“What do mean I’m already married? How can I be already married and not know about it?” asked Evan, his voice rising higher brining attention him from all over the room. Erica looked down at her lap getting embarrassed by this public display of anger from Evan. Soon everyone will realize who they are if he didn’t calm down.
“I’m sorry, but that’s what our records indicate; I can print out a copy of your marriage certificate to show you,” the lady typed quickly on her computer, getting startled by the anger. She quickly grabbed the paper and handed it over to him. “You are married, and your wife’s name is Chloe Travers.”
Evan took the paper, shocked at the news. Chloe Travers, his long ago childhood friend was his wife. It had to have been a sick joke to play on him. “I’m going to get to the bottom of this,” said Evan getting up to leave.
“I’m so sorry I couldn’t help you Mr. Holloway,” called the woman to him as he left with Erica following behind.
Once they were outside in the sunshine, Evan stopped and looked at Erica. They stood there for a moment just staring at each other, neither knowing what to say or how to react. Finally Erica spoke up, “So what do we do next? Do you even know who Chloe Travers is?”
“Yeah, I do. She was my childhood friend from when I was really young before I moved to the house that my mom now lives at. I stopped talking to her a long time ago though.”
“Maybe your mother knows something about this then, I think you should call her,” said Erica calmly. She knew his mother hated her so she figured that maybe it was some kind of plan that she had to ruin Evan and Erica’s marriage.
“I’ll do one better, I’m going to go see her, tonight.”
* * *
Evan drove straight to his mother’s house that night, never stopping but for gas. Erica wanted to go with him but because his mother hated Erica and the fact that he wanted to know the truth about this marriage hoax, he told her to just stay where she was.
The house was dark when he pulled into the driveway but as soon as he turned the engine off the porch light was on and his mother was waiting for him at the door. “So nice of you to drop by Evan, where’s Erica at?” asked his mother as he came up the porch steps.
“Don’t play dumb with me mom, you and I both know you don’t like Erica and are glad she isn’t here.” Evan glared daggers at his mother, upset that she would even pretend that she cared where Erica was.
“Did you two break up? Is it over?” asked his mother, with too much enthusiasm in her voice, ushering him inside.
“No, our engagement still stands, but I’m glad you would have been overjoyed over my sorrow if we had actually ended it.”
“May I remind you I am your mother and you must respect me? What’s with the attitude? I haven’t seen you in months and this is how I’m treated the first time I see you?” asked his mother now glaring daggers back at him.
“Perhaps you should explain this,” said Evan holding up the copy of the marriage certificate. His mother looked at the paper and back at him in shock.
“I wanted to tell you myself, that’s why I’ve been calling these past few days since news of your engagement went out,” said his mother calmly.
“On the phone, Mother? Really? And how exactly did you plan to tell me I was married to a woman I haven’t seen in almost twelve years? That you went behind my back and married me to her? What reason could you possibly have to do that to me?” yelled Evan.
“I’m going to bed, I’m extremely tired, and you are too emotional right now. We will discuss this in the morning,” said his mother walking up the stairs to her room. Evan couldn’t believe she did that; leaving in the middle of the conversation like it didn’t matter. Evan was upset but he wanted answers; he was married and he didn’t even know about it for twelve years.
* * *
Chloe woke up in her bed for the last time; today she was driving to college to get settled. She could smell pancakes and bacon cooking down the hall in the kitchen where her mother was. It was rare that her mom stayed home from work and cooked breakfast but since she was leaving for college today she knew it was special.
“Morning mom,” called Chloe down the hall towards the kitchen.
“Good Morning Chloe, hurry up and get dressed, we have visitors,” replied her mother. Chloe figured it was some neighbors or family friends here to send her off one last time, so she quickly got dressed to not keep them waiting.
When she walked into the kitchen, it wasn’t anyone she expected to be sitting at her kitchen table nursing a cup of coffee. “Evan,” she said surprised, sitting down at the table across from Evan in shock. Evan looked up at her with his bright green eyes at the sound of is name, “Hi Chloe.”
“Okay, I’m back, Teresa, you are going to have to tell me where you get your hand soap, it smells so good!” said Lizzie, Evan’s mother, coming into the kitchen. Teresa was still standing in the kitchen watching the exchange between Evan and Chloe when Lizzie finally noticed the tension that filled the room. “What have I missed?”
“Absolutely nothing mother, but let’s get to the point of why we are all here,” said Evan sharply, glaring at his mother in the doorway.
“Aren’t you here to send me off?” asked Chloe; she had no clue of why Evan was being so hostile and their mothers so quite.
“What?” asked Evan snapping his head back to Chloe.
“Well I figured you were here to say goodbye and send me off to college, I leave today,” said Chloe cringing in Evan’s stare.
“Actually Chloe we have something we need to tell you,” said Teresa coming out from the kitchen and setting down a plate of food on the table before taking a seat herself.
