Disclaimer: Smallville, the characters, and all affiliated copyrighted materials are owned by the WB.
This story will involve some violence and other mature themes. Please leave comments if you like it, this story is almost fully written out on my computer so if you want more I can update quickly. I hope you enjoy!!!
Chapter One
Gabe looked out the window of his small house. From the outside the house looked old and as though it could fall apart at any moment. The wood that surrounded the house had been eaten away slowly by termites. The windows were moldy, and the door was also crawling with mold. Gabe had tried to prevent the damage that the outside of his house was facing, but he just didn’t have the resources for it. The inside looked a lot nicer, all of the floors were hard wood and Gabe worked on them every day to make them shine. The room was decorated nicely because he had let his wife decorate their home, he missed her dearly, and he wished that she was here now more than ever. This was because in the district that they were living in, women were to be married before they reached the age of seventeen. No one knew why they had chosen this age but it was the law that all girls were to be married by their seventh birthday. If they were not wed by then they would be sentenced to death. Gabe had seen it happen to his neighbor’s daughter who had refused to marry.
His daughter was also refusing to marry, and even though he understood why she didn’t want to get married, he didn’t want to watch her die. The final say in who a daughter would marry rested solely on her father, and so even though he didn’t want to he would force her to marry before her birthday which was just five days away. He already had an offer from a man who lived near them. He wasn’t as poor as they were but he was well off. Gabe knew however how the man treated women because of the way he saw him treat his other wives. In this district you were allowed to have as many wives as long as you could afford them all, most of the men who lived in the same town that Gabe did usually only had one wife though. They lived in the poor part of town, and were consistently brutalized by the higher class who drove through their streets just to laugh at how they had to live.
Chloe was in the backyard of her house feeding the few animals that they had. These animals provided them with the means to trade for food with other members of the town. Although Chloe was streaked with dirt from cleaning up after the animals, it was clear that she was beautiful. Her green eyes were always shining even when she was in a bad mood. Her blonde hair flowed behind her as she walked towards the gate to leave the animals to eat.
Once she was outside the gate and had locked it shut she saw the man whom she hated the most in town. His name was Gregory and he had brown hair that had touches of gray in it. He had a scruffy beard and his face always looked dirty even after he had washed it in the lake. “Chloe my dear girl.” He greeted as he walked over and leaned against the gate just inches from her.
Chloe crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m not yours.”
“Not yet, but you will be.” He gave her a toothy smile.
Shivers ran up Chloe’s spine she hated this man more than anything, and she hoped that her father would not make her marry him. She had heard the stories of how he beat his wives, of how he didn’t let them do anything. The law allowed him to do this; because once a woman was married the person who was in charge of her was her husband. Her husband was allowed to treat her as he pleased, and he was the one who told his wife what to do on a daily basis. The law also said that once a woman was married she was no longer allowed to be educated, which meant she couldn’t read, write, or attend school. Chloe had watched the smartest women in town turn into housewives. All they did was cook, clean, bear children, and take care of their husbands. This wasn’t the kind of life Chloe wanted, especially because she loved to read and she loved to write stories about the life she wanted for herself if these laws weren’t put in place. “Only in your dreams.” Chloe finally retorted to him and started to walk away from him.
He gripped her arm though before she could walk too far from him. He then pushed his face close to hers. “When I make you my wife, you won’t be allowed to talk to me like that. And if you chose to talk to me like that… well you will see what happens. You only have five days my dear to find someone else, or the only choice your father will have is me. You could make it easier on him, your house does need repairing before it falls down on him, and you know that I would give him enough money to fix the place up.”
Chloe ripped her arm away from Greg, her eyes glared at him. He was right that he would pay for her father’s house to get repaired; because it was customary to give the father of the woman you were going to marry a gift. “We’ll see what happens.” Chloe told him and then she walked to the back door of her house.
“You’ll see you will be mine.” Greg called after her and then he gave an evil laugh.
Chloe turned once she got to the back door to make sure that Gregory was leaving. Once he was gone she opened the back door, and slammed it shut. “Chloe please you know that door is hardly hanging on its hinges as it is.” Gabe rushed over and checked the door making sure she hadn’t pulled it from its hinges.
