No True Love Can Be Glimpsed Through Lies

After the company went under.

Ursula Summers fell into depression, and after she was saved from cutting her wrists a second time.

She sobbed until she broke and said to me, Tony, I'm the one dragging you down, making you carry all this debt with me! Please, just let me die!

I looked at Ursula, my chest aching so badly I could hardly breathe.

To help Ursula find her footing again.

I brought out a magic lamp and told her the lamp granted three wishes. Once a wish was made, it would come true.

Ursula half believed me. "First wish. I want the company back from the dead!"

And later, the company really did come back from the dead, its resources even greater than before.

Ursula's face lit up with delight. "Second wish. I want the old Summers mansion back!"

And later, the old mansion really did return to our hands.

Ursula held the lamp against her chest and said to me, "Tony, the third wish, I want to think it through carefully! I want to make sure I never regret it!"

I was glad to see the change in her, ready to tell Ursula the truth about the lamp.

But I walked in on Ursula on a video call with her first love.

"Tony James isn't worthy of who I am anymore."

"So," she smiled, "third wish. I want a rise in power and wealth, and I want to trade out my husband."

"Ursula."

On the screen.

Ursula's first love, Arthur Gray, leaned in close to the camera, lips curving into a smile.

"Isn't this a little wrong, though?"

He looked at Ursula.

"Your husband lived in a basement with you, stayed by your side through the whole climb back up. Yes, it was all your own luck, all your own ability, but your husband was still the one who walked through it with you. At a time like this, if you bring up divorce, won't it hurt your career?"

Every word of Arthur's seemingly innocent worry was framed as concern for Ursula, only making her more certain.

"I'll admit these past few years weren't easy for my husband. He carried tens of millions in debt with me, climbed back up with me. During the worst of my illness, he was the only one willing to care for me without ever taking off his clothes to rest. But that's exactly it. In my husband I only ever see my own weakness, my own worthlessness."

"Every time I get close to him, I remember how I used self-harm, how I hurt myself to find release, and I never imagined I wasn't meant to die at all, that I could get help from the divine, get the lamp."

"And now."

Ursula leaned back against her chair.

"I have wealth, name, and standing. I have only one wish left, my only wish, and it's that I don't want to open my eyes and see my husband. Seeing my husband is like seeing my own filthy self, seeing the coward, the failure I used to be."

Ursula sighed.

"Do you understand what I mean?"

In the study.

For a few seconds, silence.

I watched Arthur's eyes go red, as if he were fighting hard to hold it in and still couldn't stop the tears, and he called to her, "Sunny, you still have me."

His eyes were red.

"Back then, if I'd been at your side, I'd have been willing to walk through those days with you too. Sunny, you deserve the best."

Back then.

Ursula signed a wager agreement, lost until she had nothing left, lost until the debt collectors chased her to the end of an alley and she nearly lost her life. I was the one who charged into that alley with a kitchen knife, swinging at anyone in my way like a madman, using my own life to save Ursula's.

At the time.

Ursula looked at me, cut and bleeding all over, and cried as she held me tight.

"Tony James!"

"For the rest of my life! I will never wrong you!"

And later.

Ursula was diagnosed with depression, learned to hurt herself, learned to cut her wrists, learned to try to end her life, learned to beg me through her tears to let her die.

"Tony, I really can't take it anymore!"

"I can't take waking up every day only to be cursed at by debt collectors, treated like a rat everyone wants dead!"

"Please!"

"Please, let me go!"

"Just let me have some peace!"

My heart ached to the point of despair, and I finally reached out to Grandma Abbott, whom I hadn't seen in years, and begged her to give Ursula a chance.

Grandma always said feelings were all fake, that my mother had been deceived and lost her life over it, and yet Grandma still doted on me.

Grandma brought out that lamp and said to me, "This magic lamp grants three wishes. If she can pass the test, if she spends all three wishes on you, I'll accept her as my grandson's wife! I'll announce that you're the sole heir of the James family! I'll let you bring her home to the Jamess!"

"Before that," Grandma set the condition, "you are not to tell her your true identity!"

I swore I was certain.

Ursula was no traitor to my heart. She wouldn't let me down.

And now my cheek burned, and faster than any slap came the truth of my own heart being trampled by Ursula.

"I'll leave my husband a way out. I'll leave him enough wealth to live out the rest of his days, and I'll leave him the old mansion so he never wants for anything again," Ursula said, her voice calm. "That way I won't owe him anything either."

A chill went through me, and the way I'd been preparing to tell Ursula the truth felt like a joke. I found Grandma on my messages and told her.

[Grandma.]

[I lost.]

[I'm willing to take everything back from Ursula.]

I hadn't slept all night.

Ursula, on the other hand, was glowing.

