Chosen

I'm now 28 and was single, doing okay career-wise. No girlfriend at the time this all started. A close friend of my family saw me as the answer to all her problems. Her major problem was her daughter; she was 24 and not into dating at all. Her daughter, on turning 25, would inherit everything from her late father's estate. But only if she was married; her father worried she would never marry and have a family of her own. Her mother was already divorced from her father when he died in a car accident. She had received a settlement for their divorce, so only the daughter could inherit. But the condition stopped her from inheriting anything unless she was at least married by the age of 25. If married, she would get a quarter of the inheritance. The rest when she had a child from the marriage, a cultural thing from her father's heritage. The main reason I was chosen I had always gotten on well with the daughter growing up. But hadn't seen her in about five years. I agreed only if the daughter was to agree. The daughter, as it turned out, agreed. Since her father's death four years earlier, she had been targeted by wealth seekers. This had turned her off dating even more than before. I, on the other hand, already had wealth via a trust fund and more when my parents passed. I was the safe option, you could say. A quick marriage followed; it wasn't as awkward as I thought it would be. We were good friends ever since childhood; we just hadn't considered dating. By the time she was old enough to actually date, I was in college and out of town. After college, I started my career, and she went to college in a different town. Now married, we got on with starting a family. Managing to get pregnant just after her twenty-fifth birthday. Now, years later, we are quite happy married, and she is pregnant again with our third child, due in October.