Chapter Three : I Married the Wrong Man

Elara's pov

Kai’s words followed me all the way from the courthouse to my mother’s front door.

I had married a stranger. Not the stranger Mother had selected, which somehow made the situation worse.

Kai had asked whether I wanted to return to the registrar immediately. I had said I needed to speak to Mother first, because some foolish corner of my mind still expected her to know how this had happened.

The moment I opened the front door, I knew she did not know.

Our sitting room had been transformed for company. Boxes wrapped in gold paper covered the side table, flowers filled two borrowed vases, and Mother wore the pearl earrings she saved for people she wanted to impress.

Vivienne sat beside a man I had never seen, she looked rested.

My stomach turned at the memory of where I had seen her last.

Mother was laughing when she noticed me. “Elara, where have you—” Her gaze moved past my shoulder to Kai. “Who the fuck is he?”

Every conversation in the room ended.

I held the marriage certificate harder. “He’s the man I married.”

Mother stared at me.

Vivienne’s green eyes widened before she covered her reaction with a sip from her glass. “The man you what?”

“You sent me to the courthouse at nine. Kai was waiting there. We signed the papers.”

“I sent you to marry Gerald Whitmore.” Mother pushed herself to her feet. “Gerald has been calling me for the last hour because you never arrived at his courthouse.”

“His courthouse?”

“The West District courthouse, you idiot.”

I pulled the address from my bag. “You gave me this.”

She snatched the paper, looked at it, and went pale for half a second.

“That is the wrong address.”

“You wrote it.”

“I was busy.”

Kai spoke from behind me. “That explains her presence at my appointment.”

Mother looked him over with open contempt. “And who exactly are you?”

“Kai Draven.”

She laughed. “Well, Mr. Draven, I hope you enjoyed your little joke, because my daughter is promised elsewhere.”

“It wasn’t a joke.”

“You expect me to believe you married a woman you had never met because she turned up at the wrong courthouse?”

“I was expecting a bride I hadn’t met.”

Mother’s face twisted. “What kind of penniless fool arranges a marriage like that?”

Kai regarded her without answering.

The man beside Vivienne cleared his throat. “Margot, perhaps we should continue this another day.”

“No, Adrian, please stay. This has nothing to do with Vivienne’s arrangement.”

My attention returned to the gifts. One box had a card attached beneath its ribbon.

For Elara Gates, with the Whitmore family’s compliments.

I walked toward it. “Why is my name on that?”

Mother moved between me and the table. “It’s nothing you need to concern yourself with now.”

“Those are my marriage gifts.”

“Gerald sent them yesterday, and since you have managed to humiliate him, they will be put to better use.”

Vivienne set down her glass. “Mother said there was no reason to waste everything because you changed your mind.”

“I didn’t change my mind. I went where she told me to go.”

“Which is somehow everyone else’s problem again.”

I looked at my sister. Her hair fell over the shoulder Derek had kissed while I stood in his doorway. She had slept with the man I loved and returned home to sit beside another wealthy prospect before breakfast had properly settled.

“Does Adrian know about Derek?”

Vivienne’s face lost its smugness. Mother crossed the room and slapped me. The sound carried farther than the pain.

“You will not destroy your sister’s future because you ruined yours.”

Kai’s hand closed around my wrist before I could touch my cheek.

“Do that again,” he said to Mother, “and this conversation ends differently.”

Mother stared at his hand. “Take your filthy hands off my daughter.”

“You lost the right to object when you struck her.”

“She is mine.”

“No.” His voice remained calm. “She isn’t.”

I pulled my wrist free because I could feel everyone watching.

Mother pointed toward the door. “Get out, both of you. Elara, if you walk out with this nobody, do not come crawling back when you discover a handsome face does not pay bills.”

“I wasn’t planning to come back.”

“You have no wolf, no education worth mentioning, no money, and no useful skill. Gerald was willing to overlook all of that because I negotiated well. This man will be tired of feeding you within a month.”

The old reflex told me to lower my eyes, but I kept them on her. “Then he can tell me himself.”

Mother gave a cruel laugh. “You think being stubborn makes you valuable? Derek learned better, didn’t he?”

Kai turned his head toward me and I hated that he had heard.

Vivienne rose. “Mother, leave Derek out of this.”

“You should have left him out of your bed.”

Adrian stood so quickly his chair scraped the floor and Vivienne’s face drained.

Mother pointed at the door again. “Get out.”

I picked up the duffel bag I had left near the entrance the night before.

Outside, the morning sun made my sore cheek burn.

“I’m sorry,” I said after the door closed behind us. “You didn’t deserve any of that.”

“Neither did you.”

“You married the wrong woman because my mother wrote the wrong address on a piece of paper. I think you’re allowed to be angry.”

“I’m deciding what I am.”

I looked at him. “We can annul it.”

He glanced toward the house, through the window, Mother was already pulling the curtains closed.

“I have nowhere to go, so I’ll find Nora and stay with her until I get work. You don’t owe me anything.”

“Do you always decide what other people owe you?”

“I’m trying not to become your problem.”

“You’re already my legal wife. That makes the problem difficult to avoid.”

Heat climbed my face. “Exactly why we should fix it.”

He took my bag before I could object.

“Where are you going?”

“To my car.”

“And then?”

“You’re coming with me.”

“Kai, I just told you we should annul this.”

“I heard you.”

“Then why are you carrying my bag?”

He started toward the corner.

I followed because he had my only clothes. “You cannot simply decide we’re staying married.”

He stopped and faced me. “I can decide whether I want an annulment.”

“And you don’t?”

His gray eyes held mine.

“That is a terrible reason to stay married,” I said.

“I haven’t given you my reason.”

“Then perhaps you should.”

“Not on your mother’s pavement while she watches through the curtain.”

I glanced toward the sitting-room window and caught the fabric falling back into place. Of course she was watching.

“I still think we should annul this marriage.”

“No, Elara. I’m keeping my wife.”