The Marriage Pact A Novel Novels & Stories

Max asked, looking confused. "Yeah, what contract marriage?" Emily chimed in, looking just as puzzled. Alex and I shared a look, knowing that it was time to come clean. "Well, kids, your father and I weren't always in love," I began, taking a deep breath. "We were actually in a contract marriage." "A contract marriage?" Lily repeated, looking even more confused. "Yes," Alex confirmed. "We got married because we needed to for business reasons. It was all part of a plan to help our companies succeed."

I accept out of spite, drinking it while Lucien works on his laptop like I'm not there. Thirty minutes in, I break the silence. "How many couples will be there?" "Eight, including us." "Do they all have real marriages?" His fingers pause on the keyboard. "Define real." "Marriages that started without contracts." "Most marriages are contracts, Mara. Some are just more honest about it." "That's bleak." "That's reality." He returns to typing. "James and Victoria Worthington married to merge family fortunes. Oliver Grant married his assistant to avoid a sexual harassment lawsuit. The Pattersons have an arrangement where he keeps a mistress and she keeps his credit cards."

Or hijack a plane even! “Are you sure? I mean…” “See for yourself,” she cut in his sentence midway producing a paper. It was the marriage certificate which had initiated the whole set-up. The one he had signed instead of his father. The one which bore his signature at one end and Rachel’s at the other end. It read that he was agreeing to marry Miss Rachel Lloyd within three days – which he had and that he wouldn’t be able to get a divorce till Devin Crighton gave his approval.

she sneered, I frowned, she passed me, entering the house, while I stood there, still holding the door. It took me a moment or so to realize she had entered, I turned to look at her, “what do you want Chloe?” I asked, she smirked, “I’m here to take what is mine, Harris” she crossed her arms over her chest, calling out his name. “He’s my husband now, don’t you dare talk about him like that, and he’s not here!” I said, she smiled, “your husband?” she laughed sarcastically. “He was never you husband, Harris told me everything about the marriage contract, everything was fake…” she said, I felt like someone just stabbed me with a dagger, “what?” I asked, feeling shocked, and broken. her words cut

I said, leaning back, my smirk still firmly in place. Cameron shot me one last look—half wary, half something else I couldn’t quite name—before he grabbed his coat and walked out of the café. The moment he was gone, I let my smile drop. I exhaled slowly, dragging a hand through my hair. Cameron had a girl he liked. And yet… he was going to marry me and it was clearly not by choice. The thought twisted in my chest, sharp and bitter. I had agreed to this marriage because I wanted Cameron. I wanted him in a way I didn’t even fully understand myself. But for him? I was nothing more than a means to an end. And I wasn’t sure if I could handle that.

I kept looking at the paper with my eyes wide open and I was so close to it as thought I was going to go into it any time soon. I looked at him as though he said something really crazy which he obviously did. "What is this, why do I have to sign something like this"? He looked at me with his usual cold gaze and said. "Don't tell me you can't read". I just looked at him with the expression that said 'What the hell, is this dude for real?' "I can read clearly and that's the more reason why I'm not going to sign this crap. Why would I want to get married to you"?

She scrambles back against the pillows, breath coming in sharp gasps, eyes bright with tears she refuses to let fall. “No,” she says, shaking her head. “No – this is wrong. I stood in a church and I married your son. Two days ago.” The words are sharp with shock, not logic, but I let her finish. I let the panic crest, then I speak. “That marriage was a contract,” I say, evenly. “You know that.” She freezes. “You didn’t marry for love,” I continue. “You didn’t promise fidelity of feeling. You promised duration, performance, appearance.”

Yes, she was going to personally find Nathan to end the so-called marriage, that had brought so much pain to her. When she closed her eyes, she could clearly recall that day Nathan cheated on her at the apartment. If that wasn’t enough, he pushed her down. She was sent to the hospital and she lost the unborn children. What made it was painful the fact that she heard Nathan with her own ears saying that it didn’t matter if the unborn child was saved or not. Every word from Nathan’s mouth was like a sharp needle piercing through her heart. She just wished that she could have known that this marriage could turn out this way, maybe she could have needed it a long time ago and protected her pregn

Unfortunately, she had kept her face tense, as if she was dissatisfied with the engagement. I was afraid she would refuse it. So I immediately prepared a divorce agreement set three years later. I told her that both families had decided on the marriage. Even if she wasn’t satisfied, she had to accept it for now. After three years, we would separate. That was why I handed it to her in advance. Nevertheless, I played a small trick. I deliberately made the safe damp, blurring the text on the agreement. Three years later, she would still be mine. Elena said she wanted to treat me to dinner. I deliberately chose the same restaurant Clara had mentioned yesterday, planning to pack her favorite dish

Instead, we understood more deeply: Privacy security is important; The law is the most reliable protection; Trust and communication are more important than anything in marriage; Real life never needs inappropriate subtext or messy drama. Decency, steadiness, and peace are the greatest happiness. Occasionally, when I see the long-handled grabber by the bed, I remember that afternoon I was stuck under the bed. I originally only wanted to retrieve a small anniversary gift, but in the end, I unexpectedly found the most precious things in marriage: unreserved trust, the courage to face together, and plain stability. No inappropriate implications, no suggestive subtext, no messy drama—only an ordi