Married To A Man I Didn't Know

I was in Shanghai visiting a friend. I went bike riding, my sport and workout. I lost my focus, ran a stop sign, was run over and broke my back, and bruises and contusions. Language I didn't understand, movement around me, a man over me shoving people away from me. He could see from how I was laying that I had a serious back injury.

Finally an ambulance came from an international hospital, he forced his will and I was moved on a board and strapped down. At the hospital I was X rayed, two broken vertebra, and other issues. My home insurance didn't cover me in China. Fear for my life going forward of being paralyzed, and the hospital told me I would be moved to a government clinic, one hundred percent Chinese. My friend didn't know what happened, my bag with my phone and ID disappeared at the accident.

The man hadn't left, he told them he was my husband. They accepted it at face value, he put up his American Express so they accepted me. The back surgery I needed was outside their capabilities. I was life flighted to Tokyo, where my insurance was valid. The man flew with me. I was operated on, my back stabilized, I wasn't paralyzed. When I met him the staff referred to him as my husband. An American on business. My future in his hands, he took over.

Months later, in therapy back in my country, walking carefully, still scared, one false move and I would be paralyzed. The man came to see me. I was embarrassed. He told me he was there to take me with him. We would marry legally, but no wedding, no family. To his world, to another continent, a new life with an American. I got my provisional papers, focused on my therapy.

Several months later the Pandemic. I had to adjust or go crazy. I owed him my life, my health, only he knew how much he had paid for me. I felt he bought me, he owned me. I owed a debt I could never pay, not in a life time. I could only be his wife and hope he didn't regret helping me.

Everything was difficult, at least I spoke English. But I didn't know anything about living in America. Cross cultural, any children would have one foot in one world, one foot in another. I thanked my culture where wives still adjust to their husband. I was well enough to have children, another thing I was thankful for. But for a man interfering , I would be paralyzed.