As long as you believe

The day had come to an end and the couple returned home very tired. The day had been both fun and terrifying for both of them but all in all they both had an amazing day. Adam went straight to the bathroom to wash away everything that happened today. He took such a long bath and relaxed in the shower, today was the longest day of his entire life. He has never had more exhausting day that the one he had today and all he wanted was to sleep and get lost in his dreams.

Chloe was just as tired as Adam was, she dropped on the couch and drifted off to slumber. She wanted to get points from Adam but she ended up losing points from herself. The next time she goes out she will plan ahead of time and not improvise like she did today. She couldn't sleep due how hot the temprature was and went out for a walk. The night was dark and the moon was barely visible and the sky looked empty. She walked around the house admiring how peaceful and quite the garden was.

Adam came out of the room and Chloe was no where to be seen, he thought nothing of it and dropped on the bed to sleep after turning on the AC. Chloe wonderered around the garden, she was feeling a bit home and missed her mother a lot. The feeling of not being there with them and talking care of them was haunting her, she felt like a bad daughter leaving her parents like that. She wiped the tears on her cheeks and went back inside.

"We shouldn't be here this late," she heard a male voice say in the living room when she was at the door.

"I know that it is late and as for being here I just have to talk to him," she heard a female voice reply to the first voice. She didn't recognize any of the and that was a given since she didn't really know anyone in Adam's life. She rushes into the house and startled them as she came in. They both turned around looked at her and she froze, her heart threatening to escape from the cages of her chest and run away. She came face to face with Mr. and Mrs. Ross, Adam's parents.

"Who are you?" asked Adam's mother.

She swallowed the lump in her throat and walked further in to the room and took a seat. "Ma'am my name is Chloe. Chloe Ross and I am your son's wife," she said looking at everything else other than the two people who looked like they were hit by lightning by the statement she has just made. They eyes were wide open and disbelief washed over them as they tried to process what she just said. Logan Ross was the first to regain his senses and helped his wife to seat down, Carol could not bring her mind to function after that.

The three of them sat down in complete silence and just looked at each other before they were interrupted by the head maid who brought them tea. Chloe picked her cup and drank the tea to ease her nervousness but it didn't work. "What did you say," asked Carol still trying to bring her mind around everything.

"Which part do you want me to repeat mother in-law, my name or my status as your son's wife." she said looking directly into her eyes. She wanted to appear confident but her hands were trembling with fear and uncertainty. She wasn't sure if they would love or hate but she really needed them to like her. That way it will be easy for her to convince Adam to love her if she had his parent's support.

Carol did a spit take at her statement and wiped her mouth, the room became silent again. "When did you become my daughter in-law?" she asked and Chloe shivered. She knew this moment would come when she will be interrogated about her relationship with Adam. She just didn't know that it would happen so soon.

"We got married recently ma'am," she replied.

"Why did you and my son get married without informing anyone and why did he marry you?" Carol asked after regaining her composer, she drank her tea calmly and watched Chloe very carefully. Under the intensive glare of Adam's mother she became self conscious and straightened her back and fixed her hair. Her insides were having one of the most uncomfortable time of their lives. She dared not look at her mother in-law.

"We didn't want to tell anyone because we wanted to avoid the media blowing things out of proportion about our relationship." she said so nervously.

"And the reason he married you?" Carol continued to push for answers. Chloe prayed that by some miracles Adam would come down and save her from his mother who was going to be the end of her. If she doesn't kill her with her eyes then she will do it by giving her high Bp. "Well ma'am, your son and I are in love with ea..." she stopped when she rudely interrupted her.

"Love? Are you serious? Couldn't you come up with a better lie than that, my son can't even utter the word let alone feel the emotion. So why don't you try answering that question again." she said in an ice cold tone that her soul almost ran out of her body to go to the spirit realm. She bit her lower lip and thought of how she could possibly answer that question without coming out as a fraud. One of the conditions of the contract is that under no circumstances should anyone find out that their is a contract. She played with her fingers and tried to come up with something.

"Any time today daughter in-law," she said sarcastically.

"You are right, your son doesn't love me but I love him a lot. Our marriage is not a love marriage but one of convenience, he wanted to please all of you and I wanted to be with him so we came to an agreement. I would agree to marry him and in return he will give me a chance to make him love me back. And if he is incapable of loving me back then he will at least make certain that I don't lack respect in our marriage," she said when she couldn't think of anything. She went with the delusions that she believed her marriage to be. She spoke the truth in her heart that she wished were her reality.

She didn't look up from her tea scared of meeting her mother in-laws angry face. She felt an added weight to her seat and looked up to see her mother in-law sitting next to her. Carol raised her hand and Chloe closed her eyes and braces herself for the slap that she expected, she waited for a couple of minutes but instead of a slap she was brought in for a hug. She opened her eyes and hugged her back, though confused she embarrassed her mother in-law. She was missing her mother alot and that hug was the consolation she needed in order to relax.

"Now that sounds like what my son can do," she said breaking the the hug. "I am sorry that my son has dragged you into all this." she said apologetically and Chloe was confused as to why she was apologizing.

"Why are you apologizing ma'am, your son hasn't done anything wrong." she said in Adam's defense.

"You might see it like that because you love him but the truth is that what he has done is very wrong," she said and her husband nodded in agreement with her.

"You see dear, he has played with your emotions and that is not good no matter the reasons he did this for. If he never learns to love you then you both will be stuck in a loveless marriage. A marriage without love is like a fish without water, it won't take long for the fish to die," Logan said in all seriousness.

"And he will not just ruin his life but drag you down along with him," added Carol to complete her husband's statement. Chloe listened to them very clearly and knew that everything that they said is true and had no words to refute them.

"We will never know if that is the outcome of our marriage if we don't at least try right?" she asked her voice breaking at the end. She really hoped that they would say something positive as she could already feel a heart break coming and she didn't want to break down infront of them. She blinked her tears away but a tear escaped and flowed down her cheek. Carol wiped her tear and looked at her sympathetically.

"Of course you are right my dear, love can happen as long you believe and work on it," she said with a sweet smile and tried to comfort her. Logan saw what she was trying to do and smiled." Yes dear, you just have to stay strong and remember that rome wasn't built in a day. In the same way it will take time to get what you want. The trick is to remain patient and not lose hope," he said and joined them in the seat.

"Now what do say about a family hug," he asked and they all came in for a hug. Carol and Logan looked at each other behind her and shook their head, they know their son and knew that it didn't matter what the girl did he was never going to come around to love her. But they held hope in their hearts and prayed that she succeeds in her quest of love. They had found the daughter in-law of their dreams and they were happy that their business minded son actually did something right for once in his life.

They can die in peace knowing that their son would have such a beautiful angel looking after him. Chloe felt bad for lying to them but even she was finding it difficult to accept the reality if her marriage so how could she tell his parents. She knew that they were right and apologized in her heart and prayed that in three years when she has to leave their lives they would forgive her.

Adam came out of his room to get a glass of water and saw the light in the living room still on. He went to check what it was and was faced with a shocking sight. His cold parents who never once were kind of warm to him or his sister. And never had time for physical intimacy with people of any kind were hugging his wife. He didn't know what to be more shocked about, was it that they weren't bringing the house down after meeting Chloe or the fact that they were hugging her.

The hug ended and Logan saw his son in the background and called out to him. "Adam," he said making Chloe and Carol turn around to look at him. Adam turned around and went back to his room to sleep, Chloe was confused at what just happened but Carol and didn't seem bothered by his behavior at all.