Accidentally Married

"What do you possibly mean by that?" Jessica asked. She has been arguing in front of the courthouse over the phone for the last ten minutes.

Today was her wedding day. She and her high school sweetheart Burke were supposed to meet up here by ten thirty am to have their wedding.

"Burke, it is ten forty-five am, where are you?" she asked, her voice shaky.

"Jessica, I won't be coming today," Burke said.

"What do you mean by that? We are to get married today," she said again. This time she felt something trickling down her eyes. She sniffled to drive away the tears so her makeup didn't get ruined.

"Jessica, I don't think I love you enough to want to get married to you and live together in the same house," he said. She felt her heart sank.

They had been planning the wedding together ever since he popped the question. He knew of her dream of getting married and living in a house that had a yard for the kids to play in. He had no house with a yard, but they planned to get one.

"I won't force you to get a house with a yard," she said. Probably the financial burden was getting too much for him. The reason for the low-key wedding was finances. They were both not rich, but if they joined hands together, they could live comfortably.

Because they were both orphans, they had no one to invite to the private wedding. They planned to do a private wedding and tell their friends later.

"Burke, honey, aren't you going to join me?" a voice echoed from inside the room. Jessica knew that the voice sounded familiar she just couldn't place it at the moment.

"Who is that?" Jessica said in a muffled scream.

"Are you beginning to hear things?" Burke asked her.

Jessica knew quite all right that she heard a familiar voice. She knew that voice. That was her best friend's voice.

"Is that Emma?" she asked, this time tears falling from the second eye.

"Why would Emma be here?" Burke asked.

Jessica had always been suspicious of her friend and her boyfriend and finally, the suspicions were proving to be true.

"Jessica, go home and I would come to meet you at night," he said.

"I would wait here till you get here," Jessica said. Her voice was pleading. "I would forgive you even if you cheated on me. Please, just come over do not embarrass me," she added begging.

"Okay, yes Emma is here and you know what Jessica it is over between us. I can't marry you or stay with you. Let's just break up here," he said.

"No please," Jessica begged her face now drenched with tears. Her pleas were met with empty silence. Burke had cut off the call.

Jessica yanked the phone from her ears and decided to call again, but she now discovered it wasn't going through. Burke had blocked her line.

She squatted right at the front of the courthouse. She did not care if people were watching her. She just had her heart yanked out and broken into several pieces and handed to her.

She cried her eyes out but couldn't help but overhear the conversation of the man who was standing less than a foot away from her.

"I thought you said she would be here on time?" Xavier shouted over the phone to his assistant, Brian.

The doctors had told him that his grandfather had barely two weeks left. Xavier had lied to his grandfather that he had a girlfriend.

His grandfather had said that the girlfriend be wedded and presented to him before he died so he could transfer the company out of a management specialist to his name.

His grandfather knew what a responsible man Xavier was, but he feared that if he left the world Xavier would be all alone and later the company would leave the Delgado household.

Dawson (Xavier's grandfather) decides that instead of Xavier giving up the company in the long run, he would be the one to leave the company in the hands of those who can manage.

It would make him roll on his grave if Xavier gave up on his hard work and sweat. He rather does it for himself.

Xavier knew he owed it to his grandfather. When his parents died in a ghastly motor accident that claimed their lives, he had been living with his grandfather, who did everything to take care of him.

He wanted the business to remain in the household, and this pushed him to get married. His assistant Brian had told him of a contract marriage service where you pay to have a wife for some time.

He had done ahead to sign a contract with a random woman from the service for a year. She was to get married to him with no attached strings and then get divorced amicably after a year.

Xavier was in front of the courthouse, but the random woman was now nowhere to be found. He was confused and pissed off at the time-wasting. He needed to take his new wife to his grandfather today. He looked at his watch and sighed in annoyance.

"I'm sorry, sir. Let me try to reach her again," Brian said, cutting off the call.

"What a waste of my precious time," Xavier sighed out loud and annoyed. He hated time waster and he could not believe that the girl had gone MIA after receiving a part payment for the contract.

The phone rang, and he paid no second before picking up the call.

"And?" he barked at his secretary.

"Her company is unable to get a hold of her," Brian responded.

"She is currently unreachable. Why don't you come back and let's reschedule with the company? They would send us someone else," Brian said. He was lucky he already had a good rapport with his boss or else he would have peed himself already.

"I am not going to be leaving this place without a marriage certificate," Xavier replied. He was not intentionally mounting pressure on his assistant. He just needed results immediately.

"I'll marry you," Xavier heard. He turned to see a beautiful woman with black running eyes. He looked at her and thought why she would be doing this to a stranger.

"I will marry you," Jessica said again.