2: 2

There was a long silence on the line before the answer came. "You're sure?"

"Once you leave, you and Barnaby are living apart. Five years, minimum. You can't come back."

Tears spilled over, blurring everything in front of me.

I could almost see Barnaby crossing the room, gripping my shoulders hard, shouting, Joy, you are not going!

But when I blinked and shook the tears off my lashes, Barnaby really had come. What he actually said was, "This is the only way you can make up for what you did!"

"I'm sure. I won't regret it."

I got the words out fast and hung up, then looked at Barnaby, calm now. "What does Carina want this time?"

Barnaby's brows drew together hard. "Joy, what kind of attitude is that?"

"Carina could have been a happy bride today. It's your fault she got upset! You almost triggered her condition again!"

"All Carina wanted was for you to run a few little games to warm up the room, and you talk like she's being unreasonable!"

Every last bit of strength I had for defending myself was gone.

I looked at Barnaby for a few seconds, steady, and said, "Fine."

He was visibly thrown. He hadn't expected me to give in like that.

The anxious, edgy look on his face softened into tenderness, and he lifted a hand toward my cheek. "Joy…"

I stepped away. "There isn't much time. I still need to find the bridesmaid dress."

His voice came out dry. "No need."

"Carina put one aside for you. If you… if you don't like it, tell me, and I'll have someone find you another one."

I let his second sentence go in one ear and out the other.

Ever since Carina attempted suicide over him, she came first with him. Always.

Whenever Carina and I clashed, it was always me who had to back down and give her what she wanted.

I couldn't understand it once. I fought him over it, screaming. Barnaby, worn thin and haggard, spoke to me in the tone of a judge sentencing a criminal. "Joy, it's because you owe Carina."

"If you hadn't made me fall for you, in this deep, I would have dated Carina. Married her."

So it was my fault?

I couldn't accept it, and yet the criminal's rope was already tied around me, and in every contest with Carina I always ended up a rung beneath her.

Still, every time I gave in, Barnaby made it up to me afterward, twice over.

I was an orphan with nothing past a high school diploma, so Barnaby threw money at private tutors for one-on-one lessons, then sent me to the most prestigious university to study finance.

The moment I graduated, he talked Ethan Pruitt into letting me work at the Pruitt Group.

Groomed as the successor.

I still remember when I led my team to close a major deal and got promoted into the executive office. Barnaby held me, his face full of pride. "Joy, go all the way, make CEO. Then I'll just live off you."

Barnaby genuinely wanted me to outdo him.

He laid the path in earnest, clearing me a way up the succession track at the Pruitt Group that should have been his.

I was moved. I thought he loved me so much that he'd spare nothing to lift me up.

To repay that care, I poured everything I had into work.

And Barnaby didn't let me down either. He became my perfect support at home.

Except that in every kindness of his, there was a shadow of Carina.

I asked Barnaby once, how long the three of us were going to stay tangled up like this.

Barnaby kissed my hair and soothed me gently. "Once we're married, it'll be fine. Carina will finally give up for good."

I believed him.

I waited.

But when the wedding day actually came, I found out the one who really should give up was me.

…

"This is the dress Carina picked out for me?"

I looked at it: a short dress with two thin little straps and a back cut wide open, in a gaudy gold that was more suggestive than anything a dancer would wear.

My face went hard.

The little assistant who'd brought it kept her head down, not daring to look up. "Yes… yes. And Mr. Pruitt approved it."

"I see."

I forced down the anger and disappointment surging in me, hooked a finger through the thin strap of the dress, and walked into the changing room.

3: 3

The wedding was lavish. Every guest was someone with a name and a face worth knowing.

More than twenty media outlets had been invited to livestream it.

It wasn't hard to imagine what they'd call me the moment I walked out in a dress this cheap and this provocative.

The old me, the one who still wanted to marry Barnaby, would have refused.

I'd have picked up the hem and gone straight to Carina to settle the score.

And of course, Carina would have gotten to him first, a few soft words and some tears, and Barnaby would have handed me something even more humiliating.

There was no point.

I wasn't going to fight it anymore.

I changed into the gold dress. The back hem barely covered my backside, and every step threatened to give the crowd a show.

The two thin straps looked ready to snap under the slightest strain.

Face blank, I walked barefoot onto the wedding's main stage.

Carina stood there in her gown and bridal makeup, her face veiled in gauze, only her upturned red lips showing.

When she saw me, that smile stretched wider.

She tugged Barnaby off the stage. "Joy's coming out. Look, everyone—"

"Ah!"

Carina put on a look of pure shock.

Because up on the stage, besides me, there were now five muscled men, bare-chested but for leather straps, wearing only short shorts.

They circled me.

After a few suggestive moves, one after another they reached out and grabbed at my dress.

Barnaby couldn't stand it. He surged forward to stop it. "Joy! That's enough!"

Carina clutched his waist and dissolved into tears. "Barnaby, why would Joy do this? She won't even let me have one fake wedding? She—"

Carina gasped like she couldn't breathe.

Barnaby quickly pulled her in and rubbed her back, his eyes cutting toward me like knives. "Joy, get down here right now and I'll pretend none of this happened. Otherwise—"

"The fake wedding becomes a real one. Today, I marry Carina!"

I didn't answer.

Because I had no attention to spare.

