A Wife by Accident

by Victoria Ashe

  Mrs. Black rushed in between them when she saw Hayely emerge from behind Gary. “Oh, my baby girl. What has this horrible man done to you? You look awful. Did he kidnap you and force you to sign that horrible document? I know he must have done something terrible for you to have signed it.”

  “It’s nothing better than slave labor,” Mr. Black roared. “We’ll see justice done here. I don’t care who you think you are, Gary Tarleton. You can’t buy people.”

  Hayely’s mother touched her daughter’s paint-globbed hair and looked sadly at her ragged clothes. “Look how thin she is. And her hair.” Tears sprung to the woman’s eyes. “She hasn’t been treated right at all. It was just as we feared. Come, Hayely. We’ll take you home with us right this minute.”

  Hayely pushed her mother’s hand away. “You don’t understand at all. You have no idea what you’re talking about. I tried to call.” Her voice was softer than she wanted it to be, slipping back into the genteel demeanor her father had instilled in her.

  Mr. Black pushed his way past Gary and shook the papers again. “We understand everything. It’s all right here in this legal document.”

  Gary slammed the door shut and startled them all. Drawing himself up to his full height, he pointed to the living room and commanded, “Go in there and sit. Now.”

  For a moment Hayely thought her mother was going to faint on the spot and her father was going to take another swing at Gary’s midsection. “Let’s go sit down,” she soothed. “I’ll make us all some coffee and we’ll work this out.”

  Gary strode into the living room and took his seat. His rigid posture told Hayely he just might have reached his already short limit on politeness for the day. He actually seemed angry, and not just because of the stolen documents.

  “You can sit together there on the sofa. I picked out the furniture myself,” she said and then left the room to fetch the coffee. Here it comes, she told herself. The worst possible scenario I could have imagined. At least there was no doubt what Kathy Mark had done with the stolen agreement.

  When she set the coffee down in front of her parents and Gary, it was obvious none of them had spoken a word while she was out of the room. Gary had relaxed somewhat and now looked positively unruffled, slightly curious, and yet a bit hostile. Her mother ran her hand down the smooth fabric of the sofa while her father’s face faded down through several lesser shades of red.

  Hayely sat down in the chair nearest Gary. “You need to know that the person who sent you that document is no friend of mine. She did it just to cause trouble.”

  “Are you saying it’s a fake?” her father questioned.

  Hayely looked down. “No, it’s real.”

  “Then pack your bags. We’re taking you out of here.” He threatened to stand until Hayely gestured for him to sit.

  “I’ll be moving out of here soon anyway. You read the agreement.”

  For a moment, Hayely looked around the room at her mother, then her father and finally Gary. Each beat of her heart thudded in her ears. She could go back to the East Coast. She could go back to school and never have to work in an office as an executive assistant again. She’d have the chance to meet the kind of man her family admired, the kind who would marry her and become the father of her children. All she had to do was compromise. The time of reckoning was at hand.

  Then she saw the emotion swirl and hazel colors flash in Gary’s eyes. His hands clenched tightly into fists. He was waiting to hear her answer with an intensity that made her heart thud even louder.

  “I’m not leaving with you,” she said firmly. Calmly.

  “I don’t think I heard what I think I heard,” her father said.

  She raised her chin and met her father’s gaze. “I didn’t want it to be like this. How did you get here so soon anyway?”

  “So soon,” her mother sobbed. “My only daughter has a wedding and is married half a year, and that’s too soon for us to talk to her about it.” She blew her nose into a pristine handkerchief.

  “It wasn’t a wedding,” Mr. Black corrected. “It was an entrance into indentured servitude.”

  •

  Gary leaned forward. She wasn’t leaving him. She’d given her answer, the one he’d wanted to ask her himself and had stopped short of a dozen times in the past two days. He’d told her before that he didn’t let go of things he cared for. He meant to prove it now.

