The night before the wedding, Marlin Gilbert told me he had cancer.
I sold the house back home to pay for his treatment.
Then he smiled at me and told me the truth.
“The cancer was fake. I was never going to marry you.”
“Christina Pruitt wanted your family's land. So we put this whole thing together.”
He pulled off the engagement ring—the one Grandma Evelyn had given us before she got too sick.
Leaned back in his chair and watched my face, savoring it.
I didn't cry or scream the way he expected.
I bent down calmly and picked the ring up off the floor.
Grandma Evelyn didn't have much time left.
This wedding was happening no matter what.
Who stood at the altar beside me didn't actually matter.
——
My reaction caught Marlin off guard.
He raised an eyebrow, feigning indifference.
“You're not angry?”
“Christina would've torn the place apart by now.”
I wiped the dust off the ring, careful not to scratch it.
“I'm not her.”
Christina Pruitt was our father's precious darling.
The treasure the whole family held in the palms of their hands.
I was just the one they threw away.
A pitiful orphan raised by her grandmother, the two of us clinging to each other with nothing else.
When you've never been loved,
you don't get the luxury of making a scene.
Maybe the sight of me taking it without a fight gave Marlin some kind of pleasure.
He looked down with a quiet laugh, then tipped my chin up with one finger.
“Diana Henson, you're still so obedient. So easy to like.”
“Too bad Christina and I are already engaged. I can't marry you.”
“But for old times' sake, I could let you stay by my side.”
“I'd take care of you. You wouldn't want for anything.”
You wouldn't want for anything……
A bitter smile pulled at my lips.
I looked down at my faded jeans, my cheap canvas shoes.
Three years ago, Grandma Evelyn was diagnosed with a terminal illness.
Her last wish was to see me married with her own eyes.
So I threw myself into blind dates, one after another.
Every man I met liked me well enough at first.
But the moment they heard about a dying grandmother, they all backed away.
Only Marlin Gilbert stayed.
In a crowded café, he reached across the table and took my hand.
His low voice was gentler than the sunlight falling across his face.
“Diana, listen to me.”
“I liked you from the first moment I saw you.”
“I'm just an ordinary guy. I can't cover your grandmother's medical bills. But I want to share that weight with you.”
“I believe that as long as two people stand together, there's nothing they can't get through.”
A hollow promise—nothing more. But when you're drowning, even a stranger's hand looks like salvation.
I fell for it without looking back.
In the early days, I brought up marriage again and again.
Marlin always said the same thing. Wait a little longer. Just a little longer.
He wanted to save up more, give me a grander wedding.
Something that would put Grandma Evelyn's mind at ease.
So I waited.
The wedding never came. What came instead was the news that Marlin had cancer.
The feelings I'd buried too deep wouldn't let me walk away.
I poured in every cent I had, and it still wasn't enough.
I had no choice but to set up a street stall, take food delivery shifts.
Money ran through my hands like water, vanishing into a hole with no bottom.
Until there was nothing left.
The love was fake.
The illness was fake.
This so-called heaven-sent match.
From the very beginning, every piece of it was a trap built just for me.