"Honey."

I'd just come into the living room when I saw her walking out of the kitchen with breakfast.

"I made oatmeal today, and the veggie omelet you like."

Smiling, she poured me a glass of milk.

"The IPO date is set too."

"The consultant said," she settled easily into the seat across from me, "your birthday timing lines up perfectly, so we're locking it in for next month."

"Once the company goes public," she picked up a hash brown and set it in my bowl, "life's going to be even better."

All these years.

Ursula had taken over caring for me, right down to my meals, three a day, every day, all made by her.

Our friends joked that Ursula was the one on a tight leash, that I had her wrapped around my finger.

And Ursula wore it with pride.

"Getting to look after my husband is my good fortune."

And now.

The hash brown sat right in front of me.

It was from that place on the South Side I loved, and the oatmeal was slow-cooked until it was thick and smooth, hot enough to sting my eyes. I listened to her voice, watched the habits worn so deep into her, and I said her name.

"Ursula."

"What is it?"

She was looking down, playing with her phone.

"The third wish."

Her fingers froze.

"Have you decided?"

"Six months ago, I told you to use up your third wish," I watched something unnatural flicker across her face, "and you said you had to be careful, so careful, that the last wish carried too much meaning, that it had to be for the most important thing."

"Have you decided?"

"Ursula," and still, hope stirred in me, "what if we wished for an adorable little ba"

"Honey," she cut me off, "we're still young, still building our careers. It's not the time for a child."

Ursula always put her career first. That was how she'd put off the wedding I wanted, how she'd brushed aside how badly I actually wanted a child.

Even when it left me disappointed, hurt, aching.

Ursula would win an antique at auction for millions, or buy an LED billboard in Bayport just to cheer me up, willing to spend time and money to earn one smile from me, and then she'd tell me.

"Honey, you'll always be the one person I treasure most. Once things are stable, I'll make up for everything I owe you."

And I believed her.

So as I sat there listening to the exact same excuse, the last bit of warmth in my chest went out completely.

"Sure."

I listened to her phone buzzing again and again, a reminder.

"Maybe it's something important."

I pointed at the screen, still lighting up.

"Go ahead and take it."

Ursula grabbed the phone in a fluster and went out to the balcony. I watched her stand there frowning, and in just a few seconds she hung up.

"Something came up at the company."

She didn't even glance at me.

"I'm heading out first."

She picked up her car keys and walked to the entryway.

"Honey," and as if she'd finally remembered I was there, she looked back at me before opening the door, "don't overthink things. I love you."

"Sure."

The door closed.

I sat at the table and got Grandma's reply, a single short word: Good.

And then.

I opened the surveillance feed, tapped the balcony camera, and listened to Ursula's voice.

Once the company goes public and everything's stable, I'll bring you out into the open.

Don't rush me.

Ursula's voice was frantic.

Don't do anything stupid.

I'm coming right now.

I'm on my way this second.

I watched her through the feed. That panic on her face had never once shown up in front of me. And it struck me that whenever Ursula had mentioned Arthur, it was only ever in a few words.

Materialistic.

A realist.

Cared about money, not feeling.

She said Arthur had looked down on her for being poor and gone off with someone richer.

She said Arthur would get dumped sooner or later.

I opened my messages, found the assistant Grandma had assigned me, sent him the study and balcony surveillance, and told him.

Look into everything between Ursula and Arthur for me.

Especially anything to do with money.

And, I tapped my fingertip against the desk: what Arthur's been up to overseas these past few years.

The assistant worked fast. A file came through almost at once.

I opened it and watched Arthur go from sitting one desk over from Ursula in high school, to the day they graduated, when Ursula took half a year's saved-up wages and bought Arthur ninety-nine roses, bought fireworks, and confessed to him in front of every teacher and student there.

And in the middle of that grand, blazing confession, Arthur said yes.

Four years of college, and Ursula studied hard, saved money, planned surprises for Arthur, carved out time every day to be with him, played games with him, bought him gear, bought him luxury goods, took trips just to show it all off to anyone who'd look. Right up until her parents died in a car crash.

Then, out of nowhere, Arthur told her he wanted to break up.

It was all in the file.

Even the hospital surveillance from that day, captured clearly.

Ursula on her knees on the floor, crying, begging Arthur not to go, and Arthur not turning his head once, just tossing back a single line.

Ursula.

The way you are now, you're not good enough for me.

Arthur vanished.

Ursula spent her days drinking herself sick, all the way up to the night I saw her being mugged in an alley, pulled her out of it, met her, and everything from then until now.

Ursula had told me she'd stopped loving Arthur a long time ago.

Young Master James.

The assistant sent a video.

Back then, the sudden collapse of Summers Group, the wager agreement Ursula told you about, it wasn't because of you.

