Four Years Built On Deceit

er' s cruel punishments-exile, financial ruin, public humiliation-all because the old man supposedly

wasn't a rejection. It was an approval, stamped and da

ur-year strug

rumbled. He did it for his

ut me, Augusta," he p

ce to appease another woman. All his "sacrifices" were just a crue

I made my choice. I packed my bags, left New York, and started

pte

from his grandfather, but the true approval, stamped and dated, hidden away. It wasn't a rejection at all. It was a lie

ogether since we were kids, our lives intertwined, a future meticulously planned. Every year, for the past four years, we put our marriage proposal before his family's patriarch, Eldridge Gross. Every year, it was publicly "rej

d. "He's stubborn. He wants to test me, to make sure I'm worthy

r us," I'd whisper, even to myself, needing to hear the words, to believe them. Each rejection was a wound, but

nowhere. No cell service, no contact for months. I counted the days, held onto his last letter like a lifeline

complain. He just looked at me, his eyes full of regret, and said, "It's okay. We'll earn it back. Together." I saw him

mari took the fall, his name dragged through the mud, his reputation tarnished. He stood tall, almost defiant, in the face of it all. "It's worth i

e I tried to hide. Damari went in, emerged with that same weary but resolute expression. "He said n

a phantom presence, a shadow in his periphery. He was pouring over blueprints, his mind miles away. I saw a file, half-hi

s the marriage approval form. The one from this year. My eyes scanned t

e word, boldly t

ision blurred. I blinke

t font. And next to "Approved," a tiny, hand-scrawled "not" inserted before it, carefull

m. He was still lost in his work, utterly unaware. My m

e cut through the fog. He was looking a

thought it would tear. "This... this says 'appr

, scattering across the floor. He stared at the document, then a

his voice suddenly hoarse, full of a p

years of lies? Four years of making me believe your grandfather was the villain? Fo

pped animal. "No, it's not like that. He did reject it. The first few times

s laced with ice, with ev

gone. "Cydney. She... she can't live without me, Augus

l assistant. The woman who had been his shadow for eight years. T

low now, "that you sabotaged our marriage for

and reaching out. I recoiled as if burned. "She's been with me sinc

ation of our relationship, crumbling into dust. His devotion wasn't to me, but to a misplaced sense of pity for Cyd

stranger, a liar, a coward. The realization hit me like a physical blow. The man I had loved, the man I had built my future around, was nothing but a mirage. And Cydney Miller, his obsessive a