by Denise Daye
When both of them silently picked up their pens to sign the license, Lucy loudly shifted in her seat, but Walter cast a sharp glance at her and quickly reminded them that he wouldn't appreciate any unnecessary interruptions today.
Just do it. Ben leaned forward and signed first. But Ava was frozen, pen in hand, staring onto the paper in front of her as if it held the answer to who killed Kennedy and if aliens were real. Ben and Lucy exchanged worried looks then stared directly at Ava. She knew they were looking at her; her hair fell over that side of her face, a natural veil. She cleared her throat.
“I have one more condition to add,” she suddenly said loud and clear. Lucy straightened in her seat, her nails digging into the armrest with the rage of a dragon.
“How dare you make demands. Are $10,000,000 and living at a mansion for six months not enough?”
Ava leaned back in her chair as if she was ready to drop the whole thing right here and now. Ben knew his mother was the one to worry about. Not his ability to keep it in his pants. He turned to Ava, his eyes calm and kind. His whole life was on that piece of paper. There was not much he would not do right now to make this happen.
“What would that be?” he asked, determined to keep an open mind. Ava shifted in her seat.
“The gardener’s house… I would like it to be my father’s after all of this is over.”
Lucy laughed out loud. It sounded like a parrot being strangled. “The gardener’s shed? You have a shot at a billion dollars, and you are asking for gardener’s shed?” She slapped her thigh as the diamond necklace on her chest glittered with her chuckles. “Absurd!” she added.
Ava jerked to face her. “My father has spent forty years building this garden. I know it’s hard for someone like you to understand, but the view of this garden holds more value to him than all the money in this world.”
Things were not going well, Ben had to act fast. He gently placed his hand onto hers. Her gaze shot right at the area of their touch; her eyes wide open in shock. Ben instantly pulled it back again.
“I think we can certainly arrange for that, right Walter?” he said a bit embarrassed about grabbing her hand like that. Walter nodded.
“Absolutely. I will have the transfer of the deed drafted and ready to sign by the end of the day.”
“It will be yours,” Ben confirmed.
His words seem to appease Ava. She nodded and leaned over the marriage license to skim it one last time.
“After six months that is,” Lucy pointed out with a fake smile.
Ava paid her no mind and without the usual happy wedding sounds of cheers, happy laughter, or clapping, placed her signature on the marriage license as well. She scribbled it fast as if the pen was on fire. Lucy and Walter signed as witnesses and that was that.
Married.
“I hereby pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride…” the clerk announced in his usual, energetic wedding voice. But nobody moved or said anything.
“You can always do that later,” he rambled, embarrassed and said his goodbyes as he fled the scene with long, fast steps.
It was dead silent in the room. You could hear a feather drop if one would have dropped. Walter ultimately cleared his throat and adjusted his tie as he walked over and grabbed the paperwork.
“A simple contract,” he said as he slid the document into his leather bag. “And remember, during those six months, neither party is allowed to file for divorce, leave for more than a day, or cheat. You are also to dine out together once a week.”
He paused for a long moment, eyes peering through his glasses and moving from one person to the other, both of them frowning.
“The person who break those rules loses everything and the estate will be willed to the other party.”
Lucy couldn’t take it anymore and let out a loud “Dear God help us.” Her words rolled out faster than her lips moved, like some poorly dubbed TV show. Ben would have loved to say something witty and funny to his overdramatic mother, but for the first time in his life, he was lost for words.
Walter also ignored her, focused on Ben and Ava. “This isn't going to be easy, but I believe if you can cooperate with one another things will go smoothly. Time will go by quickly, you’ll see.”
Ava and Ben still didn’t say a word. Walter smiled. “Well, I hope you don’t mind that I have arranged for a wedding brunch for the two of you.”
Both of them now shoot dagger-sharp, angry looks at him when he quickly added, “It will count as this week’s mandatory dinner.”
This also got a cold reception, but at least both of them faintly nodded this time. Benjamin stood and turned around.
“Well, I will get ready then.”
“Now that’s the spirit,” Walter said with a grin that could not have been more annoying. He walked up to the door but turned once more. “Oh, and please note that I shall be coming around from time to time to check up on you, the both of you. Just to make sure everything is going according to Elijah’s wish. Well, congratulations.” He left.
Ava and Ben exchanged quick glances. Then Lucy rose too.
“Congratulations,” she mumbled and stormed out.
“Thanks, Mom!” Ben shouted after her. Could she not at least try to make this easier for him? It’s not like he wrote the damn will.
“I—I will meet you outside?” Ava almost whispered. Ben looked at her—his wife. Never had he felt more lost in his life than in this very moment.
“Yes, I will be right out.” He walked toward the door but stopped.
“If… if that’s all right with you… I would like to take you to a different restaurant.”
“Why is that?”
“They forced us to marry, at least we can choose our own damn restaurant, don’t you think?”
Ava nodded. “Yes. I like that idea.”
“Great. If you don’t mind, I know a great place.”
“Sure. But didn’t he already make reservations somewhere?”