Those five muscled men were Carina's arrangement, meant to make me a public spectacle, meant to leave me with no face to show anyone ever again.

A thin blade sat hidden in my palm, and I dragged it across them, one by one.

If they wanted to touch me, they'd bleed for it.

Men are made of flesh too. They hurt. They fear.

And once I pushed it to the edge, wild and past caring whether I lived, all five men shrank back, and soon enough they simply ran off the stage.

I hadn't lost face. I'd turned every strike and block into a dance with real power in it.

The guests below hadn't caught the true fight, and they broke into applause.

At the sound of it, Carina's expression turned hideous.

She glared at me, hatred boiling over.

Barnaby, though, was completely drawn to me. Without thinking he let go of Carina, stripped off his suit jacket, came up onstage, and draped it over my shoulders. "Joy, go back to the dressing room and redo the bridal makeup."

"When it's time to exchange rings, you're the one who comes up."

"You're the wife I actually mean to marry. Carina can play at it, but she doesn't get to take your place."

"Sure."

I smiled sweetly, as if I'd never held a single grudge against Barnaby.

He watched me leave the stage, reluctant to let go, and even took a few steps after me.

Carina panicked. She pressed a hand to her chest, ready to fake another attack, but Barnaby had run out of patience for her. "I'm not a doctor. If you really feel unwell, you should go to the hospital."

"Right, and give the gown back to Joy."

...

Shame and fury on her face, Carina stormed into my dressing room.

Before she could speak, I got there first. "Do you know why Barnaby likes me?"

"Because you're a slut!" Carina spat.

"He likes that I'm wild, hard to conquer. And you? He doesn't even have to crook a finger. One look and you're already crawling over."

"Carina, you'll never beat me. Never."

"Slap!"

4: 4

I'd read Carina's move ahead of time and slapped her first, the blow landing before she even knew it was coming.

It wasn't enough.

Still not enough.

I said, cold and dismissive, "I let you win before because I couldn't be bothered to fight. But now—"

She felt how set I was, and her voice cracked into a scream. "No, that's not possible, Barnaby loves me, I know he does!"

"Want to bet?"

"Bet how?"

A few minutes later.

Barnaby walked into my dressing room.

He saw the woman seated in the chair with her back to him, and the tension in his face eased into a soft smile as he came forward. "Joy, why aren't you in the gown yet?"

Carina lifted her face, timid. "Barnaby."

His expression went cold. "Where's Joy?"

Carina stood and threw her arms around him just as he moved to go looking for me, rubbing against his back like a cat, her hands roaming to tease.

"Barnaby, take me right here. Please?"

"We couldn't finish the whole wedding, so let's do what real husbands and wives do first."

"Joy—"

"She, she didn't want the gown I'd worn. She sent someone to rush a new one."

Barnaby pried her hands off, urgent. "I'm going to find her!"

Carina flinched.

"Barnaby!"

She copied my look, struck a pose that was pure invitation.

He turned back, and slowly his gaze went dazed.

Carina crooked a finger, kicked the stool aside, sat up on the makeup table, and ordered, "Come here."

He wavered.

Carina let out a scornful laugh. "What are you afraid of? Joy won't be back anytime soon. You really don't want a taste of me?"

"Relax. After this once, I won't cling to you again."

This wasn't the Carina he knew, the timid one who cried and wheedled.

She was lively and cold, and that look of standing above him was very tempting.

Barnaby slowly loosened his tie and leaned in. "Carina, be my woman and it's for the long haul. Until I say so, you don't get to leave."

"I won't listen."

Carina turned her head away, and Barnaby's fingers caught her chin and pulled it back as he bent down into a hungry kiss.

Carina answered him without holding back.

The two of them lost track of the world entirely.

I stood behind the curtain of the dressing room's changing area, watching calmly, while I piped the whole scene onto the big screen out at the wedding.

When Carina hooked onto him again, refusing to let him leave, and it started a second time, I stepped out of the changing area and walked past them.

On my personal account I posted a new update: We've broken up. No reconciliation.

...

It was that night that Barnaby learned I was leaving to take over the branch office in the lawless frontier region.

He drove back to our wedding home like a madman.

I was carrying my luggage out the door when I ran straight into him.

"Joy, don't go!"

His eyes begged, his face broken.

"Carina was just a moment where I lost my head, but the one I truly love is you!!!"

"Bzz, bzz, bzz—"

Barnaby's phone buzzed.

He glanced at the caller ID and moved to hang up.

I spoke first. "Take it. So you don't leave any regrets."

He hung up anyway, then turned the phone off.

"It's just another one of her suicide acts, and I'm sick of watching them. Joy, listen to me, let's start over—"

I looked down, took out my phone, opened a photo, and held it up for him.

"Carina's decided to accept the classmate who's been in love with her for ten years."

"What?"

He snatched the phone in disbelief, and once he'd confirmed the photo showed Carina holding a huge bouquet of red roses, posing close with a man,

he threw out a hurried "Wait for me" and drove off in a frantic rush.

I didn't wait. I dragged my luggage out and got into the Uber.

In the car, I canceled my flight to the branch office, deleted the photo I'd doctored of Carina, popped out the SIM card, snapped it in two, and tossed it out the window.

Goodbye, Barnaby.

I'm going to start a new life. And you, sink into your hell of regret forever.