I Woke up Next to Lukas Podolski and Holy Crap We're Married

*Monika POV*
The moment had come. After a day of intense planning and going over ever possible strategy, I had formed the perfect plan to get Lukas back. With the help of the surprisingly clever Matt, all the pieces were falling into place.
"You are sure she'll do what you ask?" I questioned Matt for the millionth time.
"I told you before, I have Reyna's mom eating out of the palm of my hand," Matt gave me a cocky grin as he folded his arms across his chest and leaned against the wall in a deserted hallway of his hotel.
"You better be right or all our plans are ruined," I hissed.
"Look Monika," Matt narrowed his eyes at me. "The woman cares more for me than her own daughter and believes me over Reyna so I think she will fall for my whole acting about needing to talk to Reyna and calling her. You just be ready when it falls into place."
"Oh I will," I smiled with venom. "I most certainly will be ready."

*Reyna POV*
I woke with a start, my heart racing and my body trembling. Every cell in my body was telling me that something was going to happen today, something life changing but I didn't know if it was going to be good or bad. I gathered the covers around my bare shoulders and tried to stop my shivering. Looking to my right I found that Lukas was peacefully sleeping off another very long and intense bout of sex. Memories of our night together brought warmth back to my body and I smiled down at the man I loved more than anyone in the world. After making love on the pool table we had somehow gotten upstairs--with a few stops along the way--to continue our activity. It seemed like we couldn't get enough of each other and were catching up for the lost time. I smoothed back the hair from his forehead and kissed him softly on the cheek.
I got out of bed and went into my room to get dressed, along the way passing my discarded purple bra that had really done the trick last night. At the rate we were going and the effect the color had on Lukas was making me reconsider just wearing purple for the rest of my life. Once in my room, I threw on a pair of white jeans and a pink long sleeved shirt, my goal was to get at least a little work done for Jack today. I didn't know how well that was going to work out because my head was pounding from all the beer I had consumed yesterday. The hangover was a just price to pay after drinking all that amazing beer and I wouldn't have gone back in time to change a thing. Gathering my papers I padded quietly back into Lukas's room, wanting to be near him. I laid my folders on the bedside table and was going to climb back into bed and work beside his beautiful sleeping form when my phone rang.
I quickly stepped out into the hallway and closed the bedroom door before answering, "Hello?"
"Reyna," came the unexpected sharp tone of my mother.
I gathered my wits as quickly as I could and replied, "I'm glad you called."
The last time we had spoken had been during that horrible scene in the back of the coffee house when she had screamed that I was no longer a part of the family. I was glad she was back to talking to me because however much she hurt me she was still my mother but I wondered what had happened to make her speak to me again.
"Your father and I are leaving for the States this afternoon," my mother said, not one to dwell on sentimental talk. "We want to speak with you one last time before we go."
"Of course," I said without thinking. "There are some things we need to sort out."
"Can you meet us now?"
"Sure. Should I come to the hotel?" I asked pacing back and forth in the hall.
"No," my mother objected. "There is a little park in front of the hotel, do you know it?"
"Yes." I had walked through it a few times during work breaks. "I will see you there."
My mother hung up without another word. Could this be the event that had woke me up? To finally be accepted by my family and not have to chose between them and Lukas. My heart swelled at the prospect as I quickly grabbed my purse and shoes from my room. I wanted to share this moment with Lukas but let him sleep knowing he needed the rest. I left him a quick note, too excited to go into much detail as I called a taxi to come pick me up.
A half hour later I handed my driver the money I owed him and climbed out of the car. I straightened my shirt, quickly brushed my hair down, and took a deep breath before walking into the park. I wanted to please my mother after she was making an effort to reach out to me and admit that she was wrong so I would make sure I looked nice to fit her habit of perfection. My joy could hardly be contained, the clicks of my heels sounding loud in the early morning. I smiled foolishly, thinking that finally after so many years my mother understood how much Lukas meant to me and would accept him because she loved me too much to want to hurt and be estranged from me. I made myself walk a little slower and calmer as I rounded the corner of a bush where I knew a large open area was and the most likely place my parents would be. The sight that awaited me around the bend made the smile fade from my lips, my footsteps stop, and my heart crack.
"Reyna!" exclaimed Matt, rushing to my side. He pulled my limp body into his arms as I stared at my mother over his shoulder. She meet my violet eyes without hesitation or an ounce of guilt, in fact she looked pleased as she watched Matt and I, like everything was finally in order again. My mother understood nothing. "I am so happy to see you! My god how I’ve missed you my love!"
The words came out of Matt's mouth without difficulty but I noticed what I had been to deaf to before...the words were hallow. The fact that he was still holding me made my limbs tense and feel as if I was being overpowered and invaded. I tried to pull away from him but he wouldn't let me go, continuing with the charades of actually caring for me as he poured well rehearsed tender words to sway me. Having enough of it I managed to maneuver my elbow into his stomach. He doubled over and clutched his middle as I stepped around him to confront my mother. Matt grasped my upper arm roughly and his pissed glare met mine. "Is that any way to treat your fiancé?"
