Contract Marriage: I’ve Always Loved You

I return to the earth as twins squirm in my arms, trying to catch my attention. Their innocent smile distracts me from the guilt I’m going through.

“I’m sorry, little ones that I misjudged your mommy. Will you both help me understand her better?” I whisper to the twins, feeling remorse for hurting my love.

As if responding to me, the twins giggle and lift their hands to touch my face. Their touch gives me a comforting warmth.

I also feel a bit relieved because the changed version of Grace wasn’t just my imagination. She has truly changed. She wasn’t deceiving me for her purposes. My love story will get a happy ending, I’m certain now.

I decide to talk with Grace, understanding that there might be more to the story than I initially understood.

As I enter our room, I find her sitting alone on the sofa, her eyes filled with pain, fixed on the floor. Whenever I see her upset, it shatters my heart. But now it hurts me even more because I’m the reason for her pain.

Damn it, Steve. Just stop hurting her, for God’s sake.

After laying down the babies in the crib, I turn on the mobile toys above the crib to keep them busy with their rhythmic sounds.

Glancing at Grace, I compose myself before approaching her. I settle down beside her and entangle my pinky finger with hers like she always does. As I did this, a lone tear rolls down her cheek, making me feel more guilty for not listening to her.

However, I’m a bit relieved because she doesn’t push away my hand.

After moving closer to her face, as I suck the tear from her face, she closes her eyes in response, getting lost in my touch. Like this, I wish to take away all the pain from her life with my love.

I retreat from her and notice that her eyes are still closed. “Grace.” She opens her eyes as I call her, gently tucking her brown lock behind her ear. “I’m so sorry. I should have listened to you.” My voice is filled with remorse as I apologise.

If I had listened to her that night, we wouldn’t have had to go through all the suffering.

“You shouldn’t apologise, Steve, as I haven’t given you any reason to trust me. It is difficult to believe that I have changed because I was so manipulative and self-centred earlier. It’s not your fault.” She utters, clearly hurt.

I shake my head. “No, Grace. You have changed now, I can see that-”

As I try to explain, she cuts me off. “No, Steve, you will never understand me. When a situation like that day occurs again, you’ll react in the same way.” She pulls her hand away and looks away.

As I take her chin in a gentle hold and turn her face towards me, my eyes filled with guilt meet her eyes filled with hurt. “I promise I’ll always trust you, Grace,” I whisper, looking straight into her eyes.

“No, you won’t trust me, Steve. You will always see me as the mother of your babies.” Her voice chokes with emotions, and I feel a twinge in my heart.

I fix my gaze filled with honesty on her. “Grace, you’re more than just the mother of our babies. You’re important to me. I want to understand you, support you, and build a future together.”

“Steve, we’re not together anymore. We’re not a couple. You’re just letting me stay with you for the twins.” She looks at me with sadness in her eyes.

I think it’s finally time to reveal a secret to her.

I take a deep breath before speaking in a soft tone. “No, Grace, I’m letting you stay with me because I want you back in my life, and you’re still my wife.” As I reveal this, she freezes in her place, and her eyes widen in astonishment.

Yes, she is still my wife. Mrs Grace Grey. I never signed the divorce papers.

“What the fuck! You’re kidding, right?” She gives me a look of disbelief, and all the sadness just disappears from her face in an instant.

A smile spreads across my face, seeing her reaction. “Do you really think I’m kidding, baby?”

“If it’s true, then why did you always call me ex-wife?” She raises an eyebrow in suspicion.

I grab her arms and slightly pull her towards me, locking my eyes with hers. “Because…” As I move closer to her face, her breath becomes heavy. “I was teasing you. In fact, I was punishing you for leaving me. You have no idea how much I yearned for you.”

A mix of emotions plays across her face, listening to the truth. “How can this be possible? Divorce papers? I thought…”

I withdraw my hands from her arms and clasp her face. “I never signed those papers, Grace. You’re still my wife, Mrs. Steve Grace Grey. You belong to me, and always will.” My voice turns grim as I utter the last sentence.

I seriously can’t imagine her being with someone else. My soul burns every fucking time I think about the men she had slept with. They touched what’s mine. When she left, I couldn’t stop wondering for even a single second about whom she’d be spending her night with. The thought of another man’s hands on her, of another man tasting her lips, ignites a fury within me that I can barely contain.