“So what. It’s not like we have hundreds of people waiting for the happy couple to waltz in, kissing and shimmering like stars. Nobody knows about this.”
“At least that’s good news,” Ava muttered.
“True that. I will meet you outside.”
She nodded and briefly glanced at her empty ring finger. Ben noticed it instantly. He wanted to say something, but what?
Surely, she didn’t want a ring on her finger, or did she?
Gosh, he hated this already. He knew nothing about relationships or what woman really wanted.
Six months. Time will go by quietly and quickly. Nobody knows about this. No need to play the real husband, he thought to himself.
Oh boy was he wrong!
T
he flashing of the cameras almost blinded them as Benjamin pulled out of the estate’s gate. Ava had never seen anything like this before. It was like straight out of a movie. Hands pressed against the windows of the car, reporters shouted at them, and the flashes of cameras raged on them like a thunderstorm.
“Is this marriage a sham?”
“Did Elijah leave any notes?”
“For how long do you have to stay married?”
Ava noticed Benjamin had grabbed the steering wheel so tightly, his knuckles turned white.
“Nobody will know, huh?” She bitterly regretted the marriage already as the daunting thought of what people at work might think of her now struck her.
How could she agree to this? Of course, the whole world would know. This was the Radcliff family we were talking about here, not the Millers from next door.
Benjamin gently pushed the reporters out of the way with his car by slowly driving forward. All he needed was a few more feet and they could flee like they were wanted for murder.
They finally made it out. Ava watched in the rear mirror how several of the younger reporters bolted after them in the middle of the road.
Benjamin bit his lip and mumbl
ed to Ava: “What are you so upset about? The opinion of the priests and homeless at the church?” He shook his head in frustration. “All of Manhattan will talk about nothing else. My business partners, friends… every darn person on the street!”
“Oh, sorry. I forgot that only famous billionaires have the right to feel embarrassed. In the future I will make certain to remind the little people like myself of that.”
For a moment Benjamin opened his mouth, but then bit his lower lip. Ava was also done talking. This lunch would be hell.
The restaurant was one of those fancy ones on the outskirts of town. Ava, of course, hadn't eaten there before.
Benjamin had a smug look on his face, openly scoffing at everything as if to remind her that this was nothing to him. Soft music played from a quartet on a little stage and bright chandeliers turned the white décor into shiny objects.
A man walked up to them immediately, bowing politely to Benjamin, his well-ironed suit stretching, and offered Ava a curious gaze before affording the same courtesy to her.
Benjamin didn’t bother to introduce her as his wife and she gladly subscribed to that: the more they lived in that grey area, the easier it’d be for her to get used to the whole arrangement.
“This way please, Mr. Radcliff,” the man said, his pencil moustache looking a little too thin and exaggerated for his long, pale face. The couple followed and sat down at a table the man had assured them was the “best and specially reserved for important guests.” Benjamin grinned glancing over at Ava.
“This is called a wine card,” he said condescendingly, grabbing the smaller of the two leather menus on the table.
“Ook-ook,” Ava grunted like a monkey. Ben got the message and did not explain anything further on the table to her.
They ordered, drank, and ate silently from here on in. Neither looked at each other. Benjamin put down his fork and dabbed his mouth with a napkin.
“This is lovely, darling,” he mumbled as he took a long sip from his wine.
“You know what…” Ava was tempted to push her chair back and leave.
“Yeah?” he raised an eyebrow, his lips stretched into a half-smile.
He’s purposely trying to push you, Ava, calm down. Narrowing her eyes and leaning closer, her voice low, she said, “I know what you’re trying to do, and you know what? Bring it on. We have many more weekends together,” she shivered, “and I have learned a few tricks from the homeless so yeah, let’s see if you can keep up with that.”
His smiled waned as he reached for the bottle of wine, her eyes following his movements. Ava celebrated too soon as suddenly his grin reappeared.
“Well then, let’s make it a fun ride, shall we?” He poured himself another glass and was about to drop the bottle into the crunching bucket of ice when the waiter came running over, his face beaming like a shooting star.
“Congratulations to both of you!” he shouted throwing his arms wide open as if he was about to hug the world. The whole room started clapping and shouting as they slowly rose to their feet.
Ava wanted the ground to swallow her up right there and then. Ben frowned then put on a wide, fake smile for the crowd.
“And that, my dear,” he said emptying his full glass of wine in one swig and as he filled hers up all the way, “is why I brought you to a place with good wine.”
Just smile for the cameras, she thought as she downed her glass of wine as well.
The drive home was long and quiet. When they got back to the estate and past the gardener’s house, Ava glanced over at what used to be her home; where she’d have to not be for the next six months. Six months… I can do this.
Benjamin saw her staring. “You know, you could always quit now and just forget about the whole thing.”
“Yeah, nice try, but no. I would rather wait until you go back to your old lifestyle and make me a billionaire.”
“What do you mean?”
“You forget that I was living feet from your gate. I stopped counting the women after the blonde one whose dress constantly revealed her undies when the wind blew.”
Ben rolled his eyes. “Which one are you talking about?”
