Mark and I met through mutual acquaintances. Honestly, at first I didn’t take him seriously. I felt that I was still too young for marriage: life lay ahead of me, plans, freedom. I wasn’t in a hurry to tie myself down with commitments.
But Mark turned out to be exactly the kind of person it’s hard not to trust. Calm, polite, attentive. He never raised his voice, knew how to listen, and always carried himself with dignity. Beside him, I felt safe. Gradually, that quiet reliability turned into affection, and then into the decision to marry him.
The only thing that bothered me from the very beginning was his parents. They were far too generous. Even before the wedding, they promised me a house, a car, and a large sum of money if I agreed to become their son’s wife. At the time, it seemed strange to me, but I decided they were simply worried about Mark and wanted to secure his future. The family was influential and respected, and I didn’t look for a catch where, it seemed to me, there was none.
On the evening after the wedding, we were alone. The room was quiet, filled with soft light. Mark stood next to me in a white shirt, visibly tense, as if he were delaying an inevitable conversation. When I lowered my gaze and looked “there,” everything fell into place.
With horror, I realized why his parents had given me such enormous wealth so that I would marry their son.
I recoiled and screamed — not out of fear, but from the sudden realization of what I had been drawn into.
Mark was not like the men I had seen before.
He stopped me immediately.
“Please, don’t scream,” he said quietly. “I’ll explain everything.”
He spoke slowly, as if he had been preparing for this conversation for a long time.
When he was a child, he had been in an accident, after which he permanently lost the ability to have children. In his family, this was considered a disgrace.
His parents could not allow society to learn the truth. They needed a wife for their son — official, respectable, without scandals or questions.
“I’m not like other men,” he said frankly. “And I never will be. But I needed a wife. Not for love. For the family’s reputation.”
Then he offered me a deal. I would receive a secure life, protection, status, and freedom within the marriage. He — a wife for society. No obligations between us, other than the outward appearance of well-being. If I wanted children, we could adopt them.
I sat on the edge of the bed, clenching my hands, and understood that in just one evening my life had turned in a completely different direction than I had expected. Before me was not a choice between “yes” and “no,” but a decision that would determine my entire future.
And I didn’t know what to answer.