“Okay, why do I have the feeling that I’m missing something important?” asked Chloe.
“Maybe a ring on your finger?” muttered Evan under his breathe to just himself but Chloe still caught it. “What? A ring?” asked Chloe even more confused than before. “What does a ring have to do with anything?”
“Because we are married!” yelled Evan throwing his chair back when he stood up in anger.
Chloe stared at him in shock. Teresa and Lizzie just stared down at the table in shame. “What? We aren’t married; we haven’t even seen each other since grade school when you moved away. That was over 10 years ago.”
“Twelve to be exact,” said Evan sitting back down.
“Whatever, the fact is is that we haven’t seen each other in years and when we did see each other we were never legal age to get married. Perhaps you’re mistaken.”
“Nope, we’re married,” said Evan pulling out the copy of the marriage certificate he had in his pocket and placing it on the table for Chloe to reach over and grab and examine herself. “There is our marriage certificate, ‘dear.’”
Chloe looked up from the paper and gave a grimace at Evan, “Don’t call me that.” Chloe continued to look over the paper and sure enough in black in white it stated that she, Chloe Travers, and he, Evan Holloway, are married and have been married for the past twelve years. “Why does this say that we were married on my sixth birthday?”
Evan took the piece of paper back as Chloe stared between her mother and Evan’s mother. Why had he missed that little detail? “That was the year you had the princess party and I pretended to be you prince charming and we got married,” said Evan looking up, “but we were just playing pretend, right?”
Evan now looked at their mothers searching for answers, but they just sat there staring at each other. Finally Teresa nodded her head once at Lizzie and she began to speak, “You thought you were playing pretend, but back then you actually did want to get married. Evan, did you ever wonder about how we all of a sudden had a lot of money after Chloe’s birthday and wedding?” Evan nodded his waiting to see where this was going. “It was because we inherited it; well actually, you inherited it. You see, your great grandfather was a very wealthy man back from when he was a banker but he didn’t care for anyone in the family so when he died, he left all of his money to the first great grandchild that got married.”
“So you decided to marry me off to get the money first?” asked Evan completely disgusted.
“No, it was not completely like that. It happened to seem like fate that day since Teresa and I were discussing about the will that day when Chloe came running in to tell us you wanted to get married to each other.”
“I remember now, Evan had come over to play and asked me to marry him since we were best friends,” said Chloe, “and so we asked you to marry us and then we decided to do it on my birthday since I wanted a princess birthday.”
“But we were too young; we didn’t know anything. How could you marry us?” asked Evan.
“That was easy, as your parents, we just had to give our permission, and even the minister said it was fine since he could see that you two wanted to be married,” explained Lizzie.
“What I don’t get is what you got out of this,” asked Chloe to her mother, “What reason did you have to allow me to marry Evan for money?”
Teresa looked down at her coffee cup in her hands, “That was it, for money. It’s how we’re able to send you to college and have a comfortable life for you.”
It was Chloe’s turn to get angry. “So you basically sold me into marriage!?” yelled Chloe standing up and looking at her mother. She couldn’t take any more of it; she had to get away. Chloe walked out of the room to the backyard before she could get a reply. She stood out on the back porch staring out on the backyard reimagining her sixth birthday wedding where she thought it was all a game. Now she didn’t what to think; she had grown up on a lie. Who was she now? Was she still the same Chloe Travers that lost her best friend when she was younger and grew up with more friends than she could count and was supposed to drive to college today? Or was she supposed to be Chloe Holloway, wife of Evan Holloway since the age of six, who never had a chance to grow up?
“Are you okay?” asked Evan from behind her. He had been standing there since she had walked out watching her. Chloe turned around to look at him with tears forming in her eyes so he moved closer to comfort her, unsure of what would be appropriate. Finally he decided to put his arm around her sideways in a friendly hug and felt Chloe lean into him as she continued to stare out on the yard. They continued to stand there, both looking out on the yard reimagining the wedding that was a game for them.
“Where do we go from here?” asked Chloe finally breaking the silence with her head still leaned on his shoulder. “We haven’t seen each other in years and the first time we see each other we find out we’ve been married all this time. What do we do?” she asked looking up into Evan’s eyes searching for answers. Even though they hadn’t seen each other in years, it somehow felt right to be in his arms and comforted her.
“I guess we go and get it annulled. Since we were married at such a young age and haven’t seen each other since then, we don’t really need to go through a big divorce,” said Evan dropping his arm and staring back at the yard.
Chloe was a little hurt; it felt like back then again, being tossed to the side for a better life. “I suppose you’re right; you have a fiancé after all.” Chloe turned and headed back into the house, she didn’t want to look at him anymore and feel the hurt and pain of being rejected again.
Before Chloe could open the door, it flew open to reveal her mother. “Um, you guys might want to come in here, we have a problem.”