THE ANNOUNCEMENT
As I drove down St. Meredith, enjoying the serene morning breeze, I glanced at the distance I still had to cover to reach my parents' house. Despite my dad's calm demeanor, he sounded unusually urgent on the phone earlier. I suspected he might have been using this as an excuse to get me to come home for the holidays. My father always had a way of surprising me.
But this time, the surprise was more than I could handle, darn near a shock. "What?!" I exclaimed in shock.
"Why do I have to marry Michael Bryce's dad?". Michael Bryce was one of the wealthiest men in New York City, if not the richest. Michael Bryce whom I have no trace of friendship. Michael Bryce, whom I knew nothing of except what was printed on magazines and tabloids. My father looked me dead in my eyes and asked me to marry him.
I scoffed at the thought, thinking it was all an elaborate welcome-home joke. Scratch the "why", I was more concerned about how I could marry Michael Bryce. This man was one of the most influential people in New York City. The Bryce family ran seventy percent of the most successful businesses in New York, their grandfather, Oliver Bryce, had settled in New York in the late 1820s and quickly during the Great Recession, a period where Americans across the nation suffered a tremendous economic decline. Being an insightful man, he had purchased most of the buildings and properties in New York, cementing his name on any businesses he could affiliate himself with. Where there was money, there was a Bryce. Several years later, his grandson, Michael Bryce, inherited not just the family name but the wealth and power that came with the Bryce family name.
And there was me - the only daughter of a middle-class family whose father's business was still trying to thrive. Still trying to succeed was an overstated compliment, my dad's business, as I had just heard, was going under. Apparently, my father had solicited his customers to invest in a Ponzi scheme that he thought would bring double profits, only to realize he had been scammed.
"I have to repay all who invested. If I cannot get their profit, I can at least get their capital, else, I will be in prison, and you'd inherit my debt all your life," he said, almost in tears.
I began to understand what he meant by "you must marry Michael Bryce." However, I couldn't marry someone I didn't love just to pay off a debt.
"Surely there must be another way, Dad."
"There's no other way!" My father said, agitated.
"Do you have fifteen million dollars anywhere? That's the only other way, but if you don't, I plead that you consider this marriage pumpkin, it's the only way to save our business and family's reputation", my Dad pleaded desperately. I could see the gravity of the situation, but I still wasn't confident I could rush into an arranged marriage with a man I barely knew. Sadly, I was not given a choice.
"Hey, it's not a bad union. He's a billionaire, you'd get the most beautiful dress", my mother chimed in.
"Of course, a wedding is only ever about the dress! What makes you so sure that this wedding will save your business?! What about my career?!" I riposted.
"This wedding will not only save my business, but it will also save my reputation, your reputation. Our whole family's reputation Lauren. Do you think that if this got to the media, your career would survive it? I've given this a deep thought, this will be good for us, for you."
If I wanted, my dad would give about a hundred reasons why I should agree to this madness.
"This doesn't have to be chaotic. I married your father at age twenty-two, and we barely knew each other, but look at us, we have survived twenty-five years together. Lauren, please, everything we do, we do so you don't suffer," My mom added.
Despite my reservations, my parents had already signed a contract exchanging my hand in marriage for fifteen million dollars. I was left with no choice but to go through with the wedding.
No matter how my parents tried to coin it, this was suffering already in motion. "I am going to be marrying someone I do not even love, someone I do not even know, Mom! I would be unhappy for the rest of my life. Is that what you both want for me?"
"It might look and seem like that right now, Lauren, but there's definitely a good to this"
"We have already signed the contract for the fifteen million dollars in exchange for your hand in marriage. There's no going back now."
"What?!, I exclaimed.
On the wedding day, I wore a million-dollar Vera Wang dress, and my parents were impressed.
"Oh, Lauren, you look amazing!" my mother flushed. My parents were wowed as I walked to the aisle with a bunch of white roses in hand.
The wedding was a lavish affair attended by New York's wealthiest elite. Michael, my new husband, was a young billionaire whose charisma exuded effortless grace, charming in all senses.
But as I looked into his eyes, my heart sank. I realized that I was married to someone I didn't love, and I would be unhappy for the rest of my life. Despite my mother's assurances that everything would be okay, I couldn't shake the feeling that this was a mistake.
Smiling sweetly at the crowd, a few nods here and there, some formal handshakes, wine glass raises, and finally, eye contact. Our eyes locked gazes, and my heart sank, if this marriage was so he could inherit my shares of my father's rather exclusive company, I was definitely trapped. But I consoled myself by looking forward to the night's end when everything will quiet down.
"Congratulations, Mrs. Bryce!" the guests greeted over and over as we made our way to our car, driving off into the start of something very drastic, something I had never thought I'd face.
Mrs. Bryce?! Surreal...I am married.