After Eight Years, I Married His Rival

1: 1

At a business dinner, my fianc kept drinking in place of my best friend.

Evelyn Simmons's stomach is bad, she can't drink. If you want to drink, drink with Lucretia Cobb.

Evelyn gave Caspar Rodriguez a little push. But Lucy's had plenty too.

She's not like you. She's tough, she can hold her liquor. The bottomless drinker Caspar was describing had drunk herself into a perforated stomach at a client dinner last month, and now shook with pain the moment liquor touched her lips.

He knew that. He just didn't care.

"It's getting late. I'll take Evelyn home first." Caspar stood and looked at me. "I'll leave this to you. Make sure our client's well taken care of."

He draped Evelyn's coat over her shoulders like it was second nature, and picked up her bag.

Evelyn, who hadn't touched a drop, needed to be driven home. I'd downed the better part of a bottle and still had to handle everyone else.

My stomach hurt too much to speak. I watched the two of them leave.

"Director Cobb, when are Mr. Rodriguez and Director Simmons going to make it official? We're all waiting to drink at the wedding."

I froze. My relationship with Caspar had never been made public. In front of others, he never showed me the slightest affection.

He and I really did look like nothing more than boss and subordinate.

While he and Evelyn had crossed that line long ago.

I smiled. "Soon. We'll let you all know when the time comes."

It was time for me to exit.

By the time the client was settled, it was past midnight. Rain came down hard, and I crouched at the curb, throwing up until my stomach seized.

A pair of leather shoes came into view. The rain stopped falling on me, blocked by his umbrella, and then a cup of hangover remedy was held out to me.

"As long as you turn around, I'll always be here."

A gentle voice, an aching tenderness in it.

I took the remedy and drank it down in one go. "You don't have to wait anymore. Tomorrow I'm officially breaking up with Caspar. I'll go with you."

The man who always said he'd never met me at the right time had appeared again.

I wanted to tell him the time was right now.

"Let me take you home."

I shook my head. "A hotel."

That home, now with Evelyn in it, I didn't want to go back to.

A year ago, Evelyn had moved into the home Caspar and I were meant to marry into, because her own place was being renovated.

A year later, her place still wasn't done.

It was raining tonight, with thunder.

She was afraid of thunder. There was no question Caspar would be in her room, keeping her company.

I had watched my grandfather struck dead by lightning in a downpour. Thunder terrified me down to the bone.

He knew that. He just cared more about Evelyn now.

He said Evelyn was a guest, and as the host I should be more accommodating.

I'd been drinking, yet I was perfectly clear-headed, and I sat in the hotel through the whole night.

No message from anyone. No one wondering why I hadn't gone home.

Early the next morning, the moment I got to the office, my assistant Morgan Lawrence came over to me. "Director Cobb, Mr. Rodriguez wants you to come see him. He's in a really bad mood."

Good timing. There were two things I needed to see him about too.

One, to resign.

The other, to break up.

2: 2

"What is wrong with you?"

I'd barely stepped into his office and he was already scowling like I owed him millions.

"Don't you know Evelyn has a bad stomach? If she doesn't have porridge in the morning she feels awful all day."

"You know she's only used to the porridge you make."

He hadn't asked where I'd been last night. He was furious for one reason only: I hadn't gone back that morning to make porridge for Evelyn Simmons.

Since when was I Evelyn Simmons's nanny?

"Lucy, you're not upset because Caspar drank in my place last night, are you?"

Evelyn looked at me. "You know I really can't drink. Caspar only stepped in because he knows how close the two of us are."

"If you're jealous over that, you'll break my heart."

I'd already made my decision before coming in, and I hadn't wanted to fight with Caspar.

I'd meant to end it cleanly. But watching the two of them play off each other, I couldn't hold the anger down after all.

"I had surgery last month for a perforated stomach. Do you think I can drink?"

Caspar's face softened a little, and something like concern came into the way he looked at me. "Surgery last month, for a perforated stomach? How did I not know about this?"

Evelyn hurried over and took my hand. "Why wouldn't you tell us about something this serious?"

"Caspar's your fianc, I'm your best friend. Why would you keep it from us?"

Why.

They were actually demanding to know why.

It made me laugh out of sheer anger. "Evelyn, have you forgotten? That day it was storming, thundering, and you were too scared to be home alone. So Caspar stayed with you."

"Now I remember. It's all my fault." Tears welled in Evelyn's eyes. "But why didn't you tell us? If you had, I would have gotten over being afraid of the thunder and stayed with you for the surgery."

Caspar joined right in. "Lucy, at the end of the day it comes down to you not telling Evelyn and me, and that's how this whole misunderstanding blew up. If I'd known you'd had that kind of surgery, I never would have let you drink last night."

He came toward me, reaching to ruffle my hair. I stepped away.

That displeased him. "You did have surgery, but you didn't say a word. Evelyn and I can't read your mind. Throwing a fit over this, don't you think you're being a little unreasonable?"

I looked at that face of his, and it felt like a stranger's.

That day, I'd called. I'd texted.

He didn't pick up. He didn't reply.

When I needed him most, I couldn't find him.

And now he was blaming me for not telling him.

To protect Evelyn Simmons, the facts didn't matter to him at all.

"Lucy, don't carry everything alone from now on. Tell Caspar and me. I'll always be your best friend, and he's the most important man in your life."

I looked at the two of them. There were some things I truly didn't intend to carry anymore.

All of this had to end.

3: 3

I took out my resignation letter and set it down in front of Caspar.

"This is my resignation. Mr. Rodriguez, please approve it."

Caspar frowned.

