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.