"Go to hell," I snarled, jerking my arm from his hold. I wasn't here to talk to him, I wanted nothing more from that low life but I needed to speak to my mother.
"Reyna you b--!" Matt cut himself off as his violent nature got the better of him. I watched as his face contorted into hideousness as wrath consumed him from my refusal to fall for his tricks. Finally, he looked like the man I knew him to be inside.
"I what?" I challenged him. I was no longer a shadow of a person that he could order about like a slave.
"You broke my heart and I want you back my dearest." His lie was so convincing my mother jumped in to back him up.
"Reyna, you are acting like a spoiled brat!" my mother chided me, narrowing her eyes in annoyance.
"Can you not see him for what he is mother?" I screamed at her, tears pouring down my face. At the moment I was glad that no one was in the park at this hour and that we were alone for the explosion that was to follow. "Can you not see that he cares nothing for me?"
"You've always been a disappointment to me but this is the worst thing you have ever done!" my mother screeched. "You will marry Matt and that is final!"
"I won't," I whispered utterly defeated. This was it, this time the separation from my family was final. My mother did not want to change and I was no longer going to be bullied into changing. "It's over. Did you hear me Matt, I will never marry you."
I turned to look him straight in the eye so he would see my declaration was uncompromising but he wasn't paying any attention. Instead he was staring in the direction I had came from and all I saw was a manicured hand giving the thumbs up. I was so caught up in my confusion over the magical hand that I didn't have time to protest as Matt pulled me into his arms and kissed me. My eyes widened and my brain froze as his disgusting mouth fumbled over mine, his arms too tight around me to fight him off.
I heard a gasp from my right and I was freed by Matt. My heart was beating painfully hard in my chest as I saw Matt's triumphant grin and I realized the hand had been a signal to some horrible deranged plan.
I knew who had gasped before I looked up into the wide blue eyes of Lukas.
*Lukas POV*
When Monika had called me saying that she had a feeling Reyna was in trouble I had thought she was just trying to find an excuse to talk to me. But when I read Reyna's short note saying she was at the park and Monika mentioned one I was too worried not to go and make sure she was alright.
The scene I arrived to was one that left me feeling like someone had physically punched my chest. Seeing Reyna in the arms of the man I recognized as the stranger that had talked to me at the bar the night of the charity event left me feeling weak and sick. I knew that bastard was her ex Matt and that she had succumb to the wishes of her family and was leaving me. The fact that she wasn't struggling in his arms was testament to that.
My heart broke, never had I felt such pain in my entire life. Everything I believed in…shattered in an instant. Reyna was not mine and nor was she ever going to be. I felt like a shell of a man, nothing seemed to matter anymore. The life had been suck unmercifully out of me in one moment.
I looked up and met Reyna's eyes. My heart hardened and I gathered my pride up like a shield for what was about to happen.
"Lukas, this isn’t what it looks like!" Reyna, my beautiful, lying, cheating wife reached out to me but I shook my head and moved away from her.
"I am sure it is exactly how it looks," I replied coldly.
"It's a trick! I only came here to talk to my mother I had no idea Matt would--." She was an excellent actress her tears falling from those violet eyes that had hypnotized me so easily. I am such a fool, I thought.
"Stop your lies!" I yelled slashing my arm in the air. "I don't want to hear it!"
"Please Lukas, you have to listen to me!" Reyna had the nerve to say as she put her hands on my shoulder.
I shock them off like they were claws and sneered at her, "I should have known you would pick your family over me, you did it before at the coffee shop."
"Please--," she tried to beg.
"No," I turned my back on her, my heart too fragile to bare the sight of her. "Leave me alone."
"But I love you!" Reyna lied. My heart constricted and my footsteps slowed. She rushed in front of my path and put a hand under my chin and lifted my head so that I met her pleading eyes. I made my heart ignore her and fisted my hands. I was done being her puppet, done with whatever she was trying to do with me.
"I never loved you," I practically spit in her face. Her hands dropped to her side and I pushed past her, turning my back on her and not looking back.
*Reyna POV*
Knowing I was about to break down at any moment from the torture and betrayal I had seen lurking in Lukas's eyes and his words I watched him go without a word. When he was out of sight I drew in a heavy breath and tried to keep it in for another few minutes. There was no way in hell I was going to breakdown in front of the gleeful Matt and Monika or my unmoved mother.
"Guess this means you are single," Matt smiled as I walked like a ghost past him. His words made me halt next to him, his smirk making me fume inside. "Time for us to go get mar--."
I didn't let him finish, just punched him straight in his lying mouth. I did it with such force that I heard a satisfying snap and he landed flat on his ass. I wanted to do it again for all the pain he had cause me but I was done with him and everyone in this park.