  A hardened twinkle of amusement also lurked in his eyes. He’d watched his new in-laws for several minutes now, and it didn’t seem to him that they were out to hurt Hayely—just the opposite. Only parents who really cared about a child would jump on the first plane, cross the United States and arrive hopping mad on his doorstep to rescue her.

  Mrs. Black dabbed at her nose and sniffled loudly.

  Gary sat back again, reached out to rest his hand on Hayely’s knee and then thought the better of it.

  “Why don’t you tell them what happened? The whole truth of it,” Gary suggested.

  “Well,” she started, “I was walking across the parking lot with too many packages and I ran into Gary.” She sipped her coffee and continued. “I mean I literally ran into him. And in the process, I obliterated a very expensive gift he’d just bought for his best friend, Charlie.”

  “That would account for the twelve-thousand-dollar figure I read in this contract with the devil,” her father stated and slapped the papers against his sturdy leg for emphasis.

  “Yes. That was what it was worth,” she agreed quietly. “And I wanted to do the honorable thing and repay the debt, so I agreed to Gary’s terms. I wasn’t going to tell anyone, I was just going to set things right, do as he asked and move on with my life.”

  Her mother turned white. “He didn’t force you to—to—did he?”

  “Mother! He didn’t force me to do anything. It started out as a business arrangement like I said, but then we—” She slammed down her coffee mug. “Mom, I ended up feeling something, feelings that I shouldn’t feel. It isn’t professional, I know. The six months is over, but when he kissed me—”

  “I don’t believe it,” Mr. Black sputtered. “No man treats my daughter like, like—I can’t even think of a word for it. And no decent father would let his only daughter throw away her life. Hells bells. If you even stay on as his employee, we’ll disinherit you. That’s what we’ll do. And we’ll turn your shrine of a bedroom in a study.”

  Gary said curtly, “You don’t mean that.” He recognized a bluff when he heard it, but suspected Hayely was too emotionally close to the situation to notice.

  The man shook his head in resignation, “No. I don’t. We’re just trying to do right by our Hayely.”

  “Believe me, so am I,” Gary said. “There’s nothing more important to me.”

  Mr. Black looked at his new son-in-law with piqued interest. He was glad he hadn’t been able to punch him at the front door after all—his hand would still be hurting if he had. And now he thought he understood another meaning in Gary’s simple sentence and earnest demeanor. He could see it in the man’s eyes. Could it be that one of the wealthiest, most widely known men in the country had fallen in love with his daughter?

  “So,” Hayely continued with a stronger voice. “We spent time together and we have similar values and ideas, plans… I don’t know how this will end for us, but I need to be here to find out.”

  Mr. Black turned to Gary. “You have more money than all the gods on Olympus and could take your pick of women. Why her?”

  The two men looked at each other in silent understanding.

  “Thanks a lot, Dad,” Hayely murmured.

  Gary shrugged. “At first? Because she didn’t know who I was.”

  Mr. Black shook his round head from side to side and chuckled loudly. “Now that I can believe. Our Hayely never paid any attention to money.”

  “It’s wonderful, isn’t it?” Gary said with a grin. “She looks straight through to the person and doesn’t even notice his bankbook.”

  Mr. Bl
ack slapped his thigh and laughed. “You should have seen how she reacted when we tried to get her to date one of the boys down the road. She said he was a ‘stuck-up blueblood’ and kept hiding in the bathroom to avoid him. A simple ‘no’ would have sufficed. I can tell you’re a good man, Tarleton. I won’t object to her staying here if you make it honorable.”

  Hayely had sat silent long enough while everyone around her talked about her as if she didn’t exist. They were trying to make her decisions for her again and finally the anger welled up in her. She stood up straight, nearly sloshing the coffee over the rim of her cup.

  “You won’t object? Ha! I’m not going back with you,” she declared, “partly because I’m sick of everyone trying to protect me to death. I’m staying in Nevada. And it was my decision.”

  Gary gave a little wink. “I might have a little something to do with it, too.”

  Hayely’s father walked over to her and caught her up in his pudgy arms. He was more than sure of Gary’s intentions by now. Anyone could see how much he treasured Hayely.