Ava placed a shocked hand onto her chest. “Are you saying you don’t remember them all?” It was obvious that she was mocking him.
“Of course I do.”
“Hm-hmm… What was her name?”
“Her name was…Amanda.”
“Ha! No it wasn’t!”
Ben nodded intensely. “Yes, it was. Blonde, tall, her red dress glittered intensely, almost blinded people.”
“No, that was Mindy,” Ava said, lifting her chin.
“…Oh…Mindy, yes.”
“Hm-hmm…yeah. Oh. Now I am talking about Jane. Her name was Jane. Constantly showing her undies and laughed like a—”
“Hyena!” he finished her sentence as his memory slowly came back.
“Yes, like a hyena. Jane.”
Benjamin grimaced. “How do you even know all their names? You stalking me or something?”
“Oh, funny you asked. It is rather comical. You see, the Uber drivers that you usually call to pick them up and take them back home always come to our little house first. At some point, my father made a sign and put it at the front door after eight p.m. so they wouldn’t wake us up in the middle of the night.”
Ben bit his lower lip.
What? No witty remark back? Ava thought to herself as she scrambled for something she could add on top of that. Why she was suddenly so unlike herself and mean-spirited she had no idea.
“Oh, but there is more,” she continued. “Remember when the code to the gate suddenly changed? Well, your grandfather did that after someone on the staff told him that my cancer-sick mother had been woken up by your lost, nightly Uber rides. My Dad said he had never seen your grandfather more embarrassed than the day he personally walked up to the house to apologize.”
Ava turned with a triumphant grin to look at Benjamin. But the moment she saw that hurt in his face, she felt awful. Why the hell would she say such a thing? It was true, but why did she get so upset thinking about all those women? She was a kind person. Not like this at all!
“Benjamin… I-I am sorry, I—”
“If you think I can’t keep my pants up for six months then you are wrong. I know you all wonder if I am some serial cheater, but fact is, I have never cheated on a woman before. I was always straightforward with them.”
“Yes, I am sure you were,” she almost whispered in shame about her behavior.
“Even if this marriage is a sham, I am not the lowest life form creeping on this earth.” He was angry, rightfully so.
“I don’t intent on cheating on my wi—” His voice broke off. “I don’t intend to cheat. So, if that was your hope, sorry babe, you will have to come up with more to get a shot at the billions.”
Ava’s shame turned to anger again. Did they really think that she wanted to steal their billions away from them? Granted, long forgotten were the days when the two of them would play as children in the gardens. That was over almost two centuries ago. But did he really think her a ruthless gold-digger?
She mumbled loud enough for him to hear. “Seems like people think the worst of both of us.”
His eyes glazed over as he stopped the car in front of the mansion. They both got out of the car as a man came rushing over to park the car in the garage. Ava stepped onto the enormous front porch that reminded her of the porches in British period dramas.
“Your new home,” Benjamin murmured and before Ava could answer he had already walked in.
She was about to follow him, but the moment she heard Lucy’s voice complain about the moving boxes in the hallway her body automatically turned around again. It would be better for her nerves to take a little stroll in the garden first.
Her feet stopped in front of a white statue holding a baby. She had always loved this statue, as it had been her mother’s favorite. Silen
tly, she stared up into the woman’s face. Memories of those dark days came up when the cancer had hit her family hard. Her world shook. It’d started with a simple diagnosis that left plenty of hope at first, but things escalated from there; within months, the cancer had literally invaded every organ of her mother’s kind-hearted body. Ava shivered at the memory. Those last days had been the hardest for her mother; a once vibrant and energetic woman was now knocked down by cancer, unable to eat, move, or even smile.
She let the memory fade and rubbed her eyes before the tears would win. At least she could save her dad. At first, he was straight out against this whole sham marriage. He said no money could buy love, talked about the holy bond of marriage, blah blah blah. But when Ava was fighting him hard over it, he suddenly took a long deep look at her, almost as if he was gazing into the farthest corners of her soul. Then all the sudden he was on board. Not one word did he say against it ever since.
“I will make it through these six months like a true champ...” she whispered to herself as she turned to face her new life as a billionaire’s wife—and all the headaches that would come with it.
B
enjamin opened his eyes slowly. It was morning but still dark outside. So why am I awake? He sat up, yawning. In the middle of his final yawn, his arms stretched, he spotted the guest room furniture theme that matched all the guest rooms in the house. Golden, castle-like silk furniture his mother and grandmother had picked out for this place years ago. As he let out an annoyed sigh, he remembered why he’d woken up early and he was in the guest room.
“Ava,” he muttered through his teeth.
Last night he’d come into his large master bedroom and seen her sleeping in his bed. He’d frozen. You got this wrong, there are other rooms in this house, you know, he wanted to say, but instead he just stood there and stared at her, cursing under his breath. At first, he turned around to leave and sleep in one of the countless guest rooms, but then he froze again. What if she did this on purpose? Did she take his room to show him that she was in control of this situation from here on in? So, he decided to stay. He didn’t want her to think that he would give in so easily, leave like a beaten dog with its tail between its legs, hand her the first victory.