The Forgotten Wife: An arranged marriage romance
Table of Contents
The Forgotten Wife
Copyright
More Books
About the Book
Author’s note
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Epilogue
Playlist for the book
Acknowledgments
About the Author
The Forgotten Wife
Christine Michelle
Copyright
Copyright © 2021 Christine M. Butler / Christine Michelle
All rights reserved.
Scanning, uploading, copying, and/or any distribution of this book, either electronically or otherwise without express written permission from the copyright holder, is illegal and punishable by law.
Small quotes and snippets may be used for review purposes only where they do not contain information that would spoil the book for potential readers.
Help support authors you love by only purchasing legitimate copies of their work through trusted sources. Trusted source links and updated pricing can be found on the publisher’s website at https://www.moonlitdreams.org/
Any similarities to persons, organizations, or places written about within these pages is purely coincidental, as this is a work of fiction.
Kindle Edition
More Books
Christine Michelle
Aces High MC – Dakotas
Dancing with Danger · Whiskey Tango Foxtrot · The Restart and the Remedy
Aces High MC – Charleston
The Other Princess · A Love So Hard · The Princess and the Prospect · The Killing Ride · A Twist of Fate · Everlasting ·
A Year and a Day
Aces High MC – Tallahassee
Crushed
Aces High MC – Cedar Falls
Redemption Weather · Proven · Smoke and the Flame · Redemption Box Set
S.H.E. MC
Angel Girl · JoJo
T.I.E. Series
The Infinite Something · The Infinite Beat
Valhalla Rising
Revived
Letters To…
Letters to Lily
Dark Leopards MC
Ridden by Darkness · The B Team
Robeson Family Novels (standalones)
The Forgotten Wife
By: Christine M. Butler
The Ancients Series
Shadows of the Ancients · Falling into the White · Branches of the Willow · Bound by the Moon
Vukodlak Brew Series
Entwined · Enraged
The Awakening Series
Birthrights · Revelations · Incarnations
Death Viewers
Breathless
Other Titles
The Voodoo Follies
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About the Book
Even I knew it was an archaic practice.
Still...
When my father informed me that I would be married to
a man that he needed to merge his business with - in order to save it - I agreed.
Of course, I agreed reluctantly until I realized exactly what all was at stake. The man I was to marry, he was even less keen to walk down the aisle with me, but he had his own risks to weight in all of this.
I didn’t expect a perfect marriage.
I didn’t even believe they existed.
What I didn’t expect was to say, “I do” and then be completely forgotten.
...
At least, that was how it started out.
It just got more complicated from there, until it wasn’t.
Happiness was just around the corner, and maybe even, in time, the perfect marriage too.
Author’s note
Part One: Fair warning: This is not an insta-love story. It’s not even an easy relationship story to start. It is a slow burn, arranged marriage, enemies to lovers romance complete with all the angst you think might be present in those scenarios. It also doesn’t start at the middle and give you flashbacks of past events, because honestly, I hate that. This story starts at the ugly beginning for this couple (from her point of view). If none of that is your thing – then this book most likely isn’t for you! Then again, maybe you just didn’t know it was your thing!
FINAL WARNING: For some readers, this book will have (sort of) almost cheating that might be a trigger. There is no cheating once the characters decide to REALLY be together, so take that for what it’s worth.
PS – I HATE giving these warnings. I’m old, so never got content warnings on books in my life until this past decade. I’d rather be surprised, even if it leaves me angry with the pages, but here we are.
Part Two: As most of my readers know, I am a plotter when it comes to writing. I have notes, use outlines, and it helps keep me on track. There are some occasions when things happen differently though. I had a story plotted out. It was When the Last Petal Falls which was supposed to be the first book in the Robeson Family Novels. That book had a solid outline, was partially written years ago, and then there were books two and three that had a synopsis written for each.
