBA degree with my twice a week, night classes at a top-tier college, uptown.

  It was ironic, really, that it had taken helping Erik out with his pending mergers that taught me that I might have a head for business after all. That had ultimately put me on the path to this degree.

  The jingling of the doorbell that indicated the arrival of the first customer, made me quickly wrap up the icing and move towards the front room.

  I was surprised to see Agatha standing there, dressed in a red blouse and sharp black trousers. She was leaning over the counter, showing something to Sonya on her phone, while Riley just rolled her eyes at the two of them.

  “What’s going on?” I asked, wiping my hands on my apron.

  Sonya grinned, “Agatha’s showing me the photos from the fashion show in Paris from two weeks ago.”

  Sonya was currently enrolled in an art school. She was majoring in fashion designing, something which thrilled Agatha to no end. Both my childhood friend and my employee could spend hours debating over clothes and designs if they weren’t reigned in.

  Agatha waggled her fingers at me in greeting as if she had not just spent the night over at my place. It warmed something in my tattered heart that she knew just how to handle me right now.

  All three of these women were the closest friends I had and all of them were treating this past week as if it had never happened, dragging me into normalcy. I couldn’t help the curving of my lips.

  “Are you going into work?” I asked Agatha as I packed up two slices of banana bread and a spinach roll for her. I put the brown bag next to her and gave her an expectant look.

  She made a face, “I should really say no to this, but I’m greedy.”

  I gave her a confused look and she flashed her teeth at me in a smile, “I’m meeting Ian for lunch.”

  “Oh,” I raised a brow as I reached for the bag, “Guess you won’t be needing –“

  Agatha immediately grabbed the packaged food from within my reach, glaring at me, “Did I say I didn’t want these?”

  She crackled almost maniacally, “These are going in my fridge.”

  I shook my head, “You worry me.”

  She grinned, “Come on. Walk me out.”

  I obliged and waved at one of the local shopkeepers who was putting up his promotion board outside his shop.

  Agatha’s smile disappeared, “How did it go? What did Philip say?”

  I stuck my hands in the pockets of my apron, not bothering to hide my upset, “Nothing. He didn’t agree to sign the papers. He hardly stuck around for more than ten minutes.”

  Agatha sighed, “I tried to talk to him, but he told me that this was between you and him and that I should butt out. The spin on the story that I put out, I was just trying to protect your reputation at that point. I didn’t want that rat bastard to make you a laughing stock.”

  “Maybe,” I muttered. “But we’ve already fielded off one reporter and now that the shop is open, more will follow. I’m not – I don’t know how to handle the media, Agatha. I’m not one for the spotlight. And since this involves Philip, they are bound to hound me.”

  Agatha put a hand on my arm, “I wish you would consider staying at my place for the next few weeks.”

  I shook my head, “You know I can’t do that. I have my classes and I have the shop.”

  I was barely able to make ends meet as it was, with the increased rent and the fees for the classes. I knew it was just six more months, but I was still struggling. If Agatha found out, she would try her best to loan me some money,
and I didn’t want that.

  “I’ll try talking to Philip again. At the moment, I was so angry that I didn’t think of the consequences of what was happening. God, this whole thing is such a mess.”

  I stopped her, “Don’t. I’ll handle this. I don’t want to come between you and your brother. I’ll convince him, and even if I can’t, he’ll come to the realization himself that whatever he’s trying to achieve here is pointless.”

  Agatha was quiet, a troubled look on her face.

  “This isn’t like Philip, Charlotte. I don’t understand what my brother is thinking. He’s never this rash.”

  I couldn’t say anything, because the man she was describing was virtually a stranger to me now.

  5

  Philip

  I leaned back on my chair, my arms folded across my chest, not hearing a word of what the man presenting in the front of the room was saying.

  The thin spectacled man, wearing a suit that was two sizes too big for him, pointed at something on the colorful pie chart behind, and I gave a faint nod, knowing my assistant was taking notes.

  My mind was on the gray colored envelope in front of me at the moment and my hands were itching to tear it into pieces. I couldn’t understand where all this fury was stemming from.

  Charlotte had sent the annulment papers this morning, three days after our conversation at the café. I had heard nothing from her in the meantime and it pissed me off how easy it was for her to disregard me.

  The papers were still droning on about our marriage and how both parties were not available for comment. A part of me felt guilty, knowing that if the press was hounding me so relentlessly, then they would be breathing down Charlotte’s neck even more heavily.

  However, I knew that Agatha was handling the whole situation. My sister wouldn’t let anyone get past her to Charlotte and she had assured me of the same with great conviction.

  I eyed the papers again, like one would eye a poisonous snake.

  If I signed these, I could put this whole thing behind me.

  My instincts told me to do so.

  But, I couldn’t.