Married Three Years, but I'm Not Her Match

Every time I go out with my wife of three years, Jillian Luke, and my best friend, Shawn Lynch, the two of them get mistaken for a couple. At the mall, a sales clerk hands them a complimentary gift for couples. At a restaurant, the server asks if they'd like to join a couples' event. On trips, strangers tell them what a good match they are, then shove a phone into my hands and ask me to take their picture. At first, I do feel awkward about it. Jillian never explains. Every time, Shawn is the one who smooths things over with a smile. "Maybe the two of us just look a little like a couple. Don't overthink it." He says it so lightly that I tell myself, again and again, not to take it to heart. This goes on until Thanksgiving dinner, where Jillian says she'll officially take me to meet her parents. I've spent three whole months preparing. But the moment we walk in the door, Jillian's mom, Carol Simpson, grabs hold of Shawn, smiling from ear to ear. "Look at these two, everyone. They look so much like a married couple." The relatives join in on the teasing. "Just how many times have Jillian and Shawn kissed? They look more alike every day." The whole room is laughing. I stand where I am and look at Jillian. All she does is reach out and straighten Shawn's slightly crooked tie. She doesn't object, and she doesn't deny it. At that moment, I finally understand that it's not that she can't be bothered to explain. It's that in her heart, the one she truly wants to marry has never been me. Chapter 1 Chase's POV My mother-in-law, Carol Simpson, held onto my best friend, Shawn Lynch, and gushed over him for a long while before she finally noticed me still standing in the doorway. "Who's this?" she asked. Before I could answer, my wife, Jillian Luke, took the single-origin coffee beans and blood pressure medication from my hands. "He's Shawn's friend, Chase Sherman. He's just helping Shawn carry the gifts." With that simple remark, she wiped away three years of our marriage. Carol opened the gift box, her face lighting up with surprise and delight. "Shawn, you remembered that Raymond loves this coffee?" Shawn froze for a second, then quickly smiled and nodded. "It's the least I could do." I was the one who had asked someone to buy the coffee beans straight from the source. I was also the one who had gotten the blood pressure medication a month in advance, based on Carol's usual medication routine. In three years of marriage, Jillian had never taken me to meet her parents. She'd said her family believed in marrying someone of equal standing and might not be able to accept my background, so she'd asked me to give her a little time. Still, I remembered exactly what coffee Jillian's dad, Raymond Luke, liked and what day Carol's medication would run out. I'd always thought that as long as I did well enough, one day I'd be accepted by them openly. "What a thoughtful young man," Carol said, patting Shawn's hand affectionately. Nobody asked who had bought those things, just as nobody cared why I was standing in the doorway. … At the dinner table, Shawn sat next to Jillian as if it were only natural. I was given the seat farthest away. While the food was being brought out, Jillian got up and pulled me aside. "Is this what you meant when you said I'd get to meet your parents?" I asked. "My mom saw a photo of Shawn and me a while back and assumed he was my boyfriend," she replied. "Her health isn't great, so I need you to put up with it and play along, just for today. No matter what, it doesn't change the fact that we're legally married." Before I could say a word, she'd already turned back to pull out Shawn's chair for him. Once all the dishes were on the table, Jillian picked every bit of cilantro out of the dish in front of Shawn and placed the peeled shrimp into his bowl. The moment Shawn mentioned his stomach was bothering him, she immediately checked the temperature of the broth, then got up and brought him stomach medication. "Didn't I tell you to avoid cold drinks because of your sensitive stomach?" Her tone was reproachful, but every gesture was impossibly gentle. In the second year of our marriage, I had come down with a 102-degree fever. I'd lain in bed, clutching the hem of her shirt, begging her to go to the hospital with me. All she did was set some fever medicine by the bed. "I have an important meeting today. Just take the medicine yourself for now." That day, the fever left me in a haze, and in the end, a neighbor had to call an ambulance. But Jillian hadn't been like that when we were dating. When I sprained my ankle one rainy day, she held me up and walked over a mile with me through the rain. By the time we got to the hospital, she was soaked through, yet she still crouched down to rub my foot. She said, "Now that you have me, you'll never have to tough it out alone again." It turned out I was no longer the one she cared about. … After dinner, Carol took out a gold signet ring. "This has