My Fiancee Disliked My Face, So I Left Her

I proposed to my girlfriend on Valentine's Day, and her adopted brother, the one who calls himself a face-reading master, snatched the ring right out of my hand and threw it in the trash.

Thin upper lip, thick lower lip. That's a two-faced man. He'll cheat, guaranteed!

Nose bridge isn't high enough. He'll never make anything of himself!

"Face isn't square enough. He can't hold on to family money!"

"Shifty, beady eyes. This is a man who ruins his own kin!"

"Clementine, if you say yes to him, it'll end badly. The company will go bankrupt sooner or later."

The whole place went silent.

My face darkened, and I turned to Clementine Pruitt. "You're just going to stand there and let him spew this nonsense?"

She was the one who wanted me to propose tonight, in the busiest square in the city. The least she could do was take my side.

Instead she said, "But Raymond James's readings have always been accurate."

I had no words.

Ten years together, and it counted for less than a few ridiculous lines from someone else. So why should I keep struggling to hold it together?

Take back the love. Take back everything I'd given Clementine Pruitt.

After the brief hush, the laughter started, wave after wave. A circus monkey, they said. The clown of Gotham.

Clementine chose silence. Still no sign of speaking up for me.

And Raymond only pushed harder.

"Tim Farley, you want to marry Clementine? Go fix that busted face of yours first."

"Other men bring their wives good fortune. You'd bring yours ruin!"

He jabbed his finger at my nose.

Like he was mocking some monster with a face full of tumors.

"You've been back exactly one day. Since when do you get a say?"

I frowned, my eyes cold.

"Since always," Raymond said with a little smile. "After all, I'm the man Clementine dotes on most."

"Right, Clementine?"

Clementine nodded at once, her eyes soft and indulgent. "There's not another rotten little brother in the world who looks out for me the way you do."

"If I don't spoil you, who would I spoil?"

She had ignored my hurt a moment ago.

Now she jumped to Raymond's defense without a second's hesitation.

Something in me went hollow and tired, body and soul.

"Am I not the one who looks out for you at every turn?"

"Ten years ago, when the Pruitts went bankrupt, I sold off the R&D patents in my hands to pay your debts."

"For ten years I've worked several jobs at once and lived on eight hundred a month, and I never once complained."

"Ten years later, the Pruitts are back on top, and you're the business queen everyone envies."

"So what gives Raymond the right, on his very first day back, to erase everything we are?"

There had been so many nights when Clementine and I finished working in the small hours and sat shoulder to shoulder, looking up at the stars.

She'd said, "Tim, to me you're the brightest star in the sky."

"I love only you. I spoil only you."

"Once the family's back on its feet, we'll get married and have children."

But now Clementine stared at me, lips slightly parted, like she wanted to say something.

Then, for a long time, nothing.

Beside her, Raymond curled his lip and said dismissively, "Clementine's brilliant and beautiful."

"Any man who got to be her boyfriend would give everything, heart and soul."

Just like that, Clementine smiled.

She clearly ate it right up.

"Clementine."

"I told you Tim Farley's face reads two-faced. Look at the way he just acted. He's shown his true colors."

"No telling how much poison he's got inside. Maybe he wants to bleed the Pruitts dry."

Raymond kept at it, working hard.

Furious, I grabbed him by the collar. "So who's really trying to bleed this family dry, me or you?"

Everyone knew Raymond was obsessed with his mystic nonsense and that every dime he spent came from the Pruitts.

"Enough!"

"Who gave you permission to treat Raymond like this?"

Clementine's hand came up and slapped me hard across the face.

The sting burned across my skin.

I froze.

Ten years together.

Even a stone would have warmed by now. But in that instant Clementine looked at me the way you'd look at an enemy.

"I I was a little rash just now. I shouldn't have hit you. But you shouldn't have humiliated Raymond either. He's only afraid I'll suffer after the wedding."

Clementine softened her tone. "So let go."

I looked at the steadiness in her eyes.

I stayed quiet for a few seconds, then slowly loosened my grip.

I let go of Raymond.

And I let go of ten years of love.

"Tim."

"When a person reaches a certain position, there's a lot they have to weigh."

"Tonight you'll put together the South End project files for me, then take a year off. I've already found you the best plastic surgery team there is."

Clementine left those last few lines behind, then turned to Raymond. "Let's go."

"Clementine, actually Master says my face isn't so good either. Should I get surgery too? I'd hate to bring you down."

Raymond asked on purpose.

"It's fine, I'm not worried."

Clementine gave him an indulgent smile.

They walked off into the distance.

The crowd thinned out.

Leaving me standing there, alone.

