Ten Years, One Faked Death, No Regrets

After graduation, my boyfriend transformed overnight into the Pruitt family's long-lost true heir.

He went off to take over the family business, and I built my own design world.

Even living in different places, we still told each other everything.

Until one name started showing up in his messages, again and again.

Patsy Henson.

He said she was the daughter of an old family friend of the Pruitts, that she had given up her overseas company just to be his assistant.

And she stayed for three years.

The day the long distance was supposed to end, he threw me a welcome-home dinner for just the three of us.

Patsy sat on his left, one arm loosely circling his waist, and slid a little bottle across the table.

The girl smiled so sweetly.

"Come on, this is the truth serum everyone's obsessed with lately. Want to test Mr. Pruitt's loyalty?"

Marvin Pruitt played right along with her suggestion.

The more the questions came, the colder I went inside.

"My first time wasn't with you."

"I'm not your little dog. There's someone I like more now."

"Daisy Bishop, we stopped being in the same league a long time ago..."

At the peak of the awkwardness, she covered her mouth, let out a little laugh, and apologized.

"Oops, I grabbed the wrong one. That bottle's a reverse serum, everything you say comes out the opposite. You don't mind, do you?"

Of course I didn't mind.

After all, I'd come to say goodbye.

My wedding was already set for the seventh of next month.

...

When I came back from the restroom, through the door I overheard Patsy proposing her "jealousy game."

With herself as the bait.

The more jealous I got, the more it would prove how much I cared about Marvin.

It wasn't her first time playing this kind of game.

Right after Marvin hired her as his assistant, his messaging profile picture briefly switched, for two hours, to one half of a matching couple set.

He'd never done a matching set with me.

When I noticed, he only gave a helpless little laugh.

"She's a young, open-minded girl. She just wants to tease you."

A girl.

I suppose so. I'm five years older than Marvin. In his eyes, I really wasn't young anymore.

But her game could start anywhere, anytime.

Like a pirate-ship ride paused at the amusement park, I was strapped in, never knowing when it would start swinging again.

Every time the chat window lit up with "Let's get married, right now,"

I'd buy a plane ticket without a second thought.

Until the time I rushed over travel-worn with the marriage paperwork and stood outside the Crossway Corporation building, only to be told Mr. Pruitt was in a meeting with foreign clients.

Three strikes.

The fourth time, I didn't go, and the girl sent me a dramatic little voice message.

"You're not thinking of abandoning your Mr. Pruitt, are you?"

There had been that one time I'd pulled an all-nighter revising files with a client until dawn and missed his call.

Marvin had crouched outside my apartment building all night, eyes red.

No one knows how sensitive he is better than I do.

So I just quietly went along with her game, so Marvin wouldn't be distracted.

Until she sent me an intimate photo.

A drunk Marvin, slumped against a big-waved woman.

Patsy, voice thick with tears: "What do we do, Daisy? It looks like your Mr. Pruitt betrayed you..."

That night we fought for the first time.

He was angry that I didn't trust him, that I'd jumped to conclusions.

I was angry that he kept someone like that around him, someone sowing discord between us.

"The Hensons have only this one daughter. Their partnership with us depends on keeping her happy, and Dudley's watching for any opening..."

"Daisy, you can't help me. Just stop making trouble, all right?"

Dudley Pruitt. The false heir the family favored even more than him.

Fine. It ached to see him walking on thin ice, so I let it go.

But her game only escalated.

Then came the day my grandmother died.

Thirty-two calls. Five hundred messages. Every one of them swallowed into silence.

Outside the funeral hall, the rain came down in sheets.

What I got back wasn't a word of comfort from Marvin. It was a sugary little voice instead.

"You passed, sis. Looks like you really do care about our Mr. Pruitt~"

"No more losing touch from now on."

It wasn't until a day later that Marvin sent a voice message, unable to hide his excitement.

"Baby, Patsy did me a huge favor"

He gushed about all the connections she'd brought him.