  “You mother always tells me I’m too abrupt, too brusque. I don’t mean to be.”

  “You don’t?” Hayely asked her father. She felt dazed, unsure she’d even spoken.

  “No. There’s a chance I went overboard trying to make sure you were happy,” her father added. “I shouldn’t have worried.”

  Gary reached out, took her by the hand and gently pulled her down to rest of the arm of his chair. “Don’t be too angry with them. It’s just that they love you as much as I do.”

  Hayely breathed in and out quickly while her head still tried to wrap itself around what Gary had said. He loved her? She loved him! She’d danced around the word for weeks and pressed it from her mind whenever it had threatened to surface there. She felt shivers through her body whenever he looked her way. With a touch he could soothe or ignite her. She loved his family values, loved his gruffness, loved the construction dust on his clothes …

  Gary took her by the hands and looked into her eyes. “Well? What do you say we forget about the deal and the divorce we’d have to get?”

  She nodded. “Say it again.”

  “I fell in love with you and you’re not leaving me.”

  “I love you, too,” she whispered.

  Mrs. Black broke down fully into tears as she fully absorbed the truth. “You know what this means, don’t you? I’ve missed my only daughter’s wedding.” Big wet tears rolled down cheekbones that called Hayely’s own to mind.

  Hayely turned to Gary. “Then we’ll have to create memories they haven’t missed. Babies. Celebrations of anniversaries and old photo albums filled with our life together.”

  Gary placed his hands on her arms. “Look at me, Hayely. Look up at me. Let’s start now.”

  They all followed Gary as he went straight to the den, ran over to his desk, flung open the middle drawer and dug furiously through the mass of papers stuffed inside. As last he grabbed the document he’d been looking for and held it up high in triumph.

  “Do you recognize this?”

  Hayely looked at the six-month contract she’d signed in the parking lot so many weeks ago. The bright blue ink scrawled along the bottom was unmistakable.

  “It’s our agreement. I didn’t let the lawyer hold the original. I plan on keeping the marriage certificate intact and legal if you’ll let me?”

  Hayely nodded as if in a trance.

  Gary caught the pages by their corners and pulled. When the thick cotton paper tore diagonally in half, he picked up those pieces and shredded them again and again. Soon all that remained was a pile of large confetti, which he swept with a great show of determination into the wastebasket.

  “And me without my camera,” Hayely said with a laugh that abruptly faded. She looked up at Gary and an expression of sudden knowing came upon her. She hopped up and down once as her elegant fingers flew to her mouth.

  “I know what I’m going to do,” she breathed out. “I’ve decided—for a career, I mean.” She tucked her chocolate-brown hair back behind her ears in excitement.

  Her mother waved a narrow hand in the air. “It’s interior design, isn’t it? You’ve always had such good taste.”

  Gary struck out his chest and that confidently arrogant expression that drove Hayely crazy showed on his face. “No. She’s going to be a chef. Run her own gourmet dessert shop. Cheesecakes and cream puffs.”

  “She can cook?” Hayely’s father asked in wonder. “When did that happen?”

  It was Hayely’s turn to be smug. “I’m not doing either of those things. But I’m not going to tell any of you busybodies just yet. I’ve got a few details to work out in my head first.” She smiled so that it shined all the way into her eyes. Finally, finally she knew what she wanted to do and she would have Gary at her side through every step.

  Gary slid his arm around her waist and whispered, “You’ll tell me later, right?” All he got was a gentle elbow to the ribs in response.

  The clattering noise of shoes in the marble foyer stopped their conversation. “Charlie has a key,” Gary explained. “We’re in the den,” he yelled out.

  Charlie nearly sprinted across the floor, out of breath and visibly agitated as he held on to Carla’s hand. She’d smoothed down her spiky black hair into a slick, short bob and it suited her. With an awkward smile and seriousness in her eyes, she gave an ill-at-ease wave to Hayely. Judging from the atmosphere of the room she’d just walked into, they’d stepped into the middle of something important and interrupted it but good. In fact everyone, even Gary, looked as if they had either just finished crying or were about to start.