The assistant produced a document.

It was because of Arthur.

Arthur got mixed up in the underground gambling den and racked up debts, came to Ursula, and she shouldered it for him, put the company up as collateral in that wager. That's what set off the whole chain of events after.

My face went white. My nails dug hard into my own flesh, and I didn't even feel the blood seeping out. I thought back to what Ursula had said to me then.

Honey, they say you're an orphan, no father, no mother, that you only got where you are by selling yourself!

I couldn't stand it!

They can call me a sewer rat, call me a frog at the bottom of a well, but not one word against the person I love most!

I couldn't stand it!

Ursula had been shaking all over, as if I really mattered, mattered so much I could never be defiled by anyone, mattered so much that just looking at her made life feel worth it, and I'd held her tight.

I'll gamble with you!

We lost until we had nothing left, lost until we were living on tap water to keep our stomachs full, like rats with nowhere to hide.

But for Ursula, it was never about me.

Young Master James.

The assistant sent another video.

Ursula's at a private hospital the James family invested in, keeping Arthur company.

In the video.

Arthur was tucked against her chest, crying so pitifully it could break your heart.

I just don't want to keep hiding it. I know it's ugly of me to want us back together, I know I'm wrong, but I can't help it, I just love you

Ursula hugged him back, hard.

Wait a little longer.

Wait for Tony James's birthday.

Wait for the company to go public.

Then it'll all be settled.

Once the company goes public, I looked into the feed and matched Ursula's exact tone: it'll all be settled.

Tell Grandma.

There's no rush.

Since Ursula's so fond of her tragic love story with Arthur.

I smiled.

Then I'll play along with her little show.

Ursula sent me a message.

"Honey, work just dumped a rush project on me. I have to fly out on short notice."

To make me believe it, she followed up with the flight details.

"If you miss me, come find me."

Then she sent the hotel's location.

"For you, there's always time."

There was a time when Ursula would report everything to me. What she ate, what she drank, who she saw, every last detail spelled out. I used to laugh at her, saying she was like a kid who never grew up, already running the whole company and still this clingy.

Ursula never minded. She would only tell me,

"Making my husband feel secure is my job." She corrected me, serious about it. "Besides, getting to be a silly little kid in front of the person you love is its own kind of blessing."

Now she was certain I wouldn't come and disrupt her little getaway with Arthur.

But what she didn't know.

I was standing right at the hotel entrance, watching Arthur circle her waist with his arm as he teased, "Honey this, honey that. Why do you love your husband so much, hmm?"

"If you love him that much," Arthur's tone turned sour, "why come out here with me?"

Ursula hugged him tighter and laughed.

"The flower at home is never as sweet as the one in the wild."

"Plain white rice can't compare to the one who got away."

"So, do you like the fly on the wall," Ursula leaned in close to him, "or the mark you can't scrub off?"

The two of them flirting and squabbling, all of it caught on camera.

The assistant couldn't stand it.

"The evidence we have now is enough to send Ursula out with nothing."

"Not enough yet."

My voice was flat as I told him,

"Ursula still believes everything we have now came from the magic lamp. That heaven took pity on her, that this fortune was always fated to be hers. Not because of me."

"So," I thought of what Grandma had said, "people never remember the one who stayed and suffered beside them. They only remember the one who walked away when they were at rock bottom."

"People are wired that way. Base. Always chasing whatever they can't have."

Now.

I checked the time.

"Three days. That's all."

"I can wait."

For those three days, I trailed along while Ursula and Arthur played house. I watched Arthur drop tens of thousands on a bag without blinking, watched him put a million-dollar ring on hold, and then tell Ursula,

"This freebie, pass it off as a travel gift for your husband."

"And don't you go buying anything new."

Arthur wheedled.

"What's yours is mine."

Ursula only laughed.

"Fine, whatever you want."

Once, Ursula said she would be my umbrella, that she would never let me suffer a single slight.

Now she had torn that umbrella to shreds and left me to suffer all of it.

I called her. I listened as she stepped off to an empty patch of ground and lowered her voice.

"Honey."

"Ursula," I reminded her, "there's still an hour and a half."

"There's time."

Her tone went impatient.

"Stop rushing me."

"I already sent you my flight."

"I promise I'll be there."

I hung up and looked at the countdown to the IPO bell, and the birthday banquet Ursula had once arranged for me, and Grandma seated at the head of the table. Through the surveillance feed, I heard Ursula warn him.

"Don't say anything stupid."

Arthur followed after her, grudging.

"I know, I know."

Ursula laughed and pinched his cheek, then walked to the banquet hall doors, fixed her appearance one last time, and reached out to push them open. The moment she did, the color drained from her face.