been passed down to the sons-in-law of the Luke family." With that, she slid it onto Shawn's thumb. Shawn instinctively went to take it off, but Jillian pressed her hand over his. "Keep it on for now. It'll make Mom happy." She said so naturally. I looked down at my own bare fingers. The day we made our marriage official, Jillian had said that once her parents accepted me, she'd hand me the Luke family heirloom herself. I'd been waiting for three years. Then Carol brought out a photo album to show me how close Shawn was to the Luke family. In the photos, he was with them on Christmas Eve, during a memorial visit to the family plot, and at Raymond's birthday celebration. There was a family photo too. He stood beside Jillian in the center of the frame with her parents. The photo was taken last Christmas. That year, Jillian said her company was sending her overseas at the last minute. Alone in our apartment, I made a Christmas dinner and waited from Christmas Eve into the early hours of Christmas morning. At midnight, I texted her, "Merry Christmas." Six hours later, all she sent back was "Okay." Carol closed the album and casually asked what my parents did for a living. I told her that my parents had died young and that my grandma had raised me. The smile on her face visibly faded. "No wonder." Chapter 2 Chase's POV "A man needs a respectable family background and a proper upbringing to be worthy of standing beside Jillian," Carol went on. "If it weren't for Shawn, someone with your background would never have crossed paths with our family in a million years. But since you're Shawn's best friend, you can still be the best man at the wedding." I looked at Jillian. She kept her head down, pouring Shawn a glass of water, and never once looked at me. As I was leaving, she even handed me a garment bag. "Shawn is wearing this tomorrow. Drop it off at the dry cleaner's on your way." I took the bag without arguing. On the way back, I reached out again about the out-of-state job I'd given up three years ago to get married. "Mr. Chapman, is the creative lead position you mentioned before still open?" … Carol and Raymond had only planned to stay for three days, but once they were convinced Shawn was their future son-in-law, they decided to extend their stay and plan the wedding themselves. Jillian told me to go back to our apartment and clear out the rest of my belongings. "My mom's been coming over a lot lately. Don't let her find any trace of our secret marriage." When I pushed open the master bedroom door, our wedding portrait was gone from the wall. In its place hung a photo of Jillian and Shawn from a trip. They were standing at the foot of a snowy mountain, with Shawn leaning on her shoulder. Ironically, I was the one who had taken it. The bedding, the curtains, and the dishes I'd picked out myself were all still there. Carol ran her hand over the handmade porcelain plates I'd chosen and couldn't stop gushing. "Shawn really does have great taste. Look at how cozy this place turned out. Jillian's lucky to be marrying him." Jillian knew full well that I'd designed the whole apartment myself, yet all she did was smile and agree. "As long as he likes it." Carol complained that the walk-in closet wasn't big enough and told me to clear out whatever "that guest staying here" had left behind. One by one, she threw my clothes, my anniversary gifts, and everything else that showed I'd lived there for three years into a suitcase. A picture frame fell out. It held the photo of Jillian and me from the day we got married. Carol bent down to pick it up, but Jillian got there first. She stepped on the photo, then stuffed it into the bottom of the suitcase as if nothing had happened. "It's nothing. Just an old photo I don't need." I watched the sole of her shoe press down on my face in the photo, and suddenly I didn't feel sad anymore. Raymond soon set the wedding date for the 18th of next month. I froze, holding a hanger in midair. That day happened to be my third anniversary with Jillian. Three years ago, she'd promised me, "On our third anniversary, I'll definitely make our marriage public, and then I'll give you the grand wedding I owe you." But now, she was having a wedding with my best friend and even making me the best man. … After Carol and Raymond left, the living room went quiet all at once. I stared at Jillian. "I saw the album. How long have you and Shawn been together?" Her expression shifted slightly, but she quickly composed herself. "It's not what you think. I'm just humoring my parents for now, until we get through this." I laughed. "Humoring them? When his stomach bothers him, you remember he can't drink anything cold. The second he frowns, you know to get him his medicine. Even the curtains in our home were bought because he's sensitive to light, weren't they? Is all of that humoring your parents too, Jillian?" The moment the words left my mouth, even I was stunned. It turned out the signs had been there all this time. I just hadn't