Page 43 of Carly's Heart

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“You were supposed to come back glowing and happy. Newlywed bliss and all that. You’re not even wearing your rings.” She squeezed her friend’s hands. “Talk to me. Whatever is wrong I’ll help you fix it.”

“There’s no fixing it. I’ve made arrangements to have my marriage annulled.”

“What?” Carly nearly shot off the bench. “Why? How?”

Tanya stared at the ground and sighed. “First, we got to our hotel in Paris and were greeted, in our suite, by his mother. His mother! Can you believe it?” she screeched. “No honeymoon night for us.”

“What? That’s insane. Who takes their mother on their honeymoon? But she left after that?”

“Noooo. She came with us. Every step of the trip. We stayed in suites. She had one room. I had a room. George either had a room or slept on the floor in hers.” She laughed maniacally. “One night I could forgive. Two was a joke. It had to be. By night four, I was mad. Okay, I was mad before that.” She jumped to her feet and stomped circles around the bench.

Carly had to turn around to keep her in sight. Tanya wrapped her arms around herself either to block the cool breeze or to hold herself together.

“There’s more to it than just this, isn’t there?” Her heart wept for her friend. First, her wedding was hijacked, then her honeymoon. Brutal.

“You have no idea. She booked the two of us for a pedicure. I said I’d meet her there because I had a favorite polish upstairs.” She stared up at the sky, hands on her hips. “I cornered George in the room.” She started sobbing.

Carly rushed to the other side of the bench and hugged her. “It’s okay,” she murmured.

“He said,” she hiccupped. “He said she was watching to ensure we didn’t consummate the marriage.”

“What?”

“Is everything okay, Tanya?” a passerby called out. Carly gave her the thumbs up.

“Yup. I knew he was marrying me for his own reasons. He told me that up front. I knew it, and I was okay with it. But I liked him. Maybe even loved him.”

“If you didn’t love him, why the rush to marry?” This was getting more and more messed up by the minute.

Tanya growled. “I had my reasons. We were friends from an online class his mother didn’t know he was taking. We met for coffee and after a few ‘dates’ hashed out a plan. He needed to marry someone by the end of summer in order to inherit his maternal grandfather’s estate.”

“Why you?”

“Why not? I had my own reasons for agreeing.”

“How does his mother fit in?” Carly asked.

“She was in agreement with the wedding, so she could get her hands on the money which bypassed her in favor of George. She wanted to keep us from consummating so she could help him have it annulled once they had the cash.”

“Jeez. That’s messed up.”

“You’re telling me. Somehow, it was my breaking point. If we were never going to have sex, I couldn’t ... never mind. I wasn’t about to spend the rest of my life with that miserable witch around and I told him so.” She laughed, the sound cold and achingly painful. “I booked my own flights back. Thank heaven I have my own money. I stayed in Calgary and beat them to the punch. I started the process to have my marriage annulled.”

“That fast? I thought it would take longer.”

“When you can prove that you’ve never ....” She blushed. “It’s easy.”

“You’ve never? Holy smokes. Girl, you need a hug.” They embraced for a long moment. “This calls for carbs. What’ll it be? Pizza? Pasta? Sweets?”

“Yes. All of them.”

“Come on. I’ll let Mike know he’s got Layla for the night. We’ll go to my place and eat ourselves into a carb coma. Then, we’ll figure out how to tell your family. I assume they don’t know.”

“They don’t. You know what? Marriage sucks.”

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