"Do you know? Everything the Pruitts have today, it all came from this face of mine."

I brought up the facial recognition on my phone, and the screen automatically opened into a second system.

Right then Grant Dickerson, the partner firm on the South End project, called.

"Mr. Farley, we've put together a partnership proposal tailored for Pruitt Group. Take a look."

"Scrap it."

Huh?

Grant Dickerson froze.

I went on. "And pass along a message while you're at it. From this day forward, Clementine Pruitt and I are nothing to each other."

"But Mr. Farley, aren't the two of you getting married?"

Grant was baffled.

"She decided my face reads wrong."

I gave a small smile.

"What?!"

Once the shock passed, Grant started cursing. "Clementine Pruitt really can't tell gold from gravel."

"You watch. I'll make sure she pays for that insult."

The call ended.

I dug the wedding ring out of the trash, wiped it clean with great care, and slipped it back into my pocket.

Because it was the symbol of the Farley family's matriarch.

My parents had put it in my hands themselves, which meant they had blessed this marriage. So the moment the proposal succeeded, I could have told Clementine everything about me.

But she let it slip away.

That night.

She didn't come home, and she didn't send me a single message.

Raymond, on the other hand, posted the two of them watching the stars up on a rooftop.

It looked exactly like the way she and I used to be.

It wasn't until the next morning.

Clementine finally came back, reeking of cigarette smoke.

The brand Raymond smoked.

There was a red mark the size of a thumb on the side of her neck.

She must have caught me looking, because she pulled her hair over it, then said, "Are the files for the South End project sorted or not? A whole night and nothing. You never used to drag your feet like this."

"You never used to stay out all night either."

I said it evenly.

The next second, her face went cold.

"Tim Farley!"

"Raymond is my brother. What's so strange about spending one night with him? You can't hold a grudge just because he told you a few hard truths last night, poking at everything and reading motives into it."

"And we're talking about the project right now, so don't go dragging in other things!"

She was like a startled cat, each word louder than the last.

"What Raymond said was the truth?"

"Then what if I told you Raymond never trained under any master, that he's a con artist who drinks, gambles, the works?"

I asked.

"Impossible!"

"Can you not be so twisted?"

She shot back at once. "Raymond said it himself. The face grows from the heart. The darker a person is inside, the worse their face reads. The more I can't stand you!"

She turned and walked into the bedroom.

I had stood beside her for ten years.

Everything I had said.

Everything I had done.

She had seen all of it, and in the end she pinned a label on me. Dark inside.

And instead she trusted Raymond, a man she hadn't seen in years.

Not long after, Clementine came out in a little slip dress with black tights, fixed her eyes on me, and said,

"Yesterday Raymond said he envies all the couples out on the streets and wants to try it himself."

"So he asked me to play his girlfriend for a day."

I remembered Clementine once saying she didn't like wearing clothes like that out, that she only wanted to wear them for me.

Now she was lowering her own standards for Raymond.

Seeing that I said nothing.

Clementine visibly relaxed, and added, "I had someone else sort the South End files. You just calm down and think things through for yourself."

With that she turned to leave.

"Let's break up."

The words came out of me all at once.

Clementine's steps stalled. She turned, those lovely eyes going wide. "Tim Farley."

"You think you can use a breakup to threaten me? Sorry, that doesn't work on me."

"You're the one who can't let go of this relationship. Not me."

She was banking on ten years of my devotion.

Full of confidence.

The moment the door shut.

Grant called. "Mr. Farley, we've talked it over. When Clementine comes in for the negotiation seven days from now, we'll terminate the partnership then, all at once."

"Fine. Handle it however you see fit."

And that day, Raymond's feed lit up with post after post.

The two of them.

Sharing one bubble tea.

Feeding each other.

Riding the Ferris wheel, then a yacht.

Making little heart signs together on the beach, rubbing sunscreen on each other.

And at the end, Raymond showed off a bouquet.

The card read: To the one I love most. May you be safe year after year, may we be happy year after year.

Ten years.

I never got a single bouquet, a single card, from Clementine.

Yet now, she'd given all of it to Raymond.

In just one day.

She'd walked the whole road my ten years of love had taken.

I didn't press her about it. I went to a little bar instead, and didn't come home until the next morning.

Only to find Clementine sitting on the couch.

"Why do you reek of alcohol? You know how much I hate the smell. Where were you last night?"

Her brows drew tight.

"Is it the smell you hate, or is it me?"

I threw the question back at her with a cold smile.

There had been two cocktails right there in the background of the flower post Raymond put up yesterday.

"Don't change the subject. I asked where you went."

Clementine's eyes narrowed further.

