“Now before you sign this contract, remember that you may get a divorce only after 5 years. Even though the divorce is successful, you won’t get anything. Do you understand? Or do we go through everything one more time?”

“Yes sir, I understand.”

“Okay good. All you need to do is sign right here, and everything will be finalized.”

The lawyer hands me a pen, and I take it with shaking hands. I slowly lower the pen onto the paper, and sign on the dotted line. There is no escaping this now, I signed the contract. Signing the contract felt like I’ve just sold my soul to Satan. There is no turning back now, it’s done. 

“Good, now that that’s done, everything from here on onwards, is in your hands.”

“Thank you so much sir.” Carol greets him as she stands up from her seat.

I’m forced to put up a fake smile, as I shake his hand. All I wanted to do was cry. Across from me, Kenzie has been giving me death stares throughout the entire meeting. I honestly have no idea why she’s mad. It’s not like I’m happy about marrying Cole. Why is she even interested in him? I know his rich, but there’s nothing good about him.

30 minutes later, someone knocks on the door. Carol quickly gets up and opens the door. Looking to the entrance, I see that the wedding planner has arrived. Why hire a wedding planner?, when we could just go to court and get married there.

“Good morning loves! We have a wedding to plan, so there’s no time to waste.”

He sits down next to Carol, as she was the one giving all the ideas. On the table in front of him, he puts down a few photos. On the photos were wedding themes, different designs and decor. All of them were beautiful, but unfortunately I wasn’t feeling it.

“Ooh I like this one!” Carol says pointing to a emerald green colour.

“What does bride say? Do you like it?” He says looking at me. Before I could answer, carol jumps in.

“Oh! She gave me the freedom to choose. She told me to surprise her since I’m good at these things.”

“How sweet!” The wedding planner says as he gushes about how cute our ‘relationship’ is.

“It’s so lovely to see a mother and her daughter is in-law bonding.” 

Carol looks over to me and gives me a dirty look, which in return I roll my eyes and just stare at the ceiling. Not that I’m surprised or anything, she doesn’t like me. I gave the wedding planner, who’s name I think was…. Diego, I don’t really know, a small smile. He seems really nice so I’m not holding anything against him.

I stood in front of the mirror, with my wedding dress on. Saying that I wasn’t nervous, would be lying….I was terrified. Normally wedding days are days of celebration, joy, excitement and happiness. Today wasn’t my day, I wish that I had this with someone who truly loved me, unfortunately my life turned out like this. Soon I heard a knock on the door, and in came my father. 

My father had a black suit on, with a black tie. He wasn’t happy that I was getting married, he was more excited for the paycheck. He didn’t care, none of my family cared, as long as they got rid of me they’re happy. I guess they got their wish.

“Remember to be on your best behavior today. I don’t want you to embarrass our family like you already did.”

I kept quiet as he took my arm in his. Soon we reached the church, and as the music started playing, I became even more nervous. Once the doors opened up, everyone’s eyes would be on me. After a few minutes the doors opened, and I saw everyone stand up. The walk to the altar all of a sudden became slow, as I looked at everyone from underneath my veil.

Once I got to the altar, Cole took my hand in his. I tried not to cry as he lifted up my veil, looking at my face. How did I end up here?, this is not the life that I wanted, but there’s no escaping now. I looked at Sienna sitting in the front row, she couldn’t do anything, so she gave me a sad smile signalling that everything will be okay.

“We gather here today, to celebrate the union of these two beautiful souls.” As the priest starts talking, I could feel a panic attack coming.

“Before we begin…..any objections?” I looked at the ground as everyone in the crowd nod their heads. 

It was soon time to say our vows, as Cole went first. We each picked up the rings that the little boy brought over to us. 

“I Cole Maxine Clarkson, take you Audrey Genevieve Jackson as my wife. I promise to love you, to cherish you, to protect you and honor you. To always be there for you through thick and thin, in sickness and in health.” He finishes his vows off as he slips the ring onto my finger.

“I Audrey Genevieve Jackson , take you Cole Maxine Clarkson as my husband. I promise to love you, to cherish you, to protect you and honor you. To always be there for you through thick and thin, in sickness and in health.” I said as I slipped the ring on his finger.

“I now pronounce you, husband and wife. You may now kiss the bride!”

Cole leans in to kiss me, which I don’t return. He steps back, and he just looks at me. As we walked out, rose petals were thrown in the air. As soon as we walked past the door, I let go of his hand.

“What’s wrong with you? Can’t you just pretend to be happy?”

“Let’s just get this day over and done with.” He says nothing as we got into the car.

At the reception, I spot Cole sneaking off with Kenzie, to do Lord knows what. I ignore them as I continued speaking to the guests. As long as I don’t interact with my family or my in-laws, I’m okay. All I wanted was this day to be over, I needed my bed.

When we got home I was shocked, and by home I meant Cole’s house. It was a 2-story house, with gorgeous ceilings. The kitchen was huge, and it had big grey cabinets. I didn’t explore the rest of the house, because I was tired. I walked into the nearest bedroom I could find.

“Where are you going? Our room is this way.”

“Who said I was sharing a room with you?”

“Audrey…..”

“Don’t do this right now, I’m exhausted.”

I closed the door, as I undressed and hopped in the shower. Once I was done I put on some comfortable pajamas and crawled into bed. Soon I fell into a deep slumber.

I woke up the next morning and the house was awfully quiet, not that I’m complaining I’m totally used to it. When I got to the kitchen, I found a note on the fridge. It was from Cole, and it stated that he’ll be away for two weeks and to make myself at home. After I’m done making myself something to eat, I head back upstairs. I opened Cole’s room, and found that it wasn’t locked. When I entered the first thing I saw was his ring on the desk. I instantly knew why he didn’t wear his ring, he’s going to have some ‘’fun’ as usual. There wasn’t anything interesting about his room, so I walked back out shutting the door behind me.