“If you make me marry that man, I swear I’ll run and talk crap about these damn laws and get myself killed.” Chloe knew that if she ran through the town yelling about how awful the laws that were set in place were she would be taken to the high official’s office and she would be sentenced to death.
Gabe looked at his daughter with sadness. “He is the only one who has offered Chloe. Everyone else was more than interested in marrying you but they already can’t afford the wives that they have.”
“That’s because everyone in this damn town has an uncanny ability to keep producing girls instead of boys. But if he is the only thing left, I don’t want him.” She then ran up the stairs and went into her room. She shut her door quietly and then plopped on her bed. Chloe put her head in her pillow and cried. She hated the law; she wanted it changed more than anything. She didn’t want to be married, because she felt as though she was still a child. But of course she knew that most of the women who married felt like children, because they were always told what to do, what to think, and what to feel. Men controlled everything, and Chloe hated that. She wanted to be independent, instead of being controlled.
Gabe stayed downstairs figuring that Chloe just needed time to herself. He knew her thoughts about the law and he did agree with her. But he needed to follow the law in order to prevent her death, and his own death. He wished that there was someone decent who would marry Chloe, at least then he would know that she could be somewhat happy.
Gabe went over to the window that looked out on the dirt road. He saw a carriage coming around the bend towards their house. He was sure that it was just another upper class man coming into their town to poke around and laugh at the way the underclass were living. Gabe was not expecting the carriage to pull in front of his house, nor did he think that the two rich men who had traveled inside it would come up and knock on his door.
He walked slowly to the door, not understanding what was happening. The men who lived in the rich part of town never came up to any of their houses; instead they would point and laugh. Gabe opened the door and let the two men inside. “Good morning.” He greeted them.
“Good morning sir.” The older man told Gabe removing the top hat that he was wearing, and then he shook Gabe’s hand. “I’m sure you are wondering why we have come here today.”
“I was curious about that yes.” Gabe said as he examined the man who was talking to him. He had sandy brown hair, brown eyes, and a beard. He was wearing a tailored suit, and carried an expensive cane. Then Gabe’s eyes went to the other man in the room. He was also wearing a suit, and from his features Gabe could tell that he was the son of the man who was talking. However the man was completely bald, and had blue-gray eyes.
The older man looked closely around the house and then he looked back at Gabe. “I heard that you had a daughter that needs to be married. We don’t usually come to this part of town to look for a wife, but I heard that your daughter was quite beautiful, and so we thought that we would check her out.”
“And is she for you sir?” Gabe looked at the older man curiously knowing that Chloe wouldn’t like to marry this man either.
He let out a laugh and shook his head at Gabe. “Oh no she is for my son, Lex.” The man glanced over at his son. “So may we see her?”
“Yes of course, just let me go get her.” Gabe smiled at both of the men and then he climbed up the stairs. He walked to his daughter’s door and knocked gently on it.
Chloe brushed the tears from her eyes and got up from her bed and opened her door. “What have you come to tell me that you want me to marry Gregory?” Her voice rose with anger.
“No, there is a man downstairs who wants to see you. This may be the only other option you have for a husband, so please go wash your face and brush your hair.”
Chloe grumbled at him but she went past him and went to their small bathroom where a bucket of water sat. They couldn’t afford running water so she always had to go get water from the town’s well. Chloe put her hands into the bucket and washed her face over the sink. She then looked at herself in the broken mirror, she sure looked better than she had just moments before. Then she grabbed the old hair brush from the side of the sink and brushed her hair. Chloe then went back to her father and followed behind him down the stairs.
Once they were down the stairs the two men placed their eyes on Chloe. She felt naked in front of their eyes even though she was wearing a simple blue dress that went down to her ankles and covered her chest completely. Both of their eyes were darting up and down her body, and Chloe felt violated. This had been the way that Gregory had looked at her when she turned sixteen, knowing that she was of age to be married. “Would you mind turning?” The older man asked her.
