Married again?

Katie.

The moment I came to, tears ran down my face. I sniffled, trying to keep the tears from falling. I swiped angrily at my cheek when the tears kept streaming down. My body shook, still reeling from shock. I wrapped my arms around myself, trying to keep from shaking too much.

A hand silently wrapped around the side of my body. Before I could shake it off, the Kroger one wrapped around my other half of my body. I wanted to resist. I wanted to protest that I was perfectly fine. But the tears streaming down my cheeks, the mascara smudged all over my eyes, and my quivering lips said otherwise.

With no more resistance in me, I relaxed my body against the man holding me and completely broke down , the last of my control gone.

“Shhh…” Evan comforted me. His hand rested on my head, stroking it gently.

“He’s lying, right?” I asked once I was able to calm down a bit.

“Cupcake, I don’t think he was,” Evan said, finishing his words with a deep sigh. “While you were…” he cleared his throat before he picked up his speech. “…sleeping, I did some digging to see if he was telling the truth. And I hate to break it to you, but he wasn’t lying when he said that you were adopted. Or…” Another deep breath. “That he cut you off from being a Malory.” He finished.

I disengaged from his hug. “Are you sure there was no mistake?” I asked. A big part of me didn’t want to believe what was going on in my life at the moment. Because if I believed, that would be that I was coming to an agreement to be longer have anyone in my life who was truly my own people.

No mum. No dad. No husband.

No one at all.

“You have me, Katie,” Evan said, breaking into my thoughts.

There, he was doing that thing again.

Replying to me almost as if he could read my mind.

“You and I know that what you just said makes no sense. You and I have no other relationship other than you being the friend of my father and I, the daughter of the man you are friends with,” I retorted in anger.

“Was.” He said simply. “Was friends with.” He said again, after he noted my confusion.

“Still doesn’t excuse the fact that you are a man like him,” I snapped. I needed to diffuse my anger out and he was the closest person at the moment. “You know what they say about birds of the same feathers?” I cocked a brow at him.

Instead of being angry as I proposed - as that would justify my action toward him - he smiled.

The devil dared to smile.

And that was the second time he was doing that. Laughing at me. I wondered exactly why he was choosing to do that when it was very obvious that I was in pain was something I couldn’t comprehend.

“Get out of my face!” I yelled at him. That wiped the smug off his face, just as I intended.

“Technically, you are in my house. So if anyone needs to get lost, it should be you.” He said with all seriousness written all over his face.

He was going to throw me out of his house? After he knew that I was penniless now?

Maybe I should have kept my mouth shut, I blamed myself inwardly. Knowing that I had no other way to undo the damage I caused and that I was in no way his responsibility, seeing as we didn’t have any relationship aside from the mutual person we knew each other from, and me drooling over the man in the past but him not giving me the green light, I got up from where I was and began to make my shameful walk out of his room.

As I walked slowly, my mind raced through all the possibilities of where I would manage until I could get back on my feet. Perhaps, I would be able to find some sort of work with all my degrees in business management and all. At this point of time in my life, I could care less if all I got was just secretary work.

“You know, you don’t have to look like it’s the end of the world for you. Just because your father cut you off from his family name doesn’t mean it’s the end for you,” Evan said to me in his calm, yet annoying voice.

I ignored him and continued to walk, ready to face my battle heads on.

“At least you have my surname now. And I can tell you for a fact that it’s better than Malory.” He added.

And that stopped me in my tracks.

Say what now?

I turned at the speed of lightning to look at him just to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating.

“Don’t you remember? When you were begging me to marry you?” He asked, his tone short of nothing but mocking.

“What the hell are you talking about?!” I yelled at him while trying to wrap my head around the nonsense he was saying. “Why would I beg you to marry me?”

“Evan, sugar, you were so strong in there. You are the one I want. I’ve always wanted to belong to you. Marry me.” He mocked, trying to imitate my voice.

“I don’t sound anything like that!” I retorted. “And I am not your wife!”

“Oh, yeah?” He was still mocking me. He went to his drawer and brought out a paper. Without hesitation, he threw it my way. “Explain that then.”

I grabbed the paper from the floor and scanned through it. My hand went to my mouth after I realized that he was saying the truth. I was indeed married to him.

“H-how?” I managed to stammer out.

He ignored my question.

“In fact, I refuse to be your wife. Divorce me right now!”

He sighed and walked to where I was. When he got there, he grabbed the marriage certificate from me and held my hand tightly.

“Now, you listen, you spoiled brat, I do not really care what you did when you were a Malory. But now that you carry the seal of my name, know that you belong to me and I will not allow you to soil the name I have managed to build in this world. So, from now on, you should listen to me!” He said, almost as if he was angry with me.

“B-b-but…” I wanted to say something but nothing agreed to come out of my mouth.

“I wish I can divorce you but the court clearly states that no divorce until the second year of marriage. Which means, we are stuck with each other. And until then, you are not leaving my sight. That means, you now live in this house, and now work for me!” He retorted. “Deal with that, princess.” The princess was said in a demeaning way.

I took a shameful walk back to the sofa I got up from and sank into it.

Two years with Evan Blackman? Or the street? Which would it be?