Chapter 1
I did ninety-eight favors for Darion Floyd, and finally earned a promise from him: “Finish the ninety-ninth task, and we’ll get married.”
That ninety-ninth task was to pick him up from the airport and take him home.
It rained heavily that day. I waited in the terminal all night, clutching the white roses he loved.
Early the next morning, security guards found me unconscious. By the time I was sent to the hospital, I had a fever of 102 degrees.
The first thing I saw when I woke up was a wedding photo of him and his female secretary, Kaleigh Dobson, on In-
stagram.
In the photo, he had his arm around her waist, with the caption: “I finally married someone who makes Mom happy.”
I ordered ninety-nine white lilies from the florist and had them delivered to his company, along with a card: “Happy wedding: Wish you happy in hell.”
Darion stopped me angrily outside his company’s building. “Kaleigh’s dad has terminal liver cancer. He wants to see his daughter married. Can’t you have a little sympathy?”
I spoke calmly and slowly, “Then I wish him a long life. You’d better be together for the rest of your life. Don’t let him get upset and worsen his illness.”
As I locked the car door, I faintly heard him shout from behind, “Do you have to be so cruel?”
I rolled down the window, flipped him the middle finger, and smiled, “Compared to you, I still have a long way to go.”
***
After leaving the hospital and returning to the company, I turned to leave immediately after I spotted Darion, but he grabbed my wrist.
“Breanna, do you have to make a scene?”
His voice was tight with suppressed anger. “Once her dad’s condition gets better, I’ll file for divorce right away.”
I stared at the diamond ring on his finger and felt absurd.
Seven years had passed, and he always had new excuses and conditions.
“Darion, do you know how long I waited at the terminal?”
I took off my sunglasses, letting him see my bloodshot eyes beneath. “From the morning to the last subway shutting
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Chapter 1
down, I waited until the flight information display screen became blank.”
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In the past several years, I’d stayed by his side, from campus to the workplace, through every step of building his ca- reer from nothing.
He’d said we’d get married if I gave up my study-abroad offer.
He’d said we’d register for marriage once the company got through its tough times.
For the 50th favor I did him, he’d said we’d hold the wedding after helping Kaleigh’s dad finish his surgery.
For the 78th, he’d said if I helped Kaleigh land that key client, he’d take me to pick out engagement rings.
***
For the 98th, he’d said he’d go public with our relationship once the company’s valuation hit 15 million dollars.
And for the 99th, he’d called it a “lucky number”. He’d promised that if I went to the airport to pick him up and take him home a week later, he’d go to the city hall with me, and finally give me a home.
For that promise, I’d typed up his meeting minutes every night, wined and dined clients until the early morning, and even taken care of his sick mother while he was away on business trips.
The day he was supposed to return to America, I waited at the airport from morning till night, stubbornly standing in my high heels, terrified of missing the second he walked out.
By dawn, all flights had been grounded, and the airport was nearly empty.
The floor-to-ceiling windows reflected my messy hair and smudged makeup. A few scattered passengers glanced at me, their eyes filled with pity.
Ground staff came over repeatedly to ask if I needed help.
But I just shook my head.
“Madam, the last international flight landed four hours ago,” the check-in clerk reminded me softly.
In the cold air, my body temperature spiked little by little, and my vision started to blur.
But I couldn’t leave. What if he came out and didn’t see me? What if this was his final test?
As the sky lightened, a cleaning lady passed by with a mop. “Girl, don’t wait anymore. A gentleman left through the VIP channel with a woman last night.”
That was when I finally snapped out of it. My neck was stiff, and I lowered my head and unlocked my phone.
The first post on Instagram was a new post he’d shared two hours earlier, with a photo of him and Kaleigh. The cap- tion read: “So touched to have someone take such good care of me overseas.”
In that moment, I finally understood that someone who truly loved me would never let me wait in a rainstorm for a flight that would never come.
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Chapter 1
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“Breanna!” He banged wildly on my car window. “Can’t you try to be a little more understanding? Is a marriage cer- tificate really so important to you?”
His angry shout jolted me out of my memories.
“It is important.” I said. “And right now, I’m so glad the person in that wedding photo isn’t me.”
He opened his mouth to say more, but I’d already started the car.
When I got home, I curled up on the balcony and drank half a bottle of whiskey. My phone vibrated.
Darion had posted nine wedding photos with Kaleigh on Instagram.
Drunk and dizzy, I reached for my phone, wanting to delete all our old photos.
But when I opened the album, the screen was filled with nothing but the plans he’d made me revise, the contracts he’d had me sign for him, and the meeting summaries I’d typed up.
It turned out, after seven years, I didn’t even have a single photo of us worth deleting.
The phone lit up again. Darion’s name flashed on the screen.
His message read: “Pick me up at ten o’clock, old spot.”
“.
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