  “You’re never going to believe what Carla just heard,” Charlie announced, and then noticed Mr. and Mrs. Black in the room.

  “These are my parents,” Hayely introduced and wiped a remaining tear away. “And this is Charlie, and his girlfriend, Carla.”

  Gary spoke directly to his friend, “Say whatever it is. They know everything now. We all finally do.”

  “That Mark woman has a copy of your agreement,” Charlie announced with a high level of stress in his voice.

  Gary took the wrinkled papers from Mr. Black’s hand and held them up. “You mean these?”

  Carla nodded. “It looked the same. She has a copy just like that.”

  Charlie stood behind his new girlfriend and rubbed her shoulders nervously. “Tell them how you saw it. They won’t believe it.”

  Carla moved into the den to sit down and everyone gathered into a circle, standing or sitting closely around her to catch every word.

  “Well, I walked over to the mall to get one of those fruit smoothies for lunch. I was sitting at one of those little tables in the food court when I heard somebody behind me say the name Tarleton. Pretty much caught my attention.”

  “Could you see who it was?” Hayely asked.

  “Oh, sure.From a foot or two away. When they were getting ready to leave, I stood up and walked past them to get a good look.”

  “Go on, Carla,” Gary urged. “What else did they say?”

  Carla flushed red for a moment. She could hardly believe she was seeing the inside of Gary Tarleton’s house, much less sitting on some plush furniture in the middle of his den.

  She blinked widely a couple times to collect herself. It was almost comical thinking back at how she and her friends had discussed Gary Tarleton all these years. They hadn’t known what they were talking about.

  Carla said at length, “It was a woman and some guy talking together. She looked totally out of place dressed up the way she was in the mall. To the hilt. She was telling the guy that she could give him the biggest scoop of his career. Then he said something that gave me the idea he was from that trashy TV show, you know, the one that gossip program?”

  Gary nodded, “I know the one.”

  “That’s when I really started to pay attention to him. Then the woman said that you and Hayely hadn’t really been married at all—not for real anyway. She said i
f he put a story about it on television tomorrow evening, she could back it up for him. You know, she would actually prove it when he tries to go for a follow-up story the next day.

  “Of course, she’d be an anonymous source. She told him that since nobody wanted you, you’d gone out and bought yourself a bride. She said something about you coming on to her daughter or something and being refused. Then she talked about how Hayely was an incompetent secretary who was going to be fired, so she basically sold her body to pay the bills.”

  Mr. Black’s face had resumed its former shade of scarlet. “Tell me who this devil woman is.”

  Carla continued, “I’m pretty sure her name is Kathy Mark. She’s been in the store a few times since the Chamber of Commerce Banquet. None of us likes her, so we don’t say anything, but she’s always trying to steer the conversation around to Hayely. Never buys anything either. I saw her clear as day when I got up and walked out of the food court. She stayed for a little while after the reporter left and was reading a document. It looked just like that one.” She pointed to the papers Gary had held up. “I could even see your names on it and the lawyer’s letterhead.”

  “Which reporter was it, do you know?” Gary asked.

  “Sure. I’d know that guy’s voice anywhere. Mel Reilly. His show comes on at eight.”

  “Do you think she ever showed him the document or gave him a copy?”

  Carla shook her head. “I don’t think so. I mean, not from their conversation and she only took out the papers and started reading them after he’d gotten up and walked away.”

  “You’re wonderful, Carla. We owe you one.” Gary squeezed Hayely’s hand. “I’m heading down to the TV station.”

  “How do you plan on stopping them from airing such garbage?” So much had happened in the span of fifteen minutes that she was still trying to wrap her mind around it all.

  Gary gave a crooked grin. “If you had to choose between an exclusive interview with a man who never gives interviews, or a shaky story that will promise him a multi-million-dollar defamation of character suit, which would you choose?”