To close the deal, I drank with a client at a bar until my stomach started burning like hell again.
I excused myself, saying I needed some air. That’s when I heard a man’s voice drifting from the private room next door.
“Dude, you really pulled money out of the company accounts to buy jewelry? You’re not worried your wife’s gonna find out and make a scene?”
“What’s there to worry about? I just told her it was a loss on a deal. She believed me.”
“She’s probably out there right now, drinking with that old bastard, trying to fix the company’s losses.”
Through the half-open door, I saw my husband Marty Dempsey. He picked up a piece of jewelry to please the dancer in his arms.
I stood there, frozen, my heart dead.
After marrying Marty, I gave everything I had to run his company. Under my management, it grew, deal after deal.
So when the recent losses showed up in the accounts, I trusted him completely like an idiot.
But what I got in return was no more than lies and betrayal!
I let out a self-mocking smile, pulled a number out of my phone’s blocked list, and dialed.
“I’ll marry into the Seidenfelds. That family with a crippled heir.”
“But I want a wedding gift. A hundred million.”
…
Iris’s POV
“Iris! Are you out of your damn mind?”
My dad hadn’t even finished riding the high of me agreeing to the marriage arrangement before my condition hit him like a slap.
“Our family doesn’t even have a hundred million in liquid assets combined! I can’t do that.”
“You’ve got your one shot to turn everything around sitting right in front of you,” I shot back, cold and firm. “I’ll give you one day.”
With that, I hung up, then turned my gaze back into the private room.
Marty had his arm loosely around the woman, watching her face for a reaction, then gestured at the pile of jewelry in front of her.
“All of this is yours. Pick whatever you want, as long as it makes you happy.”
She barely glanced at it, her expression flat.
“I told you already. I don’t like you. You don’t need to try this hard to impress me. I’m not the kind of woman who gets swayed by money.”
“If you’ve got this much time to waste, maybe think about what you’re gonna do when your wife finds out you’ve been lying to her. And if she comes crying to me? Mr. Dempsey, don’t blame me for not holding back.”
Marty raised a brow, a slow, amused smile tugging at his lips.
“Madz, if you want it, you can be Mrs. Dempsey.”
“As for Iris? Don’t worry about her. I don’t love that kind of cheap woman.”
“Back then, I just tossed her a few nice words and she fell for it. And my parents were already pushing me into an arranged marriage anyway, so I figured, ‘why not marry someone who actually likes me instead of some woman tied to me for business’?”
“At least she takes care of family matters for me. And I gave her a cushy life. It’s not like I mistreated her.”
The room burst into laughter, people chiming in one after another.
“I can vouch for that, bro! The night before your wedding, at the bachelor party, you said the exact same thing. I still have the recording!”
“Seriously, man, no one does devotion like you. You’ve refused to have kids all these years. Wasn’t it all just waiting for Madisen to finally say yes?”
“Exactly. I’ve known you for twenty years. I’ve never seen you care about anyone the way you care about her.”
At the word “kids,” my hand instinctively went to my stomach as tears slipped down silently.
I met Marty at a maternity and baby products company.
He was known as a reckless rich playboy, the exact type of man I couldn’t stand.
But we had similar backgrounds. And the way he once crossed the entire city in the middle of the night just to see me made me fall for him eventually.
I refused to believe he never had even a little bit of real feelings for me.
I was just about to storm into the room and demand the truth when a gunshot shattered everything. Screams started breaking out all over the bar.
“Iris! Why are you still standing here? There’s a guy with a gun! The bar’s already a mess!”
A colleague ran over and grabbed my arm, dragging me toward the exit.
In the center of the hall, the criminal’s voice exploded.
“Everybody stay the fuck where you are! Move again and I swear I’ll shoot you dead!”
Another gunshot rang out. The black muzzle swung wildly, aimed at anyone who hadn’t made it out yet.
Then I heard Marty shouting, frantically.
“Madz! Don’t be scared! I’m coming to you!”
I turned back. His eyes were locked, not on me, but on Madisen, just a few steps away.
He shoved through the crowd, desperate to reach her.
Something sharp and sour spread through my chest as I remembered something.
On our honeymoon, we were kidnapped once.
He ran, leaving me there with a knife pressed to my throat while they demanded ransom.
I thought, ‘Even just to calm them down, he’d at least pretend to agree.’
But he didn’t. He refused without hesitation.
Even when the blade cut into my skin, he didn’t waver.
Afterward, he told me that giving in would only make things worse for my safety.
God, I actually fucking believed that jerk!
And now, everything in front of me made it painfully clear: all of it was just excuses because he simply didn’t give a damn about me.
The sound of sirens snapped me back. The crowd grew more chaotic, and Madisen started screaming for help.
“If you’re so damn eager to leave, then go die first!”
The gunman completely lost it, aiming straight at her.
As he pulled the trigger, a sudden force slammed into me from behind. I stumbled forward right into the bullet’s path!
There was no time to think. A burning, tearing pain exploded through my body. Something warm and wet spread fast, soaking through my clothes.
As I hit the ground, I used the last bit of strength I had to look back.
I never, not even for a second, thought the person who pushed me… would be Marty.
Our eyes met for a split second. He looked away first, like I was nothing, and pulled Madisen into his arms, holding her tight like she was everything to him.
