My early performance was good, and my time
with Jake went well.
My points were so high I could cash out almost
anything.
Jake was still lingering, and he wanted a kiss. I
smiled, pushed him out the door.
He left, and I could finally go.
I booked a flight and left the keys on the table,
and left the place I had lived in for five years,
never looking back.
Jake picked up Brenda at the airport, and he
was too busy celebrating to see me at the gate.
I calmly walked into the terminal to see a line of
bodyguards approaching.
They called me ma’am and escorted me away.
I had no idea what was going on, and the
system explained.
“This mission has a special mechanic. The
target already likes you. You just have to get
married.”
<
At that moment, Jake was on his phone, sitting
in a private lounge.
He saw the news with a familiar name, and he stood up, suddenly pale, and ran out the door. I got off the plane, and I was swarmed by the press, with microphones shoved in my face. Chapter 2
“Ms. Davis, how did you meet Mr. Sterling?”
I scratched my chin, because, honestly, I had no
clue.
I hadn’t been following the news for a long
time. Before the mission, I hadn’t even heard of
him.
So how did he find me? I was completely
unprepared.
The bodyguards cleared a path and I got to the
car. I was still in shock and brought up the
system.
It had become a lot more active and answered
all my questions.
I narrowed my eyes and said, “You didn’t give
away my info, did you? How did he know I was
coming? Aren’t the missions supposed to be a
secret?”
The system was quiet for a while. “The Sterling family has resources. There is no message they can’t intercept.”
It told me all about this powerful family, but I still didn’t understand.
After wasting ten minutes, I gave up. I would just have to deal with it.
When the car stopped, I was taken to a five- star restaurant.
I was alone at the table for quite a while. I couldn’t help being curious. They made a big deal about this marriage and brought me here, but why hadn’t they shown up?
It wasn’t worth it to keep going like this, getting hitched to a stranger. Maybe I should just give
up and be done with the mission?
My goal was to save my mother.
I had unlocked the system in high school, when Jake’s name was familiar but foreign.
The system gave me an advance, and I agreed to the mission right away.
My mom’s cancer treatment was incredibly
expensive for an average family.
Soon my dad got sick too, and we were in debt. Jake was a couple of grades above me, and the system said that he was going to flight school.
I changed my major, and threw myself into Jake’s life.
I used all of my points for cash, but in the end, my mom still died, and then so did my dad, and I was all alone.
Jake and I had gotten through the hard times together, so he was like the most important person in my life, mission or not.
I didn’t know that was just an imbalance.
Then I got a notification of a large amount of
money going into my bank account.
I finally smiled, a genuine smile.
Five years was not a waste after all.
My phone started buzzing, it was Jake.
He was blowing up my phone. There were
hundreds of missed calls, and messages.
The notifications were popping up nonstop, I
wasn’t picking up, and I didn’t plan to.
“Sarah, where are you?”
<
“Call me back!”
He sounded panicked. I remembered that he
was the one who wanted us to always update
each other.
When we were dating, he had serious
attachment issues. I had made him feel safe. Later our messages were short and simple, our check–ins were brief, and I thought everything was okay.
But it was only that his mind was elsewhere. Brenda’s social media showed me the truth. This year on Valentine’s Day, Jake said he had a dinner with friends who were getting married. There were a lot of people, and Brenda was right next to him.
Even if they slept together, it could have been an accident, right?
There had been moments like this all the time.
All of those important days, Jake had split it all
up and found excuses for everything.
It had been a five–year long lie.