Before I could say anything.

Raymond walked out of the bedroom, and he was wearing my pajamas.

"From your face right now, looks like you had quite the wild night. Practically wrung dry, aren't you?"

He gave me a knowing little smile.

More of his nonsense.

"What?"

Clementine shot to her feet, her lovely eyes glaring at me, furious. "Tim Farley, you're disgusting! Out there sleeping around!"

Looking at all that revulsion in her eyes.

I let out a cold laugh. "And what about the two of you?"

"Don't you turn this around on me! Raymond and I are only pretending to be a couple!"

Clementine shot back.

"If you want to blame someone, blame me."

Raymond spoke up too. "This has nothing to do with Clementine. It was my idea."

At that, she looked touched, then turned back to lecture me. "See how much responsibility Raymond takes? Now look at yourself!"

"Your face is the bad one, and you still keep blaming this and that, never looking at your own problems."

Watching the two of them play the devoted couple.

I was sick to my stomach.

Just then, Clementine's phone buzzed with a call.

She answered, then turned to me with a smile. "Dr. Alex from the surgery team is already here."

"Once you've had the surgery and changed your face, you won't act out like this anymore."

She was the one who'd pushed me to this.

Yet she thought it was my face that was wrong.

I found it so absurd that I gave her two cold words.

"Not happening."

Clementine only got angrier. "What is your problem? Raymond already explained it. This surgery is good for both of us."

"It's good for him, more like."

I shot Raymond a look.

God only knew what he'd pull once I was on that table.

"Enough."

"Stop snapping at people like some rabid dog. Do you have any idea how many people beg Raymond to read their faces?"

She was still shielding him.

"The South End talks are almost here. This surgery can't wait!"

Raymond kept stoking the fire from the side.

I didn't want to waste another word. I stood and headed for the door, but the second I opened it, four burly bodyguards were waiting outside.

Before I could react.

They grabbed me.

"Clementine!"

"Let go of me! I'm not doing the surgery!"

I whipped my head around, furious.

"One day you'll thank me for this."

Clementine lifted a hand.

Then a sharp pain hit the back of my skull, and everything went dark.

When I came to, I was already lying in the operating room.

My hands and feet were strapped down.

There was no working free.

Then the door opened, and it wasn't a doctor who walked in. It was Raymond.

"Tim."

"Wouldn't it be fun if you died right here on the table?"

"And even more fun if Clementine didn't find out you were dead until seven days later?"

A dangerous smile curled at the corner of his mouth.

"You're not afraid Clementine will find out?" I demanded.

"So what if she does?"

Raymond gave a scornful little hiss. "I'm the man she loves most. No matter what happens, she'll always take my side."

"Besides, surgery like this, you have to sign a risk waiver first."

The words had barely left his mouth.

Clementine's voice drifted in from outside, talking with the doctor.

"Ms. Pruitt."

"This is a full-face procedure, and one part of it carries a higher risk. I'll need you to sign the waiver."

"You mean there's actually a risk to his life?"

Clementine sounded a little surprised.

I opened my mouth to speak.

Raymond snatched up a wad of gauze, jammed it into my mouth, then slapped himself hard across the face before walking out of the operating room.

"What happened to your face? Who hit you?"

Clementine stared at the clear print of five fingers on Raymond's right cheek and asked, all concern.

"I was trying to talk some sense into Tim, and he suddenly went off and hit me. He even cursed me to a miserable death."

Raymond lied through his teeth.

"That Tim really is beyond saving!"

Clementine knit her brows, thoroughly annoyed. "Whatever the risk, he's getting this surgery! Or sooner or later he'll be the death of us!"

She signed her name, then took Raymond by the arm and left.

My heart went cold as ash.

Ten years of everything I gave.

At the very least I was the person who'd saved Clementine, and yet, for someone else's sake, she'd put me under a high-risk surgery that could kill me.

Twenty minutes later, the surgery began.

The doctor was raising the needle to sedate me when Grant burst in with his men.

"Everybody, out!"

"Lay one finger on Mr. Farley and I'll twist your heads off."

That was how I was saved.

Just as Raymond had said, for the next seven days Clementine put me completely out of her mind.

She never once asked how I was.

She was too busy, thrilled with the idea that once I had the surgery, the Pruitt family's luck would surge and the project would sail through.

Climbing to an even greater peak.

The day of the South End project talks.

Clementine, brimming with confidence, met with Grant and handed over the drafted agreement.

"Mr. Dickerson, take a look. If everything's in order, please sign."

But Grant didn't reach for it at all.

"The deal's off."

"Why?"

"Because a very important person objects."