been willing to admit it. I looked at her. "Let's make an appointment to file for divorce." She was silent for a moment, then suddenly brought up Grandma. "There's no need to take it this far. If you divorce me over something this trivial, I'll have no choice but to tell your grandma everything." The color drained from my face. Grandma had just had heart surgery, and she'd always believed our marriage was happy. Jillian had once knelt beside Grandma's hospital bed and promised to take care of me for the rest of her life. She knew perfectly well that Grandma was the only family I had. She also knew how terrified I was of upsetting Grandma over my marriage. Yet for Shawn's sake, she was using Grandma as leverage against me. "As long as you play along with the wedding, she'll never hear about any of this," Jillian said. I closed my eyes for a moment. "Fine." … Two days later, Carol handed me the wedding checklist. The hotel was the one I'd visited more than a dozen times before choosing it. The invitations, the music, the floral arrangements, and the place cards had all been taken from the wedding binder I'd kept for three years. At the dress fitting, Jillian put on the satin wedding dress I liked best. Shawn stood behind her and zipped it up. "This one suits you best." I bent down to straighten the hem of her dress, and the wedding ring I'd kept hidden beneath my collar suddenly slipped out. When Jillian saw it, she quickly stepped in front of me. I thought she'd finally remembered that I was her husband, but all she did was tuck the ring back under my collar. "Keep it hidden. Don't let my parents see it." Carol also decided that the bottle of red wine Jillian had been saving for years would be opened at the wedding. The wine was from the year I was born. Jillian had once said she'd only open it on the day she publicly married me. But now, she didn't object. The wedding I'd waited three years for was finally being planned. The hotel, the wedding dress, the music, and the red wine hadn't changed. Only the groom had been replaced. That night, I heard back from the company about the out-of-state job. Chapter 3 Chase's POV The company's reply read, "We're still keeping the creative lead position open. The new project begins in 40 days." I accepted the offer and set my start date for after the divorce was final. … On the day of the wedding, I arrived at the hotel early, dressed in the best man's suit. When the guests started arriving, Shawn stood at the entrance arm in arm with Jillian, greeting them. Carol had me stand beside them as "Shawn's friend", collecting gifts and keeping track of the gift list. It wasn't until the wedding march began that I realized they were still playing the music I'd chosen. The vows the officiant read came from my wedding binder too. The day we made our marriage official, Jillian had said, "I'll only make these promises out loud when I publicly marry you." But now, even though the wedding dress, the wedding ring, the music, and the vows hadn't changed, all I could do was stand below the stage and watch her marry someone else. Before the ring exchange, Jillian motioned for me to come up on stage. Shawn smiled and held out his hand to me. "As my best friend, you should personally give us your blessing." I handed Jillian the ring that had originally been meant for me. Just as she was about to put it on Shawn's finger, I suddenly got a call from the hospital. A neighbor had forwarded the wedding livestream to Grandma, and she'd seen me standing at my own wife's wedding in the best man's suit. She had suffered a heart attack and been rushed to the hospital. The nurse said Grandma was refusing to cooperate with the pre-op preparations. All she wanted was to hear Jillian herself explain what was really going on with the wedding in the livestream. For the first time, I grabbed Jillian's hand in front of all the guests. "Come to the hospital with me. All you have to do is say one thing to Grandma. Tell her this is a misunderstanding. I'm begging you." When Jillian saw the panicked tears in my eyes, she actually took a step down from the stage. But Shawn tore the boutonniere off his lapel, his eyes red-rimmed. "If the bride leaves in the middle of the ring exchange, everyone will be convinced I stole another man's wife." Carol blocked her way too. "This whole room is full of our friends and family. If you walk out today, how will Shawn ever hold his head up again?" Jillian stopped in her tracks. A few seconds later, she pressed her car keys into my hand. "The doctors are already working to save your grandma, but right now, Shawn only has me. A wedding only happens once in a lifetime. I'll come to the hospital as soon as the ceremony is over." I asked her, "What if Grandma doesn't make it until then?" She avoided my eyes and didn't answer. I let go of her hand and rushed to the hospital alone. Before Grandma was wheeled into the operating room, she was still asking, "Why isn't Jillian here?" I held her hand, fighting