Chapter 3

Over the years, Crystal had said the word marriage more times than I could count.

The first time was right after she landed her first leading role.

We'd just gotten our first taste of money and fame, counting the balance in her account, giddy with it.

Right then Crystal said she wanted to get married. She wanted to build a family with me, and never be apart.

But not long after, on set, she met an intern assistant named Finn Cox.

Finn was young and good-looking, with a broken childhood behind him. When Crystal first saw him, his last boss was slapping him across the face, five red fingermarks blooming on his cheek.

He looked so pitiful.

Crystal's heart went out to him, and she pulled Finn onto her own team then and there, paying him a monthly salary far above industry standard.

Only afterward did she come to tell me, the deal already done. "Nathan, Finn really has it rough. He reminds me so much of who I used to be. I want to help him."

"If we get married and have a kid right now, my career's going to take a hit, and then I won't be able to pay Finn a salary like that anymore..."

"Let's wait a couple of years. Once I've made more money, we'll have a beach wedding on an island."

After that, every single year, she said she wanted to get married.

She won an award, she said we'd get married. My birthday, she said we'd get married. My mother was dying, and she still said we'd get married.

But in the end, every time, either Finn had a ball game and wanted Crystal there to cheer him on.

Or Finn's cat wouldn't sit still for a nail trim and she had to go help.

Every time, I stood alone outside the courthouse, waiting from sunrise to dark.

Later I couldn't take it anymore, and I gave her an ultimatum. One more no-show and we were done.

Crystal pulled out a pregnancy test result and swore this time we'd really do it.

I believed her again, took the paper home, and told my parents about the wedding.

My mother was overjoyed. Sick as she was, she dragged herself into the kitchen and made a whole table of the sweet dishes Crystal liked.

But that time, in the end, Crystal still didn't show.

She only sent me a thousand dollars.

"You actually believed it? That test result was AI-generated."

"I wanted to come home and have dinner with you too, but Finn's kitten suddenly stopped eating its food today, and I had to go with him to the vet. Cut me some slack, okay?"

"Consider the thousand dollars a little something for your mom's trouble. Just tell them for me, would you?"

"When things settle down a while from now, we'll talk about getting married again."

Maybe the same memory had surfaced for her too. Crystal lowered her eyes.

She gave a light cough. "This time it's real. I've already booked the wedding gown. We'll go to that island you love and have a small wedding. Very romantic."

I hadn't planned to waste any more words on her.

But watching her lie without a flinch, watching the way she trampled someone else's whole heart underfoot without a second thought, something in me refused to let it go.

For the sake of the man who once split his living money in half, going without, just to cover Crystal's tuition.

So I held out my hand. "Let me see."

"See what?"

"The order for the wedding gown. You said you booked it, didn't you?"

Crystal went quiet.

I just took her phone, opened her transfer records, and pulled up her recent bills.

Eighty thousand dollars, men's luggage.

Fifty-two thousand, transferred straight to Finn.

Thirty-nine thousand, a matching couple's bracelet.

And one hundred and twenty dollars, an order off a bargain discount site.

I tapped into it.

Sure enough, a men's suit. In her chat with the seller she was still asking, can the cuffs be embroidered? She wanted one word stitched there. "Nathan."

Then I found her chats with Finn and searched island.

There it was. Last week Finn had said he was sick of living this hidden, sneaking-around affair, said he felt like some man's dirty secret.

Crystal booked an island getaway on the spot to soothe him.

"Next month I'll take you to the islands for a little vacation, to clear your head, okay?"

"Only we still have to bring Nathan along. He's my agent, and if he doesn't come, the two of us could get photographed by the press, and then people would talk about you."

I couldn't help it. I started laughing, laughing until the tears came.

"Crystal, this is the romantic wedding you said would be ours?"

"A hundred-and-twenty-dollar suit. And a three-way island trip to keep your side piece happy, with me tagging along."

"Fifteen years with you, and I'm worth a hundred and twenty dollars."