The problem was, when I worked on finishing up When the Last Petal Falls, about Mina’s big sister Bea, Mina started talking and wouldn’t shut up. You know how the youngest children can be – always demanding attention! 😉 So, I started typing, trying to get it all out. Nine days later, I had a complete rough draft of this novel. It happens like that sometimes. So, you get Mina’s book first. If Bea were the jealous type, I’m sure she’d be angry. Since she’s not, her story will be next, followed by their brother Flynn. Each novel has a different, wacky take on unconventional marriage and how two people get to that place where they walk down the aisle unexpectedly. They’re meant to be different, and while each has a happily ever after ending, all the couples have to go through a bit to get there. That’s the part I love most about romance. It doesn’t always have to be pretty, because sometimes the bumpy journey is why it all turns out right in the end!
Each book in this series can be read on its own, and there won’t be any spoilers for the others that you couldn’t get from reading the general book description for each. If you find one doesn’t suit your taste (because of potential triggers), then it’s perfectly fine to skip to another. Hopefully, you enjoy the trip the Robeson Clan takes you on. I know I enjoyed the unexpected hijacking of my manuscript when Mina just would not stop pestering me. I love plotting books, but it is a wild and crazy ride when I don’t even get the chance to do that because a character comes across so strongly.
Thanks for reading & hope you enjoy!
XO,
Christine
Chapter 1
Love does not exist. Prove me wrong! Go ahead. I dare you!
I know, right about now, you’re thinking about chucking my story in the garbage. You’re probably thinking, “What kind of a romance is this anyway?” That’s what I’d be thinking, and I’m a huge connoisseur of romance. Yep, that sounds surprising, but it shouldn’t be. I’m going to let you in on a little secret so that you’ll understand. Mostly, I read the seriously dirty, depraved, and dark side of romance, because I enjoy seeing the characters miserable for a time. I’m not a complete sadist though. Those books still almost always end with a happily ever after or at least a happy for now.
Yet, here I am, about to type out my own crazy…
Shit! What the hell should I call it? I’m not quite sure ‘romance’ would be the proper term. Maybe it was though. My story just started a little differently than most. It started more like the dirty, dark side of romance that I enjoyed reading. It started with an unhappy father, two weird marriages for his only other children, a failing business, and a proposal of the indecent kind. Yep, now, if you’re ready, I’ll tell you my story, but you’ve been warned, it doesn’t start in a happy place. Not at all.
Chapter 2
“Samuel Brighton Tucker?” His name was a question on my lips for good reason. He was the man of the hour, the question that had been asked, and the sex God that every single woman alive under the age of 50 wanted a private audience to worship. Hell, some of them probably wouldn’t care about the privacy aspect.
“Is there a problem with his name?”
“Pansy-ass girly name,” I mumbled as my father looked down his nose at me, even though I was standing, and he was sitting. I was short, just scraping in at five feet tall, but I wasn’t that short. He was looking down on me figuratively. Still, I felt the impact and almost sent myself to the naughty girl corner or time out or wherever else bad little children were sent.
Only, I wasn’t a child any longer. I was a nearly 21-year-old woman. My Bachelor of Arts in Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies was almost mine for the taking, once I finished this last semester. Then, I would have to figure out what the hell kind of job I could get with that particular degree. I used to want to be an agent or an editor of romance, mostly so I could reject all the fluffy, happy pieces and focus on making the darker side of romance a much bigger deal than it already was.
I’d been told that I was living a pipe dream though, and that it would be near impossible for me to do that, because major publications loved their fluffy romance stuff. Well, that might have rung a tad bit true, in some circles, but I was bound and determined to prove them wrong, even if I had to write the damn books myself. Oh, hey, not a bad idea.
“Mina!” My father’s impertinent tone pulled me from my thoughts once more. “Have you even been paying attention at all? Brighton is a family name, not a ‘pansy-ass girly name,’ as you put it.” I snickered at the thought of my father repeating those exact words back to me. He simply rolled his eyes. My father wasn’t a bad man, or even a hard one to deal with. He’d been good to us kids and was even guilty of spoiling myself and my two older siblings a bit as we grew up. That was the whole reason I even bothered to entertain this hairbrained scheme that would supposedly save his business from complete ruin.