Evelyn's eyes reddened. "Lucy, you're the one who introduced me to Caspar's company in the first place. Now you want to quitis it because you think Caspar and I have gotten too close?"

"If that's it, then I'm the one who should go."

Caspar stared at me. "Lucretia, you're the one who told me back then that Evelyn was your best friend, that I should look out for her. If you're really jealous over how I've cared for her, then you've disappointed me."

"I only looked after Evelyn out of respect for you."

Out of respect for me?

So it turned out my face carried that much weight, enough that these two could work late into the night and go home together, over and over.

And even after they got home, when there were still topics left to discuss, he'd go into Evelyn's bedroom to talk.

I'd said clearly that it bothered me.

Caspar said they were discussing work, and that was something I really couldn't argue against.

Because every time I saw them, they were genuinely discussing product upgrades.

Evelyn, as product director, always had some fresh idea, and it always happened to align with Caspar's thinking.

And I, as sales director, had no new ideasI was just in charge of selling the product.

The things they discussed, I couldn't get a word in.

Even when I did offer my own opinion now and then, Caspar would criticize it.

He said I was shortsighted, that I only fixed on short-term profit, only cared about the short-term market.

He said Evelyn was thinking about long-term growth, that the products she designed were what would build the group's core competitiveness.

Once, when I argued with them, he even said Evelyn's position couldn't be replaced, because hers was a job that ran on brains.

My position, anyone could fillit was just running the market.

As long as the product was good, sales would take care of themselves.

For the person no one values, even breathing is a mistake.

I couldn't be bothered to keep arguing. "Mr. Rodriguez."

I put weight into it. "I'm resigning."

"Lucy, are you really going to throw away all our years of friendship, and force me out this way?"

Evelyn looked at me. "Ever since I joined the group, I've thought of nothing but what's best for you and Caspar. I suppose I gave my heart to the wrong person. Don't goI'm the one who should leave."

"Evelyn, you're not the one who should go." Caspar rose and wiped away her tears.

He looked at my own face, streaked with tears. "I think you really do need to take a break."

He signed the resignation quickly. "Go home and think things over."

I was no longer this group's sales directorand there was another title I no longer wanted either.

"Caspar."

"We're breaking up."

4: 4

"Lucy." Evelyn looked at me and cried harder.

"Why is this happening? Why is this happening?"

She kept demanding an answer. "I only wanted to help my best friend. I wanted your fianc's company to do better. Why are you treating me like this?"

"When did you turn so unreasonable?" Caspar's face was cold. "The wedding's in three days. You bring up a breakup now are you trying to leverage me for some kind of condition?"

"Caspar, Lucy." Evelyn wiped her tears. "Don't fight over me, you two. I'll go."

"Go where?" Caspar turned to her, his eyes softening. "Did you forget, it's your birthday today. There's the party tonight."

Then he looked at me, his tone hard. "You're coming tonight."

The truth was, I'd wanted to get married today.

I'd brought it up before. He said there was an important party today.

So it turned out to be Evelyn's birthday party.

So it turned out he'd long forgotten that today was my birthday too, which was why I wanted the wedding held today.

Evelyn had been at the company three years. He'd forgotten for three years.

I didn't want to say anything more. I turned and left.

Evelyn came after me. "Lucy, Caspar's just too much of an alpha male. Making you come to my birthday party tonight that's him giving you a way to save face."

Before, no matter what kind of blowup we had, even if he didn't offer me a way out, I'd find one myself.

This time, even with the out laid in front of me, I didn't want it.

"Evelyn, aren't you tired?" I looked at her. "It's just the two of us. Can you stop acting?"

"I'm not fighting for him anymore. As long as you and Caspar are happy, that's fine."

"Lucy, I never fought you for anything."

Evelyn started to say more, so I just walked on ahead.

Maybe she was so deep in the role she'd started believing it herself.

She came after me again.

"But Caspar always said a good product is the key to owning the market."

"People are the same, really. I truly don't need to fight you, because as long as I'm here, no one picks you."

"Of course, a product has no self-awareness. A person should. Don't you think?"

She dropped the pretense and looked down at me from on high.

I smiled at her. "Then I wish you both happiness."

"You're not angry?"

"When you run into garbage, you step around it. You don't argue with it or work yourself up over it."

I turned and walked off, light on my feet.

Sometimes letting go takes only a moment.

The moment just now, when Evelyn and I both said we'd leave and Caspar begged only Evelyn to stay that was the moment I let go completely.

Downstairs, a car was waiting for me.

"All the family and friends have been told. The wedding in three days can't be canceled. Is that all right?" I asked.

He nodded. "I've been ready for you all along."

I started planning my own wedding. But on the eve of it, a call came in from an unknown number.

When I picked up, Caspar's voice came through.

"Evelyn's stomach's acting up because you made a scene and upset her. Get to the hospital right now and apologize.

"If she doesn't forgive you and stay on as your bridesmaid, the wedding car won't come for you tomorrow."

He was always like this. No matter the reason for the fight, he was always this overbearing, sure that in the end I'd cave.

But this time, I wouldn't.

Because the wedding car I'd be waiting for tomorrow wasn't the one he'd arranged.

I hung up on him, done wanting anything more to do with him.

Caspar's face turned uglier when the call cut off.

"She hung up?" Evelyn asked, tears falling again.

Caspar hurried to wipe them away.

Evelyn sobbed softly.

"I don't understand why this is happening. You're Lucy's fianc, so I got a little closer to you. What's wrong with that?"

"What gives her the right to block me on every contact? You two get married tomorrow. I waited so long, hoping to be her bridesmaid. What gives her the right to treat me like this?"

"There are some things I didn't want to say, but now never mind I still won't say them."