Chapter 19
19
BENNETT
T his day was never supposed to happen. I was never supposed to get married and give my worst fear have the possibility of becoming a reality.
Yet here I am.
Here I am standing under an alter that was put together by a florist, with a officiant standing three feet away from me as my bride comes walking towards me in an off white gown that first her gorgeously.
This day was never supposed to come, yet I find myself wanting to go back in time so that I can make this all right and give Ella the wedding that she deserves.
I saw her face in the conference room that night. I know she didn’t want a small, intimate wedding, yet she asked for one and now as she approaches me, with nobody walking at her side, I want to go back in time and make her ask for a big wedding. For a wedding that she fucking deserves.
Ella should be wearing the dress of her dreams, not one she picked out just because, with her favorite flowers surrounding her, as she walks down the aisle with her sister at her side to the man of her dreams. A man that would move the heavens and earth for her. A man that isn’t marring her just because he wants something from her. A man that loves her wholeheartedly and isn’t in love with the feeling that corruption and deception brings to him. Ella deserves to love a life where she is happy every day and smiling that beautiful smile that she has while letting out her beautiful laugh.
She deserves everything and more and here I am taking everything away from her.
It’s only for two years.
For two years she will be all mine, in every single legal sense of the word, but then the two years will come and she will leave and go out and find someone the person that she is meant to be with.
Because no matter how much my brain wants it to, she won’t be be mine. Not truly. She will share my last name, and have access to my bank accounts, but that’s it. That’s where our connection will end.
I won’t never be the man she loves. I will never let it.
The officiant has us say our vows out loud and as we do, I can’t help but to think if he know how corrupt they are. How the words he has us repeat, don’t mean a single thing. Not really.
As I slide a diamond ring onto my new wife’s finger, one that she picked out this morning, I think about my parents.
They would have loved Ella. They would have treated her as a daughter and Charlie as a granddaughter. But they would have been disappointed in me for choosing to marry this girl solely for a title. They would have hated everything that this marriage is going to stand for.
And as Ella slide a black band onto my finger, I conclude that I would have been okay with their disappointment.
Because it gets me what I want and as my parents, they should have known that I would have stopped at nothing to get what I wanted. If it wasn’t marrying Ella, it would have been putting Peter Hill in the ground.
I have no shame to admit that I would have killed the bastard with my own bare hands and hid his body so it would have never been found so that I could get the title.
It’s such a shame it never came to that, but I have no regrets in regards to my decision.
I may not be the man that Ella deserves to be marrying and this marriage my only be lasting for two years, but I plan on being the best man I can be for her in that time.
“With the power vested in me, by the grace of God and the state of Illinois, I pronounce you husband and wife. Bennett, you may kiss your bride.”
There is no hesitation as I close the difference between me and my wife and take her face between my hands.
She looks up at me with those beautiful eyes of hers and for a second it’s as if this is what is supposed to happen. It’s as if, this is truly our wedding and we are both excited about our future together. She wants me to kiss her just as much as I want to kiss her.
So I do.
I kiss my bride in the way that I wanted since our last kiss, with urgency and need.
It takes her by surprise but only for a second and then she is kissing me right back.
When we pull apart a minute later, she has a look in her eyes that won’t be forgetting anytime soon. Lustfully.
“I present to you all, Mr. and Mrs. Lane.”
The kids and Henry cheer and congratulate us and for a few minutes, it feels like an actual wedding. Not one filled with lies.
But the feeling quickly goes away and in its place is one filled with vigor.
It’s time to get that CEO title and get everything that I’ve ever wanted.