An Indecent Marriage by Doreen Owens Malek Read Free Book Online

couldn’t see his future go down the drain because of her. He had his choice of several football scholarships for college in September, and this development would ruin all his plans. She wouldn’t see him saddled with a wife and a child when he was the only member of his family who stood a chance of escaping the mill and its life of poverty and emotional sterility. She would handle this alone, because she knew in her heart that when it came right down to it her father could not intimidate Jack. He had gone along with Jessica, holding back from a confrontation for her sake and that of his family, but in this instance he would take her father on, and he would lose. They would both lose. Jessica could not afford to let that happen.
    She was up in her room when her father came home from work that day. When he stopped at the foot of the stairs and called her, she could tell from his voice that he knew. Inwardly shaking, but outwardly calm, she went down to talk to him.
    He was waiting for her in the living room, mixing himself a drink at the oak bar. He greeted her with, “I had an interesting phone call from Dr. Carstairs at the office today.”
    His tone was the deceptively even one he used when he was about to lop someone’s head off. “I pleaded with him not to tell you,” Jessica replied resignedly.
    “The man is a licensed physician,” Portman said. “You’re a minor. He knows I’m responsible for you even if you don’t. I suppose it’s not necessary to ask who the father is.”
    Jessica said nothing.
    Portman took a large swallow of his drink and went on. “I’ve had all afternoon to think about this. Marriage to that lowlife teenaged lothario is out of the question, and so is abortion. The baby will still be my grandchild. I’ve contacted Arthur Remington in New York. He’s agreed to marry you and give the child a name. You’ll go to stay with him until it’s born, and then you can arrange a divorce. The Remingtons are an old, distinguished family, and you should be very grateful that Arthur is willing to do this for me.”
    Jessica stared at her father in horror, too stunned to speak. Arthur Remington was the son of one of her father’s business acquaintances, in his mid-twenties, a bespectacled MBA who wore polo shirts and wing-tipped shoes. She didn’t want to think about what her father must have promised Arthur in order to get him to cooperate: the Portman mill payroll account for eternity, probably. The Remingtons had status. What they didn’t have was money. As shocked as Jessica was, she was still impressed by the Machiavellian turn of her father’s mind. In one stroke, he had got his pregnant daughter a blueblood husband and himself a Remington under this thumb. He never missed an opportunity to turn adversity to his own advantage.
    “I will not marry Arthur Remington,” Jessica said in a strong voice, once she recovered it.
    “Oh, yes, you will,” her father answered softly. “Unless you want that guttersnipe boyfriend of yours charged with statutory rape.”
    “Rape,” Jessica whispered, shocked, barely able to frame the word.
    “Statutory rape,” her father repeated with satisfaction, pleased at his complete mastery of the situation. “The Chabrol boy is over eighteen, you are not. In this state the penalty is a prison term—quite a long one, I understand.”
    “You wouldn’t do that,” Jessica said, swallowing hard, feeling suddenly ill. “Even you wouldn’t do such a thing.”
    “Try me,” her father said equably. “Now do I call Arthur and tell him to make the arrangements and expect you tomorrow, or do I call the district attorney’s office? I know Cal Williams, the DA, personally. That Chabrol whelp will wind up in a cell at Walpole, I can guarantee it.”
    “Why?” Jessica said hopelessly. “Why do you hate me so much?”
    For the first time George Portman showed a softening of expression. “I don’t hate you, Jessica. I’m doing this for your own good, and