It wasn’t that my father was bad in business, he simply had the misfortune of having a shitty partner. Uncle Max is what we called him growing up. Now, we called him ‘that douchebag who swindled our father and absconded with a huge portion of their joint business funds’. That was where Mister Pansy-Ass Name, I mean Samuel Brighton Tucker, came in.
See, he was interested in propping up my father’s business and becoming a partner, taking over where Max slinked out. At least, Samuel’s father was looking forward to mixing our family’s businesses. From what I understood, it was a way to get his son in line, so he could take over said family business eventually. I didn’t honestly know the whole gist of it, because as my father liked to point out, I tended to get swept up inside my own head, which meant I tuned a lot of the details out. The senior Mr. Tucker had put heads together with my father and betrothed his eldest son to my father’s youngest daughter. That would be me – in case you were wondering.
“So, I marry this Tucker guy, you merge your businesses together, and then what? I get a divorce?”
“Heavens no,” my father sputtered. “Let’s hope that you two learn to be companionable and that your marriage is lasting.”
“Okay, but I’m not under some weird ‘you can’t inherit unless you marry by age 30 and pop out some babies’ clause like Flynn was,” I argued. My brother had been the eldest, and the unlucky recipient of that particular clause in our grandparents’ Last Will and Testament. “So, why would I need to stay married to the guy?”
“Because the board will want to see that he has entered into, and remains in, a stable relationship before they’ll be convinced that he should take the helm of such a prolific business empire. His grandfather, father, and I all wish to retire sometime before we’re too old to enjoy retirement.”
“Okay, so how long are we talking?”
“Mina, this isn’t a time negotiation. If he’s impossible to deal with, we’ll work through it and get you out of the marriage, but I need you to go into this thinking that it’s for the long haul.” That was not exactly convincing me to go along with this hairbrained scheme. I thought it would just be a quickie marriage of convenience, not a life-long commitment.
My father must have read that particular concern from my face as he tried to pretty up the picture for me. “Look at your brother, he wasn’t even close to ready to settle down and since his wedding, he’s already managed to get his wife with child – two children actually, since there are twins.” My father smiled at me. “They’re content and I’m going to be a grandfather, which makes me immensely happy.” My dad appeared absolutely giddy at the idea of becoming a grandfather. Of course, he would be. He loved kids and his three were all grown up now.
“That was a fluke, and you know it,” I argued. “Besides, now our cousin won’t speak to us, and your own brother is pretty pissed off about things too.”
“I don’t see why. It was Beckett who suggested the whole arrangement,” my father argued.
“Well, he assumed he would get his girlfriend back after Flynn managed to procure his inheritance.” I laughed, because I still thought he was an idiot for even suggesting what he did, but my brother and his new wife – my cousin Beckett’s one time girlfriend, or was it fiancé – seemed happy together now, so kudos to them for taking a weird situation and making it great. “My situation isn’t even close to the same,” I argued. “I don’t even believe in love and happily ever after, so that argument won’t work on me anyway.”
“Okay, then I don’t see why this is an issue for you. Call it a marriage of convenience. You will be taken care of. There will be a prenup to ensure you will always be cared for, even if things don’t work out. If,” my father’s face turned bright red as he spoke, “you so decide, you can even have an arrangement of discretion amongst the two of you.”
I gasped – yes, it was fake. “You mean, my betrothed and I can have sanctioned affairs so long as we don’t get caught?” I asked, while feigning being scandalized. “Whatever would polite society think of this?”
“Suddenly, this situation doesn’t seem as unacceptable,” a rather sensual voice called out from just behind me. My shoulders stiffened as my father puffed up his chest and got to his feet. I did not bother to turn around just yet because I wasn’t sure I was ready to face the man who would be claiming my future.
“Behave,” another man’s voice muttered. This man, I could see as his reflection shown perfectly well in the window before me. He was tall, broad shouldered, and only the tiniest bit paunchy as if he spent a little too much time kicking back the beer while out on the golf course. He had to be out on the course, or maybe a boat, often since his skin was tanned to a nice, deep leathery look. His head full of silver hair did not detract from his overall appearance though. Despite any of his flaws that my eyes tracked, because I was looking for them, he was still incredibly handsome for an older gentleman.