Claiming His Wife (Unlikely Love)
By: Sam CrescentHe couldn’t handle it, and what confused him the most was – why did he care?
She was twenty years old. Seventeen years younger than he.
“If you don’t marry my sister, you could ruin her reputation. The very fact you stood up in church and disputed it makes people wonder what went on between you,” Richard said cutting into his own confused thoughts.
“I’m going to marry her. I promised her.”
“Good. I want to know, and as my friend you better not fucking lie to me, have you touched or done anything with my sister?”
“No. For God’s sake, Richard. This is me you’re talking to.”
“And you don’t have the smoothest of reputations when it comes to women,” Richard said. “She’s a lot younger than you and in no way ready for your type of shit.”
“Younger than me. That’s a bit like calling the kettle black. Scarlet is a fucking baby, and you still took the time to fuck it.”
“Don’t you dare...”
“Clearly something is going on here, and you two arguing about your women isn’t going to get the job done. I, for one, want to go home to my wife and children. Instead our families are parked outside that door waiting for some arrangement,” Wayne said. “I don’t know what’s going on, and I don’t care. Tony has said he would marry her, and we’re supposed to be here to work out the details.”
“Where’s Opal? She deserves to hear us working out her life,” Tony said.
“She’s already been through enough. We’ll figure everything out.”
The next hour they came up with the prenuptial agreement. Tony knew from the way it read that it gave Opal an out whenever she needed. If at any time she wanted to leave, Tony would make sure she was settled. They called her in, and he watched as she twirled her hands in her lap.
She nodded and agreed, signing the form. Tony signed his bit and watched her leave.
Three weeks later they were married. The ceremony was held in a registry office. He didn’t take her on a honeymoon and spent as little time as possible with her.
Chapter One
Two years later
Opal Shaw stared down at her wedding ring.
No, Opal Hunt. She was a married woman.
She couldn’t believe she’d been married two years ago on this day. Biting her lip, she glanced around the room. Lily had her children with Wayne and Scarlet her children with Richard, while Opal sat in her brother’s house with a wedding ring and nothing else. She’d been married two years and didn’t know much about her husband other than the crap she read in the glossy magazines. He escorted her to events but never took the time to talk with her. He accomplished only the social graces that her brother Richard had required in an agreement for her and Tony to be married.
After the wedding, which had been in a registry office with her brother and his wife as witnesses, her parents had kicked her out. The scandal was so far-reaching that they couldn’t bear to look at their only daughter. The wedding night she’d dreamed about had been a disaster. She didn’t want to ask Lily and Scarlet about their wedding nights in case they asked her about hers.
“So, I wanted to tell you guys the news first,” Lily said. Opal stared at the beautiful dark-haired woman. Wayne and her brother had gone to talk business. The three women were alone with the children.
Tony hadn’t turned up yet. Probably another long night partying and doing nothing else but shagging the next model or something. She kept up to date with all of his conquests. He showed no interest in being with her. She didn’t blame him. The moment she left her parental home the weight had come back on. The diets they had kept her on had ended, and she ate what she liked when she liked.
“Wayne and I are going to have another baby.”
Opal smiled and congratulated Lily. Scarlet did the same, and she was already pregnant with Richard’s third child herself.
Would Opal be cursed to never have news of her own? What had she done in the last two years of being married to Tony? She spent most of her days cleaning the house he’d placed her in.
“I take it you’ve told them our good news?” Wayne asked as he entered the living room, carrying a tray of drinks.