Chloe felt like refusing but she sensed that her father wanted her to obey, and so she turned around for them, glad that she didn’t have to see their eyes boring into her. “You can turn back around now.” The younger of the two men told her. So Chloe turned around and was glad to see that the younger man’s eyes had diverted from her and had gone to her father. “Do you mind if I take your daughter for a little walk?” The younger man looked at Gabe hopefully.
“I don’t mind at all.” Gabe smiled at the young man and then he glanced towards his daughter, giving her the look he always gave when he wanted her to behave.
Chloe shook her head a little at her father, showing him that she would behave as long as the man did. She then walked to the back door and went out into the small back yard of her house. The young man followed behind her, and then he shut the back door. They walked about a foot away from the house when he turned towards Chloe, making her stop in her tracks. “I’m Lex by the way.” He held out his hand towards her.
“Chloe.” She told him taking his hand, this was something new to her most men didn’t shake hands with women.
“When do you turn seventeen?” He was looking at her curiously, the obsessed look over her body that he had had when he first saw her was gone.
She dropped her hand from his and then looked into his eyes. “In five days. How old are you?” He didn’t look that old but she wanted to know how old he was for sure.
“I’m twenty two.”
“And you haven’t married yet?” Chloe looked at him curiously now, usually the rich married when they were seventeen because they wanted heirs to their fortune.
Lex shook his head at her. “I never found the right girl. My father brought in all these pretty rich girls from all over the place, but they always seemed too snobby for my liking.”
Chloe let out a laugh at this remark. She couldn’t believe that he thought girls were snobby, because when he married them he would have a say over what they acted like. “You could have just forced them to act nicer.”
“I don’t want to force anyone to be something they are not.” He looked at her, and then he glanced over at the animals in her backyard. “It must be hard to live like this.”
“It’s not that horrible at least I’m not some snobby rich girl.” Chloe moved in front of Lex so that she could look at him again. “Would you really defy the law by not forcing a woman to do what you wanted?”
Lex let out a laugh at her first remark and then he pondered her question a second before answering her. “Is it really defying the law when a husband tells his wife that she can act as she usually would, that she can do the things she usually would, and that she can think for herself? All the law says is that a husband has the right to command his wife and children to do whatever he asks of them, so if I ask my wife to just be herself how am I defying the law?” He raised his eyebrows at her, knowing that he had already won her.
Chloe looked at Lex in wonder she had never heard a man talk like this before. “You would let your wife do whatever she wanted, even if she didn’t want to have children?”
“Of course I would let her do whatever she wanted, but there is a law about having children, and I’m not sure that I would be willing to let my wife be sentenced to death.”
“True however the law does say that if it is proven that a woman can’t have children then she won’t be sentenced to death.”
“And of course with the amount of money I have I could easily provide fake proof of that. But can I ask you why you don’t want children?” He glanced into her green eyes, and he couldn’t help picturing a small child with the same eyes.
She looked away from him, and looked at her house. “Because if I have a girl I don’t want her to have to be forced to marry by the time she is seventeen. I want her to have a choice in who she marries, and when she wants to marry. Plus not all men are like you, and I wouldn’t want her controlled by a man. I wouldn’t want her to have to live like Gregory’s wives live, since they live in constant fear of what he is going to do to them next. My father may be willing to subject me to that kind of life, but I would rather let my child die before I let her go to someone like that. But I guess I should ask you how awful it would be if you were to never have an heir.” Her eyes went back to his wondering if he would say that he would just get another wife to give him children, or if he wouldn’t even consider marrying her at all.
“I wouldn’t want to subject my daughter to that kind of treatment either, and so having children has never been an option for me either. You see where I live men treat women even worse than they do here, and I could never give my daughter to any of those horrible men.”
“You have a knack for saying the right things.” Chloe admitted to him, since her heart was already melting for him. But a part of her was wondering if this was all an act to get her to marry him.
Lex lifted her hand to his mouth and pressed a kiss on it. “I’m just telling you the truth Chloe. And so for the first time ever I am going to ask a woman if she would marry me?” He glanced into her eyes making sure not to blink.