back tears. "She's on her way." … Meanwhile, on the livestream playing on my phone, the entire room broke into applause. Using the vows I'd written, Jillian promised Shawn the rest of her life. Then, in front of everyone, she tilted her head up and kissed him. The wedding photographer soon posted photos from the event. In one, I was standing behind them dressed as the best man, holding up the hem of Jillian's dress. My college classmates recognized me. Someone dug up photos from three years ago of Jillian proposing to me and putting an identical ring on my finger. Both sets of photos quickly spread through the Luke family group chat. But Carol and Raymond didn't know that I was Jillian's legal husband. They were convinced that I was the other man—someone who had gotten close to Shawn under the guise of friendship and had been hounding Jillian for three years. Chapter 4 Chase's POV By the time Carol and Raymond rushed to the hospital with Shawn, Grandma had just been wheeled into the ICU. Right in front of everyone in the hallway, Carol jabbed her finger at me and yelled, "For someone from such an ordinary background, you sure have plenty of tricks up your sleeve! You got close to Shawn on purpose and then hounded Jillian. Don't you have any shame?" I looked at Shawn. Wearing the gold signet ring passed down to the Luke family's sons-in-law, he stood behind Carol as if he were the one I'd hurt. Jillian arrived soon after. I thought that this time, at least, she'd tell the truth, but all she did was pull me aside. "I'll take care of it as soon as I can." … That night, she came to find me with divorce papers and a public statement. The statement claimed I'd known all along that Jillian and Shawn were in love, yet I had still used Grandma's critical illness to pressure her into a secret marriage. It stated that we were married in name only and had been living apart for a long time. It also alleged that, to get back at Shawn, I'd deliberately leaked the proposal photos and old intimate pictures of us. Signing it meant personally admitting that I was the one who had come between them. I looked at her. "Three years ago, who was the one who proposed to me? Who knelt beside Grandma's hospital bed and promised to take care of me for the rest of my life?" Jillian went silent for a moment. "Shawn is innocent in all this." "And what did I do wrong?" I asked. She glanced toward the ICU. "Reporters are already camped out downstairs. If you don't play along, my parents will have no choice but to ask your grandma themselves whether she let you pressure me into marrying you. "She's barely out of danger. You know better than anyone what will happen if she gets agitated again." Once again, she was using Grandma to force me to step aside for Shawn. In the end, I picked up the pen and signed both the statement and the divorce papers. Jillian let out a visible sigh of relief. Before she left, she even tried to hug me. "Once this is settled, I'll explain everything to my parents." I took a step back, avoiding her. … On the day the waiting period for our divorce ended, we went to the courthouse. Carol and Raymond were already waiting outside with Shawn, surrounded by their friends, family, and a photographer. To clear Shawn of any suspicion of being the other man once and for all, Jillian had me admit on camera that I'd used our sham marriage to keep hounding her. I read every single word of the statement. The moment I finished, Carol thrust a bouquet into my hands. "You're Shawn's best friend. You should be the one to hand him his happiness." I'd barely gotten my divorce decree when Jillian walked up to the marriage license counter with Shawn. Less than half an hour later, they came back out holding their marriage certificate. Carol even had me take their first photo as a married couple. In the frame, Shawn stood beside Jillian, wearing the gold signet ring passed down to the Luke family's sons-in-law and holding up the marriage certificate. Outside the frame, their relatives and friends gushed about how the two of them had finally gotten their happy ending. As for me—the husband who had actually stayed by her side for three years—I had just personally admitted that I was the one who'd come between them. After taking the photo, I handed the phone back. "Congratulations." Just as she always did, Jillian told me, "Go back to your place and wait for me. I'll come find you as soon as the celebration dinner is over." I didn't tell her that I'd already given up the apartment and shipped my luggage to a new city, Larkhaven, the day before. After leaving the courthouse, I headed straight for the airport. That night, their photo as a married couple flooded the social media feeds of their friends and relatives. Shawn captioned it, "We should have gotten this marriage certificate three years ago. Today, it's finally ours." For the first time, Jillian replied publicly, "For the rest of my life, there's only you." By then, my flight had already taken off.