"Reyna! Have you lost your mind!" my mother rushed to Matt's side. I said nothing, leaving the two and walk past Monika without another look. They were in my past, I wasn't going to let them control or hurt me anymore. I herald another taxi and quickly got in.
"Where to Miss?" the elder taxi driver asked kindly.
"Just drive for now," I whispered to him. He nodded and pulled into the now busy road. "Sir?" I said when I could push my voice past the lump in my throat.
"Yes, Miss?"
"Can you just ignore my presence here for the next ten minutes?" I asked softly, meeting his eyes through the mirror.
His eyes spoke of understanding as he nodded, "I can do that."
"Thanks," I managed to chock out before I burst into tears. It wasn't graceful, nothing like ghe pretty crying in the movies. Tears streaked endlessly down my face, I sobbed, hiccupped, and my whole body shook with the power of my grief. I felt a part of my heart die in that moment of loneliness and like I would never be happy again. After ten minutes I made myself pull together. Dragging my sleeve across my face I wiped the tear tracks away and breathed in slowly to stop the sobbing.
"Thank you," I said again to the driver.
"I know it's none of my business Miss but things will work out," the driver said gruffly.
I laughed despite my sorrow, "You don't even know what is wrong."
"Only one thing that can cause that much pain...true love."
"True love is for fairy tales."
"It's real and you've experienced it," the driver insisted giving me a pointed look. "And because it is true love that means you are meant to be together and things will work out." I wanted to argue at the impossibility but a part of me hoped so fiercely for his words to be true. "So, where should I take you?"
I gave him the address to Lukas's house, maybe I could try to talk to him again after having some time apart to cool off. I had to at least try one more time or I would torment myself with thoughts of the missed chance. We got there in record time but when he pulled up to the house I saw something that made my heart stop.
My suitcases were on the porch.
"Can you wait one minute?" I asked the driver.
"Of course."
I stepped out of the care and ignoring my things tried to open the door. It was locked. I sighed and opened my bag rummaging around for the keys when I suddenly remembered that I had forgotten them in my deluded excitement that morning on my bed. Of all the times to forget them today was the worst. I rang the doorbell and pounded the door like a maniac but I didn’t care. It was all useless, Lukas didn't want to see me ever again.
I bit my lip hard to keep a pitiful cry from coming out as I picked up my bags and walked towards the cab. The nice driver came out and put them into the trunk as I stared at the house that had been more of a home to me than anywhere else in the world. I looked down at my hand to see my ring there, Lukas's family ring. It's not mine anymore, I thought remorsefully. I walked over to the mailbox and slipped the ring off my finger, it wasn't easy as it wanted to stay where it had been for so many months but like me with Lukas it finally let go. I laid it reverently in the mailbox before shutting it closed with finality. That morning when I had left this place I had felt on top of the world. Now I was leaving it heartbroken and with the knowledge that the man I loved hated me. How far I had fallen in such a small amount of time.
As I walked back and got into the cab I thought I saw one of the curtains on the upper floor move but I dismissed it as only hopeful wishing. I told my driver to take me to the hotel where all those months ago I had woken up next to Lukas at. Traffic wasn't bad and we got there in ten minutes. He helped me unload and then the driver turned to me.
He fixed me with a kind but firm gaze, "Don't lose hope dear. Things will work out."
"Than you for everything," I said to him even though I had lost the ability to believe his words. "How much do I owe you?"
"Nothing, it's on the house." With the tip of his hat he was gone. I stood watching the taxi merge with other yellow taxis in a daze, thanking the old man again in my head. I didn't even know his name but he had helped me in a small way today.
I gathered my things and walked up to the front desk only to find that the same person that had helped check out Lukas and I so long ago was manning the desk. The eyes of the man I remembered was named James widened when he saw me approach but he mercifully didn't say anything about the absence of Lukas when I asked for a room. There wasn't many people in the lobby but I could tell a few knew who I was or more importantly who I was married to and gave me curious looks. The whispering began and I looked away, concentrating instead on James's fingers typing away on the keyboard.
"The only room available is one hundred and three as we are expecting a Christian convention this afternoon," he said glancing up at me. My pulse raced and I felt faint. It was the same room number where my drunken marriage had started and there was no way I could handle being in it. Too many painful memories.
"Do you mind if I use a phone to call a guest?" I asked keeping my tone as normal as I could.
"Not a problem." He handed it to me with a pitying look. I turned my attention to dialing Teresa's room number and praying she was in.
"Hello," came her sing-song answer.
"Teresa I need a place to stay," I whispered into the receiver.
"Wait why? What about your hunky hu--?"
"Please," I hissed. I could feel another bout of hysterics rising from everything that had happened today and I didn't want to do it in the middle of the lobby with an audience.
"Sure come up."
I thanked the man and quickly went to Teresa's room. When she opened the door and saw me she hurriedly ushered me in, knowing immediately something terrible had happened.
I burst into tears as the reality that Lukas and I were over hit me full force.