At that moment, I was sorting through my grandmother's belongings.

Three years long-distance had worn me numb to Patsy's games.

Now the two of them looked at me, waiting.

Waiting for me to lose my temper.

As if the moment I made a scene, true love would fill back up to full, like a health bar in one of their games.

I rubbed my eyes. They only stung.

"If everything's the opposite of what you say, Marvin, then let's go get married right now. All right?"

The room was dim, but I could see the shock in Marvin's eyes clearly enough.

Because I'd taken the marriage paperwork out of my bag.

Patsy laughed at once.

"Sis is just dying to get hitched, carrying the license papers around with her~ I really do envy you two."

"But what a shame. The county clerk's office is already closed at this hour."

I wasn't dying to get married.

Tomorrow was the day I was going to register a marriage.

This was the last question I would ever ask of a love that had lasted ten years.

Marvin didn't answer it directly.

He just circled an arm around my waist and pulled me onto his lap, the way you'd soothe a child who wouldn't behave.

"No rush. We'll get there eventually."

Marvin, there is no eventually.

Getting the marriage license went quickly.

Before we parted, Dudley Pruitt pressed a reluctant kiss to my forehead.

"Sis, what am I going to do. My flight's this afternoon and I already miss you."

That's right. My new husband is the Pruitt family's false young heir.

When did it start?

The sixth sense in a long-distance relationship is sharp.

In all those check-in photos he sent me, I saw the intimacy that crossed the line.

The pink chopsticks beside the lunch box, the matching printed shirts, and in the mirror, the profile of a girl tilting her face up to kiss him.

Maybe Patsy did it on purpose.

It doesn't matter anymore.

Now Marvin lets Patsy sit in his passenger seat and keep the jealousy game going.

"Sis, we're going to the society dinner tonight~"

No warning ahead of time.

The two of them in couture, and me in a windbreaker.

The weather had turned a little cold.

We'd just come from seeing Dudley off at the airport.

I only stayed to put an end to it.

I didn't open the car door. I went to scan one of the shared bikes parked nearby.

"You two go on ahead."

At the gala, they kept me outside the circle of old money, trading family secrets I wasn't supposed to understand.

"Mr. Pruitt, next time I'll take you to meet old Mr. Merchant. He's going to love you."

I watched the man wearing his success so easily now.

At eighteen, when he couldn't scrape together his tuition, he'd stubbornly pushed the money back into my hands.

"I don't want charity. Call it an investment."

"Trust me, sis. I could let anyone down, but never you."

Now the man I'd invested in stood under everyone's watching eyes and introduced us, perfectly calm.

"An old friend."

The distinguished gentleman smiled and pressed him. "Not a girlfriend?"

"Actually, if Marvin here hadn't gotten separated from the family, he and Patsy would practically be childhood sweethearts. Grew up side by side, innocent as anything."

Patsy laughed behind her hand and finally looked at me, as if waiting for me to blow up.

I just lowered my head and set down my fork.

Honestly, the cake on the display table was a little bland.

Same as my mood.

Then, all at once, a ring was unveiled at the gala.

"This is Ms. Henson's newest design, called the Crescent, launched exclusively by Crossway Corporation."

I knew it. That was the design I'd drawn over seven days and seven nights.

It was the anniversary gift I'd made for Marvin.

One of a kind.

I'd named it Beloved.

When I looked over at Marvin, he finally tipped up the corner of his mouth.

The same expression Patsy wore.

Stealing everything I'd poured myself into, stamping her name on it was that part of the game too?

Marvin, I really don't know you anymore.

"What's that look for?"

"That was one of your early pieces, if I remember right. No loss letting it give her a little polish."

"Patsy's helped me out plenty. You're going to be her sister-in-law now, so you should give her a welcome gift."

"Long distance is hard, you know. Every one of these games she came up with was just to keep us strong."

I looked at that ring, my heart clenched in someone's fist, and I didn't argue.

You want it to give her a little polish?