This woman drives me crazy. It’s a feeling I’ve never experienced before.

Grace’s words pull me back to earth. “But I thought… I thought we were divorced.” The confusion and shock are etched on every corner of her face.

Taking a deep breath, I compose myself because it’s not time to show my possession over her, she needs an explanation.

I stroke her cheeks with my thumbs. “No, Grace. I couldn’t bring myself to sign those papers because I have always loved you. I have been in love with you since my eyes landed on you at the club. From that night, I could never stop my heart from beating for you.”

She stays silent, and I continue after taking a pause. “When you had left me, since that day I had been waiting for our paths to cross again. However, when we finally met again, I was hurt to know that you wanted to keep me away from our babies. So I was taking time to trust you. But today I’m ready to clear all the things between us.”

I finish pouring my heart out, and she just looks at me mutely. When she finally opens her mouth to say something, the sound of the babies’ cries echoes in the room.

I mutter, “Such a wrong timing, twins!”

I look towards the crib where the twins are crying. “I think before clearing everything between us, we should check on the babies.” As I suggest, she nods in response.

We both stand up and together we approach the crib where the twins are now fussing.

As they notice us, they stop crying for a second, only to resume even louder.

“Hey, my princess, Daddy is here. Stop crying.” I pick up Giana and soothe her cries, rubbing her back while Grace does the same with Evan.

We look at each other, gently rocking the twins in our arms and conversing with each other through our eyes.

After the babies have calmed down, still nestled in our arms, Grace opens up about her feelings. “Steve, I never knew you’ve always loved me, and you were waiting for me. I thought-” She pauses and takes a deep breath before continuing, “I thought I was ruining your life, that you would find peace without me. You don’t know, when I left you, what I went through. I wasn’t interested in anything; only you stayed in my mind all the time. It was so difficult to handle the emotions.” Tears well up in her eyes as she expresses her agony.

“When you were suffering so much without me, then why didn’t you come back to me, Grace?” I asked her immediately, confused and shocked.

She sighs before responding to my question, her voice filled with many emotions. “After a few days of our separation when I realised I love you, I came to meet you, but I saw you hugging a woman.” She bites her lower lip to suppress her sob. “I thought you would stay happy without me. I didn’t want to destroy your life again by returning to your life, Steve. It was so hard for me to stop myself from telling you about my pregnancy. I needed you badly, I missed you, and I was dying to tell you about our babies’ arrival.”

As she continues, tears trickle down her cheeks constantly, wrenching my heart. “When they kicked in my womb for the first time, I wanted to share that joy with you, but stopped myself for you. For the first time, I put someone else above me, and that’s you, Steve. You have changed me. Now the Grace who stands in front of you is a woman who isn’t selfish anymore and who loves you more than anything else in this world. Life turned me into an emotionless woman, but you made me feel alive, experiencing all the emotions in the world.”

Her heartfelt confession leaves me speechless. I didn’t know she went through a lot without me, and she would be in love with me. I can’t believe that she kept her pregnancy a secret for me. She has transformed into a new person.

Fresh tears trickle down her cheeks as she fixes her gaze on me.

After hastily lying Giana in the crib, I cup her face in my hands. “Grace, we both made mistakes. But we can’t change the past. Now what matters is our present and future. I want you back in my life, not just for the twins, but because I love you. And I want to spend the rest of my life cherishing you.” I confess, gently wiping her tears with my thumbs.

I feel lightened because I was dying to confess my feelings to her. It was so hard to keep them inside me for such a long time.

A smile tugs at her face, making my heart jump with joy. “I love you too, Steve. I’ve always loved you, even when I was too scared to admit it. Now, I promise I’ll never hurt you intentionally.” She confesses too, still hugging Evan in her arms.

I pass her a small smile before leaning in. “Grace, now I vow to become the reason for your smile, not your tears. If a single tear streams down your eyes because of me, it’ll be my last day of life.” I seal my promise with a soft kiss on her forehead, bringing a smile to her face.

Then I engulf her in my arms, sandwiching Evan between us. He, feeling a bit restricted between our arms, squirms to free himself, his tiny hands pushing against our embrace. It elicits laughter from both of us.Content protected by Nôv/el(D)rama.Org.

I gently release Grace from the hug, and we both lean down to kiss Evan’s tiny forehead. Finally, everything is sorted between us, but the question remains: what happened in Grace’s life that turned her into an emotionless person?