Aaron laughed smugly as he urged Iris to hang up.
A look of remorse crossed Daniel's face. He was too embarrassed to continue convincing me to wait for Iris.
"Are you sure you want to choose Taylor? Her history—"
I interrupted him before he could say more. I took a deep breath and stared into Taylor Miller's dark eyes, saying, "I choose her."
Mom had once told me that she had seen Taylor at an exclusive and private auction. Although it was undeniable that she was an illegitimate child, she was certainly not as simple as Daniel thought her to be.
Besides, the time had come for me to choose between love and profit.
Since we had to order a new wedding dress, Taylor and I agreed to postpone the wedding to next week.
A flurry of complicated emotions flickered in Daniel's eyes. He let out a long sigh and said, "I'll announce that we're changing the successor of the Miller family on the day of the wedding."
…
Since I now had a new bride, it was only natural that I had to change some other things as well.
When I went to the jewelry store to purchase a new wedding ring, I accidentally bumped into Iris and Aaron, who had just returned to the country.
Iris' smile faded a little when we made eye contact.
"I have to give it to you, Jasper. I didn't expect you to be able to convince Grandpa to freeze my cards. I hate it the most when someone tries to force me into doing something. Don't think for even a second that I'll marry you just because I'm back in the country!" she spat, irritation flickering in her eyes.
Her tone turned colder. "Did you also intentionally track me down? Did you come here to confront me?"
Aaron lightly pinched her cheek. "He's madly in love with you. How can you be so cruel?" he asked helplessly.
He then took her hand, completely ignoring the fact that I was standing right before them. He arched his eyebrow and grinned at me, saying, "It's my fault for spoiling Iris rotten. Don't take her words to heart. Don't worry. I'll set her straight before I hand her over to you."
Iris allowed Aaron to drape himself over her, looking at him with an adoring expression.
Yet in the past, when I tried to hold her hand while we were shopping, she had silently retracted her hand. She had said, "There are so many people looking. It makes me uncomfortable."
It turned out that Iris' discomfort only made itself known when I was the one who was trying to show her affection.
I took a deep breath and suppressed my turbulent emotions. "Don't worry. I won't force you to marry me."
Iris was briefly stunned by my words. The sales assistant approached me just as a frown appeared on her face.
"I've packed up the wedding ring that you selected, Mr. Swanson."
Iris scoffed and arched her eyebrow. "You've already picked out a wedding ring. Why are you still lying about not wanting to marry me?"
She grabbed my hand before continuing, "Put it on. Let me see whether it's a good fit."
The rest of her words died on her tongue when her gaze landed on the ring mark around my finger that hadn't fully faded yet. Her breath hitched before she asked, "Where's the ring that I gave you?"
"I threw it away," I answered calmly.
In fact, I threw it away the very same day I changed brides.
The ring had been the first gift that Iris had given me. Our initials had been carved on the inner side.
Iris, who had been spoiled and carried herself with a haughty demeanor all her life, had been as red as a beet when she roughly shoved the ring into my hand.
"I personally carved our initials on the inner ring," she had said. "I won't forgive you if you lose it."
However, in the end, she was the one who lost her ring first.
Iris had awkwardly averted her gaze when I fished out the damaged ring from the trash, saying, "Aaron got drunk and made a fuss about wanting to look at it. I don't know how it ended up that way. Just throw it away. I'll make a new one when the time comes."
I waited for a long time, but she didn't make a new ring even after the mark around her finger faded.
