My Arranged Marriage Husband Was A Beast In Disguise Chapter 02

My Arranged Marriage Husband Was A Beast In Disguise Chapter 02

Arthur and I had a marriage of convenience. At least, that was how I saw it.

Arthur thought it was a blind date. He genuinely believed my dad was playing matchmaker.

Honestly, this whole mess was on my dad. Nobody knew me better than he did.

He’d known for years that I was a lot to handle. So he found me a family too mild-mannered to fight back.

Let me be someone else’s problem.

Our first meeting was six months ago.

I spotted him before I even walked in — sitting there, staring at nothing. Good-looking, sure. But the lights were on, and nobody was home.

Walking in only confirmed it. Arthur’s eyes went wide the second he saw me.

The first words out of his mouth: “Are you the wife my momma picked out for me?”

Then, with his eyes still wide: “Lord, you look mighty fancy!”

I had no response. Absolutely none. What was this man even saying?

We sat down. Every other word out of his mouth was “darlin’,” every syllable soaked in that thick country drawl.

My patience was circling the drain.

My escape alarm went off — the one I’d set in advance. I grabbed my bag.

Arthur caught my wrist.

“You ain’t said two words,” he said. “You don’t like me, do you?”

I translated the drawl in my head and nodded.

Panic flashed across his face. He fumbled for a business card and held it out.

Pine Ridge, Oakhaven County. Owner of a mining company. Plural. Mines.

I stared at the card. Was this man seriously trying to flex on a blind date?

Arthur’s face went red. “I ain’t got that many mines right now,” he said, “but my daddy’s gonna sign the rest over soon, so darlin’, please don’t think I’m poor.”

I thought about the revenue numbers my dad had quoted me.

A laugh escaped before I could stop it. Tens of millions, and he was worried I’d think he was poor?

Arthur went still. He stared at me like he’d never seen a woman laugh in his life.

The words slipped out of him like he wasn’t even thinking. “You know what, darlin’? All I ever wanted was a wife who’d love me for real.”

I had no response. Again.

My dad made his pitch later: give it one year. If it didn’t work, we’d file for an uncontested divorce and walk away clean.

I still didn’t get what my dad saw in him.

“Arthur’s a good man,” he said. “Doesn’t have a scheming bone in his body. You, on the other hand, have got enough cunning for the both of you. Seems like a fair trade.”