I lifted my phone and recorded the moment Patsy admitted the design was hers.

A long time passed before Marvin finally spoke, the words sounding as if he'd weighed them a hundred times.

"Daisy..."

"Once this blows over, I'll get you set up with a position. There's no rush on the wedding."

"You understand. I don't want the staff thinking you got in through the back door."

"With your design skills, a few more years and..."

Love or a career, it's always me who has to wait?

"Marvin, if I've got it right, your birthday is seven days from now."

I changed the subject, calm about it.

The brows he'd knit together softened at last when he heard that.

"That's right."

"Look forward to it. I'll give you a birthday surprise you won't forget."

"After all, this is our tenth year together."

I'd meant to end this with a little dignity.

Now I see it. You never needed dignity at all.

Before I could pick out the gift, Patsy volunteered to come along and help.

"Nobody knows what Marvin likes better than I do."

She took me to the shopping district nearby, slipping her arm through mine, all smiles and chatter.

"Do you think two people should come from the same kind of family?"

I said nothing, so she went right on talking.

"Actually, I'm the one who told him not to let you into Crossway."

"You really do have a gift for design, but talent isn't enough without connections, is it? You couldn't do anything for him."

"So why not..."

"Fine. He's yours."

I walked calmly into a shop and left Patsy standing there.

Her thoughts weren't hard to read.

There was nothing left to hide now.

"There's no such thing as a truth serum. Those words were Marvin testing you, seeing whether you'd walk away on your own."

Young girls can never keep a secret.

I pressed the record button.

She bit her lip, and the smug delight spread to the corners of her eyes and brows.

"As long as you're smart about this, I won't shortchange you."

She held out a business card.

"This is the best designer in the industry. You can go work under him. Just mention my name."

I glanced at it. Yes, one of my mother's students.

They had no idea I didn't need the job at Crossway at all.

My mother runs a private art auction house overseas.

And I already have my own design firm abroad, with work that's made a bit of a name for itself.

I just hadn't had the chance to tell Marvin any of it.

And he couldn't wait to throw me away.

"If you don't leave on your own, Marvin's conscience won't let him be with me..."

"I'll leave."

In the most final way there is.

For his birthday gift, I picked out a plaid tie.

The day the Pruitts claimed him as their own, I'd rushed out and bought him a suit.

It didn't fit quite right, but he wore it well.

I used to think that once he'd found his footing at Crossway, my company could be his too.

What kind of face would he make when he heard who I was?

Now he only felt I wasn't his equal anymore.

That was fine too.

I didn't go to the birthday dinner. I had Patsy pass the gift along for me.

I went to the riverside instead.

The moon was hazy, and the night wind was cold.

Marvin's call came in. I put it on speaker.

"Daisy... why aren't you here yet?"

At his own birthday dinner, he hadn't waited for me before drinking himself blind.

Beside him, Patsy was still sweetly urging him to drink more.

I said I'd be right there, and I glanced back at the McLaren P1 not far off.

That was the birthday gift I'd really wanted to give Marvin.

When he first came to the Pruitts, he said he envied Dudley's coming-of-age present, a limited-edition supercar.

I'd quietly gotten one ready, waiting for the long distance to end so I could surprise him.

Now it was time to give it back to him another way.

Since my being around made things so hard for him.

Then I'd just disappear.

I waved my hand, and the man I'd hired drove the car into the guardrail at the edge of the bridge.

In the roar of the crash, I heard Marvin sober enough to be confused.

"What was that sound? Where are you?"

I smiled. My voice was shaking.

"...it hurts so much, Marvin."

"I'm sorry... I don't think I'll be able to spend your birthdays with you anymore."

Ten years, over.

I threw the phone into the river, along with the windbreaker off my back.

There were no cameras on this stretch of road, and I had no family or friends left in the country.

Was leaving like this thorough enough?

Enough for you to be with her with a clear mind?

But the other gift I'd left Marvin was only just starting to play.