A Contract for His Runaway Bride

Lincoln led Elodie to his car, half a block away, with the paparazzi following all the way, taking numerous shots of them together. Elodie kept her blissful bride face on, but inside she was ruminating on his comment about children.

Did he still want children some time in the future? Obviously not with her, as their marriage was not going to be long-term. But did he one day want to settle down and raise a family, similar to the one he was raised in?

Even though she didn’t feel any particularly strong maternal urges, she couldn’t help feeling a twinge of jealousy that another woman, one day in the future, would be the mother of Lincoln’s children. But what place did her jealousy have in a six-month marriage agreement? None. She had signed the paperwork and she had accepted the terms. Their marriage was not the happy-ever-after type. It was an agreement so that she could receive the necessary finance for her label and Lincoln could assure his mother, before she died, that he was finally settled with the ‘love of his life’.

Lincoln helped Elodie into his car and was soon behind the driver’s seat and pulling away from the kerb. ‘Nice work back there. You almost had me convinced you’d fallen madly in love with me.’

‘Ha-ha.’ Elodie gave him the side-eye and then turned to smile sweetly for the lingering journalists. Once they had driven clear of the paparazzi, she twisted in her seat to look at him. ‘That comment you made about kids back there to the paps... Are you planning on having a family one day? I mean, after we end this arrangement?’

There was no change in his expression, but his fingers tightened ever so slightly on the steering wheel. ‘No.’

Elodie frowned. ‘But when we were together seven years ago you talked about having a family.’

‘That was then—this is now.’

‘I understand that you don’t want any kids with me, especially since we’ll only be married a matter of months, but I thought you’d still want to—’

‘I don’t.’ His tone was curt.

‘But why?’

His gaze was fixed on the road ahead, his jaw set as hard as granite. ‘Meeting my biological mother changed my mind.’

‘But I thought you liked her? She’s obviously someone you care about, otherwise why would you be marrying me to make her happy in her final months of life?’

He sent her a grim look. ‘I care deeply about her.’

‘Have you met your biological father?’

‘He died before I was born.’ There was no trace of emotion in his voice, and yet she sensed a deep sadness behind his dispassionate answer.

‘How?’

‘Car crash.’

‘How sad for your mother. Did that have something to do with why she gave you up?’

‘We haven’t discussed it much. She seems reluctant to talk about it, so I don’t push it.’

Elodie studied his inscrutable features. What was the story behind his conception?

Thankfully, the forced adoptions of several generations ago were no longer common. Most women who relinquished a baby these days did so because they wanted their child to have better opportunities than they could provide. It was still a difficult decision, and no doubt there were still elements of pressure on some women from their family of origin. But these days there were safety measures in place to give the relinquishing mother a chance to change her mind during the process of adoption. There was even open adoption now, where children maintained their contact with the birth mother while being raised by adoptive parents.

‘How are your brother and sister?’ she asked.

‘Aiden and Sylvia are both doing well.’

Elodie nibbled at her lower lip for a moment. ‘Are they adopted as well?’

‘No, my parents naturally conceived Aiden a year after adopting me, then Sylvia came eighteen months after him.’

‘Wow, that’s amazing. But did it make you feel on the outside at all?’

‘Not really. My parents were devoted to us all, and my mother in particular insisted that she wouldn’t have been able to have her own children if I hadn’t come along. She said it so often I eventually believed it.’

‘She sounds like she was an amazing person.’

‘She was.’

Elodie had seen photos in the past of his family, and never once questioned Lincoln’s place in it. She had even met them in person at their engagement party, and they had seemed like a normal family. He even looked a little like his adoptive father, Clive. It still hurt that he hadn’t told her he was adopted. It made her feel shut out and insignificant—feelings which had added to the reasons she had run away from their wedding day.

‘How did Aiden and Sylvia take the news of our reunion? Are they coming tonight to celebrate?’

‘They’re looking forward to seeing you again.’

She glanced at him in surprise. ‘So they’ve forgiven me for jilting you?’

‘You’ll have to ask them yourself.’

She rolled her eyes and gushed out a theatrical sigh. ‘Really looking forward to that.’

He gave a wry sound of amusement. ‘Did you manage to convince any of your family to come tonight?’

‘Actually, Elspeth and Mack happen to be in London at the moment, so they’ll come. Which reminds me—Elspeth has a serious nut allergy, remember? I’ll have to talk to Morag about making sure her food is not contaminated.’

‘I’ve already spoken to her.’

‘Thanks, but I’m not afraid of her, you know.’