Chapter Two

"Where have you been all day?" Stacy asked anxiously, almost crying, as soon as she became aware that Carlton had entered the house already.

She had been sitting on the stairs that led to their room all night, with a heavy heart after she received the mysterious text from an unknown number. She had tried to call the number that sent it to her, but it had been claimed that the caller did not exist. However, seeing Carlton made her worries about what the text could be about dissipate immediately.

"Why are you sitting there, and not sleeping in your room?" Carlton's hoarse but calm voice asked as he stood at the end of the stairs, and his eyes trailed to the Rolex which was clasped around his wrist to check what time it was.

"I was bothered. I have been calling you endlessly. You didn't reply to my texts either," Stacy lamented with bitterness, as she stood up from where she was sitting and walked down the stairs to meet him.

"You should have known I was busy," he reminded her, in case she had forgotten that he was a serious business man, who had companies to oversee and manage effectively.

"You could have texted. I was worried all day," she mentioned with deep sadness in her voice, with tears almost rolling down her cheeks. All her efforts for the day had gone to waste.

"I am back now," he muttered softly, without having any excuses to give, as he began to climb the stairs.

She collected the briefcase that his assistant, James, was holding and followed behind him immediately. Though they slept in different rooms, she knew the nook and crannies of his room, and always did everything to make him look perfect.

From laying out the perfect set of ties, socks, and tones of suit she felt would go for the day, to making sure that every newly ordered custom suit was brought in by her. Replacing all of his deodorant and accessories was part of her job too, because she knew exactly what his taste was like. And she never got it wrong.

"You did not remember that yesterday was our marriage anniversary, right?" Stacy asked him as she followed him into his room, and helped him to bring a neat bathrobe so that he could get prepared to bathe. She made sure he never had to use an unfresh one.

"Oh?" He reacted frivolously as he pulled off his shirt.

Stacy was hurt that he took what she said with levity, because she knew that he probably did not remember. That was even if he remembered that they were still married, "I even prepared a feast for our anniversary. All the food must have been wasted by now," she shook her head sadly.

Carlton gritted his teeth when he heard her say that, and turned to her with anger flashing his eyes, "Why are you taking this marriage seriously when, deep down, you know that it is a sham marriage? Just why?" He asked her impatiently like he had been waiting desperately for the perfect time.

He was sick of her giving unnecessary irrelevance to their fake marriage every time.

"Wh…wh…at?" Stacy, who was taken by shock with the way he asked, stuttered fearfully as she saw a glint of anger in his eyes. Her mind flashed back to how they got married narrowly, when he had announced to everyone that he was getting married to his girlfriend.

Carlton had never really been the marriage type, and was not keen on it until his grandfather clamored the same clauses to his ears all the time after he started working for the company.

"You will get to control all these assets as your own, only when you get married. Then, I am sure that you can manage everything in your life with both family and work. I will not let you be like your father."

Truly, his father, Philip, had lived recklessly when it came to handling women in his life, and it had cost him a lot of things including, his business investment ideas that got stolen in one of his escapades. It was a never ending battle.

For Carlton, his girlfriend, Marilyn Gray, became his only option for marriage so that he could get it over with and give her a lot of comfort with his wealth as his wife. However, Marilyn had many ambitions. She liked everything Carlton had to offer her, but she didn't like the idea of marriage.

But, when she heard the benefits that Carlton was going to receive after the marriage, she agreed to get married to him in the most secretive way.

On the day of the wedding in court, Marilyn was nowhere to be found, and her phone was unreachable. She dropped a note to Carlton through a delivery man, stating that she was sorry and didn't think she could commit to such a long-term relationship as a marriage.

He was heartbroken because he lost his beloved girlfriend just like that, and couldn't back down, when he was just a step from gaining control over his family fortune.

Stacy, on the other hand, had chased after her elder brother desperately so that she would be able to contact Carlton and ask about his wedding. She left school from Chicago without telling anyone, and journeyed to secretly be present at his court wedding in place of her brother, who was not able to attend because of an investor meeting for his start-up company on the same day.

With a twist in fate, Stacy convinced Carlton to be the stand-in bride for him after she realized that he was in a dilemma, and registered as his bride at court so that he could send the proof to his grandfather. A follow-up visit to the old man in Seattle confirmed their marriage, and a mansion feast sealed their fake marriage, all without Stacy's family knowledge. She wanted it that way.

That guilt had always suffocated Carlton, even if he had control over the Howard billion future. He wanted freedom from her.

"You know that this marriage is based on conditions and a contract, right? That we are free of each other, and can do anything desired by just staying as a married couple on paper for the meantime. Why are you always taking it so seriously?" He asked her again with deep frustration.

"Does it matter that our marriage was not planned? What matters is that we are now married as a husband and wife," she refuted strongly to his face, with her eyes twitching in a struggle to stop the tears that were about to roll down her cheeks.

'She didn't come this far, and sacrificed so many things for a marriage that was still fake to him.'

"The fact remains that we are in a fake marriage. Do you not understand?" He reminded her again if she had forgotten, and gotten too attached to what was not even real.

"I don't want to understand anything," she replied softly to him, deeply hurt that he still saw their marriage as something unimportant, "I don't want to," she repeated.

"I have been thinking about it, Stacy. It is time to end this fake marriage," Carlton finally let the cat out of the bag, by announcing what he had been wanting to tell her for the past days.

Stacy's heart pounded in her chest immediately she heard what Carlton said, as different kinds of emotions swirled within her in reaction to the shock of his words. Her eyes searched his face desperately seeking any signs of warmness that would contradict his words, but his face was impassively serious. Her breath hung in the air due to shock.

"What?" She struggled to find her voice, when she realized that her husband was not joking with his words. She had always dreaded the day she would hear him say that.

"I am glad that I can finally bring it up after contemplating for a while now. I have the divorce papers ready with me now," he mentioned, and walked to his briefcase to bring the papers immediately.

Stacy's hands trembled as she took the file that he stretched to her from him, as she struggled with the heavy tears that had weighed down in her chest. Her throat was dry and painful, as it felt like she was going to choke if she didn't let down her tears that continually succumbed to throat swelling.

"No, I can't, Carlton," she struggled to say.

"Why can you not?" Carlton asked as he tried not to get angry, because he really could not understand why she was trying to cling on to something that did not exist.

"I just can't," she struggled to swallow her tears, as she shut her eyes tight to prevent them from falling, "Why do you suddenly want to break off the marriage when we have been living fine. Is there anything I have done wrong? I can do better," she pleaded with him, knowing that there was no way she was ready to end the marriage.

"No, Stacy. It is me. I am tired and sick of us and this marriage, and I want to break it off," he said, and collected the file from her hastily as he tore it open, "Take the papers and sign them. My lawyer would process it and we could go our separate ways. You will be given alimony too. And if you want a company too, it is fine."

"I am sure you are just saying all this out of anger or stress. We can sleep over it today and speak tomorrow," she turned away from him with more tears streaming down, and proceeded to leave the room. She was not ready to listen to him.

"No, I am not saying this out of anger, Stacy. Just sign these papers and we will go our separate ways," Carlton warned calmly when he saw that she was about to leave.

"I will never sign this!" Stacy raised her voice with bitterness, louder than she had ever done in the years of being married to him. She could never!