Chloe couldn’t believe that he was actually asking her to marry him. Usually if you wanted to marry a girl you went straight to her father and told him that you wanted to marry her. Then the father would tell his daughter who she would marry. Chloe thought about Gregory and how this had been his move when she had turned sixteen, she thought about how much she didn’t want to be Gregory’s wife, and that she might have a chance at some sort of freedom with the man who was standing in front of her. “Yes.” She whispered because she didn’t want to be married, but if she had to be she wanted to marry this man.
“I guess I better make the offer to your father now.” Lex hadn’t let go of her hand since he had taken it, and so he held it loosely in his as they made their way to the back door. Lex then pushed the door open and Chloe followed after him their hands still entwined.
Once Gabe saw their hands locked together he smiled. He was glad that he could marry his daughter off to someone other than Gregory. Lex’s father was also smiling at his son, glad that he had finally found a girl that would give him a child so that their fortune and power could be passed on. “Have you made your decision son?”
Lex shook his head at his father and then he glanced towards Gabe. “I would like to ask you for your daughter’s hand in marriage. In exchange I will give you a lifetime supply of food and riches.”
Gabe looked at Chloe closely and he could tell from the small smile on her face that she was ok with this. “You may marry my daughter.” He held his hand out to Lex and they shook to complete the deal.
“A carriage will be brought to pick her up at eight tomorrow morning. We must get her married before she turns seventeen.” The older man said and then he looked at his son. “Come along Lex we have a lot of preparations to get done.”
Lex walked towards his father and then he looked at Chloe one last time before he went out the door with his father. Chloe then went to the window and watched as they got into their carriage and left. It was then that Chloe was finally hit with the fact that this was going to be her last night at her house and this was the last day that she would see her father. Once a woman married a man from a different part in town, then she wasn’t allowed to come back to her part of town, and so that meant that she would leave her family behind for good. This was something that Chloe hadn’t thought of when she had agreed to marry Lex.
She turned towards her father and ran into his arms. Tears were flowing down her cheeks again at the thought of never seeing him again. “I forgot.” She cried into his shoulder.
Gabe ran his hand over her back. “It’s going to be alright Chloe.”
“How can it when I won’t be able to see you again?” Chloe lifted her head up to look at him.
“Because you will be placed in the upper class so you won’t have to scrape for food and you won’t have to wear old clothing. He seemed nice enough so I’m sure you will be treated respectfully, you did seem to like him.”
“But I completely forgot that I wouldn’t be able to see you again.” Chloe looked at her father sadly.
Gabe touched Chloe’s face and brushed away her tears. “But you will be able to live, and maybe you will grow to love him. Your mother and I barely knew each other when we married and neither of us thought that we could fall in love with each other, until we had you.”
Chloe remembered her mother vaguely she had died when she was young. But she did remembered that her mother had gotten married to her father on her sixteenth birthday, he had been seventeen, and then when her mother was seventeen she had had her. “I don’t know if I will ever love him dad, but I do know that I love you, and I don’t want to leave you.” Chloe hugged him tightly not wanting to let him go.
“Come on Chloe let’s talk and spend some time together before tomorrow.”
“Are you going to tell Gregory about what has happened?” Chloe could only imagine the look that would be on his face when her father would tell him the news that he had married her off.
“Yes, I will. Now let’s sit and enjoy each other’s company.” He walked over to their small kitchen table, and then Chloe sat down in the chair next to him.
They talked for a long time about memories, and about Chloe’s future. Before Chloe knew it, it was already ten o’clock at night, and her father made her go to her room to get a good night’s sleep. Chloe sulked up to her room, changed into her nightgown, and then she sat down on her bed. She couldn’t believe that this was the last night that she was going to sleep in a bed alone, the last night that she was going to have freedom to write her thoughts down in her journal.
I can’t believe that I’m going to let a man take complete control of me even if he says that he isn’t going to. I’m giving into them, the people who created the law, and the people who enforce the law. Putting up a fight showing them that I have a mind and that I don’t want to be controlled, so that I could die fighting is what I always said I was going to do. Why did I give in so easily?
Chloe wrote all of this in her journal that she had pulled out from under her pillow, and then she pressed her head on her pillow and closed her eyes. Her dreams were filled with her escaping to an island with her father, where they would live out their lives free from the law.
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Lionel's sweeet. ^_^
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