• WATTYS 2022 WINNER •
When Iris Monet married millionaire Jared Darling, she had only one rule - that he could cheat on her with anyone except the household staff. This arrangement of theirs would have gone on quite happily if she hadn't caught him...
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"OH," I say.
"Jared made the terms of your marriage quite clear to me." Tomiichi calls for a refill of his coffee as my heart sinks to a depth that rivals the Mariana Trench. "How you're the daughter of Spencer Monet. Was that why you didn't want me to know your surname when we met?"
I don't answer. All I can think of is – how did it all turn this way, so fast? Cutting ties with my father, finding out about Akai's real identity, and now stalked by my ex-husband. It's as if a string has been pulled, and now the entire fabric of my lie is coming undone.
I tried so hard to run away from the old me, but it looks like the old me isn't ready to give me up yet. Not when it's chased me here from the city.
"Jared told me you cheated on him and ran away to avoid the consequences. Is that true?"
"No! He was the one who – " I stop as I realize it doesn't really matter anymore. "We're in the middle of a divorce. I didn't mean to drag your family into this. I'm sorry."
Where Akai's eyes are dark hurricane pools that refuse to give up their secrets, Tomiichi's are a pair of glass doors that somehow stays opaque.
"I see," he says, and like his cousin, reveals nothing on his face at all. "So you're not here to seduce me as your next rich husband?"
The weight of lies is heavy. You always start out with one, just one knot of mistruth, but to keep that one knot from unravelling, you tie another. And another. And another, and yet another, until finally you're left with something so gnarled you don't even remember what the first knot looked like anymore. Or what even it was for.
At some point, it's no longer worth it to bear.
I start slowly. "I came to Ryefair by accident. I didn't mean to stay, but then I heard about your family. I knew who you were. Jared has a share of your stocks."
"Several shares," Tomiichi corrects.
"I'd just left a millionaire. I had no money of my own. But I wanted to stay rich."
The more I spoke, the more I realized how ugly I sounded. How materialistic I was. Heather was right; I was a gold-digger.
"I heard about the prodigal Satoh first-born. The bachelor heir. I decided – why not make him my next target? Except, I made a mistake."
Tomiichi doesn't blink. He keeps that same unreadable gaze on me, and I know – he knows. I don't know how, and I don't know why, but Satoh Tomiichi knows the second lie. The second lie I told to cover up the first.
"I confessed to the wrong person. I chased the wrong man. And I didn't even know it until two days ago. Since then, things have just been such a blur. Everything's happening so fast."
My fingers dig into my palms, and I can't meet Tomiichi's stare. I wonder how he feels hearing me admit I set out to cheat his family? Wild guess – not very friendly.
