Chapter 5
I glanced at my phone one last time, eyes locking on a new post from Shirley’s secret X account.
[Apparently, Marvin’s putting together a prank compilation for our wedding, featuring someone’s ugly crying face as the grand opening.]
The picture showed a safe in Marvin’s apartment, neatly stacked with 99 voice recorders.
Seeing all those missed calls from Marvin, I smiled as I pulled out the SIM card.
He still had no idea about the plane crash-he only knew I had uncovered his prank game.
Was he suspicious? Angry? Panicked? Perhaps uneasy or confused?
But none of it mattered anymore.
My father said making a private plane disappear from radar would be like wiping my fingerprints off our wedding photo frame. He told me to trust him completely.
And soon, I would disappear from Marvin’s life just as thoroughly.
When Marvin heard about the crash, he ran headfirst into the wreckage, ripping apart smoking metal with his bare hands. His tailored suit was shredded by steel bars.
Firefighters tried to stop him, but his bloodshot eyes scared them off.
“My girlfriend is in there! She’s wearing the moon necklace I gave her!”
Then a tall stranger stepped up, and before Marvin could react, the tall man slammed a fist into his face.
Marvin collapsed but didn’t fight back-he just kept searching through the rubble, desperate to find someone familiar.
“Ms. Davison’s ashes are being taken back to Fronville to be buried with her mother. You’ve failed her. No matter what you do, you’ll always have her blood on your hands.”
It was my father’s assistant.
Marvin’s legs gave out, and he fell to his knees amid the ruins.
Then he spotted a ring. He picked it up with his trembling hand. It was the one we had picked together.
But inside the band was an engraving: [Hope You’ll Love Me After 100 Pranks]
ཆ ཌ :
I had it engraved without his knowledge.
Marvin was shaking all over, stunned beyond words.
Only then did he realize I’d known everything all along—that not only had he hurt me again and again, but he had also allowed Shirley and his friends to trample on and humiliate me.
Marvin had fallen for me during our relationship, which was supposed to be a prank, but he kept fooling himself, thinking he still loved Shirley.
He was too proud to lose face in front of Shirley and his friends. He wouldn’t admit the truth. He figured the pranks were almost all done, and I was still in the dark.
He believed he could leave the past behind him and keep playing the part of the perfect boyfriend, since I was blindly devoted to him.
But he never expected that I had found out and had been going along with his charade the whole time.
1/3
In that moment, Marvin finally felt what I’d been feeling.
We’d been together three years. He always stood on my left side, close to my heart; he was so near yet so far away, seemingly always out of reach.
Now, he truly understood the pain I endured.
Ruined career, delayed graduation, injured leg, lost competition, partner’s betrayal…
But all that weighed less than Shirley’s words. He always chose her over me.
Marvin knelt in the wreckage, broken and hollow. He was crying so hard he nearly passed out. Luckily, some kind staff found him and rushed him to the hospital.
Shirley saw the shell of a man Marvin had become and sneered, “The 100th prank is completed. Time to make it official.”
Marvin didn’t respond.
She waved a USB stick, smirking.
“I’m competing using a dead woman’s game design. Do you want to be the one to present me with the award?”
Marvin’s expression froze cold as ice. Suddenly, he lunged forward and slapped her hard, then he grabbed her by the neck and
smashed her into the window.
“I will never be with you. If you dare to use her designs, I’ll make sure you spend your 25th birthday in jail. Test me if you dare.”
Shirley clutched her face, furious.
“Are you crazy? She’s dead! Why are you so worked up for her? Don’t forget, you pulled those pranks on her for me!”
Marvin’s friends chimed in.
“Yeah. She’s finally gone. You’re free now.”
“Too bad we missed the last chance to see her make a fool of herself. Haha!”
“I was even planning to have someone throw rotten eggs on her at the competition!”
Marvin shouted, “Shut up! If it weren’t for the stupid pranks, Serena would still be alive!”
His friends exchanged looks, then burst into laughter.
“You’re the one who came up with the idea. If you wanna point fingers, look in the mirror. You killed her.”
“Don’t pretend to be the loyal boyfriend now. Last time, you spiked her drink with laxatives, making her miss her defense-”
Before the friend could finish, Marvin tackled him, and the group got into a fight. Eventually, Marvin was sent to the emergency room, exhausted and badly injured.
སྐ་༸ཥ་ཇག་ཚ
The last thing my dad’s assistant told me about Marvin was this: He’d fallen out with everyone, started hurting himself, kept saying he’d betrayed his girlfriend, and was in and out of psychiatric care.
He had a tombstone set up for me in the Renowoods Cemetery, where he spent long hours visiting. He even tattooed the game logo we designed together on his chest.
Everyone in Renowoods knew Marvin had a woman he could never forget-the one who died in a plane crash.
ཡ་བ
I scoffed quietly and focused on the advanced treatment in Frontania for my leg injury.
2/3
