Childhood Sweetheart Pranked Me, I Countered; Boyfriend Regrets Madly

I froze. Ferdinand Stephens, it seems you've forgotten which place is really home. And who your girlfriend really is. That night, Ferdinand didn't come home at all. The next day, his childhood sweetheart threw a fit to be discharged. Ferdinand called me. "Come get her." "She says the hospital food is terrible." I was in the middle of a meeting. My phone sat on the table, on speaker. The whole conference room heard it. I picked up the phone. "I'm busy." Ferdinand laughed. "Didn't that acquisition plan of yours already fall through? Busy with what?" "Busy making money." I kept my voice flat. "So I can make enough to compensate your little sweetheart with more luxury goods." Two seconds of silence on his end. "What's with the attitude?" "That bug last time, you really shouldn't have stepped on it." "Linda raised it for a whole month, fed it cabbage leaves every day, treasured the thing." "It was just childish fun. She was only teasing you." "And you crushed it with one stomp." "She cried all night, her eyes are swollen, I spent forever calming her down." I looked around the conference room. They pretended to keep their heads down over the documents. Every ear was tuned in. "So?" "You think I shouldn't have hit her? That I should've just let her use some filthy bug to prank me in the middle of my meeting?" I closed my eyes for a moment. "Ferdinand, you know exactly how important that meeting was." Ferdinand said nothing. He knew. He knew all of it. To pull off that acquisition, I'd worked overtime until dawn for two straight months. I'd finally gotten to speak in the meetings, to fight for the investment. And then Linda, on a whim, used a bug to prank me. Two months of effort, gone. "It's all in the past. Why keep dragging it up?" Ferdinand was getting impatient. I could hear the noise of a line of people behind him. I didn't have to ask. Ferdinand was standing in a queue right now, buying Linda her favorite chilled fruit sorbet. "You've got half an hour. Go to the hospital and pick Linda up." "If she ends up crying because of you again," "it won't be as simple as paying her back with one bag." I hung up. The conference room went quiet enough to hear the hum of the air conditioning. "Let's continue." After the meeting ended, I went back to my office. I opened the drawer. Inside sat a neat stack of documents. Every one of them a share-transfer agreement. Signed. Sealed. Ferdinand had no idea. Every time a luxury bag disappeared from my cabinet, one more agreement appeared in here. That evening, worn out, I came home. Only to find Linda standing in front of my cabinet, picking through my bags. "Ferdinand, this one's pretty." "I want this one, then." Ferdinand took it out without a shred of hesitation. As he handed it to Linda, he gave her nose a doting flick. "Whatever you want, I'll get it for you." "No more crying after this. If you cry your eyes swollen and end up looking like a splotchy little cat, that won't be cute." Linda giggled. She slung the bag over her shoulder and struck poses in the mirror. I stood where I was, watching it all, cold. A whole cabinet of luxury bags. The year Ferdinand had the most money, he made good on the promise he'd once given me. He cleared out a huge room on the entire second floor. Built a full wall of cabinets for luxury goods. He said every month he'd give me a bag. Until all one hundred slots were filled. But when it reached the ninety-eighth, Linda showed up on his doorstep for help. Ferdinand's one-bag-a-month plan stopped. It turned into relief rations to keep her. She wanted pretty clothes, pretty meals. Ferdinand paid for all of it. Every time I asked why, Ferdinand would put on a pained face. "Linda's mother is my godmother too. She looked after me plenty when I was little." "It's just a little money. Don't nickel-and-dime it." She loved raising bugs, and she loved to cry. Especially those bugs she used to prank me, to make my skin crawl. Every time she ended up in tears, Ferdinand made me hand over a luxury bag to make up for it. Linda even came to my house herself, picking through them one by one, and posted about it on social media. "Sis, you're back?" Linda saw me and shrank back behind Ferdinand, scared. I stared at the top of Linda's head. The wound had nearly healed. "Didn't I say I won't allow you in my house?" Linda bit her lip, the picture of wronged innocence. "Phyllis Henson, how dare you even say that!" Ferdinand cut me off. "I told you to pick Linda up from the hospital, and you bailed. And now you've got the nerve to blame her?" I shoved past him and walked over. "I'm under no obligation." I looked at the cabinet where the luxury bags had been. Empty now. "Ferdinand, this is the last time." The corner of Ferdinand's mouth curled into a sneer. "I hope it's the last time too." "Phyllis Henson, I hope you'll learn to behave and stop provoking Linda." The next day, Linda came to my company. She had that limited-edition Chanel slung over her shoulder, the one she'd taken from me just yesterday. The front desk stopped her, and she got haughty. "I'm your Ms. Henson's sister." "I'm here to hang out with her." The front desk called up. I didn't say to let her in. Before long, she came clacking in on her heels, barging straight through.

She pushed open the door to my office. "Sis, your office is huge." "Even bigger than Ferdinand's." "He said business has been going really well for you lately." "You must be making a fortune, huh?" I set down my pen and looked up. "Linda, what is it you actually want to say?" Her face stiffened for a second. Then she smiled again. "Sis, are you still holding a grudge?" "That whole bug thing, I've completely forgotten about it." "You shouldn't take it to heart either." "Get out," I said coldly. She had a thick skin. The harder I pushed her out, the wider she smiled. "Sis, the fact that you dislike me this much now, does that mean you're feeling threatened?" "Afraid I'll steal your boyfriend?" "I never expected a powerhouse woman like you would be scared of losing her man." She spun in a slow circle where she stood, that handbag dangling from her arm. "But don't worry, I only care about money. I've got no interest in men." I said nothing, and she suddenly changed tack. "Phyllis, mind if I take a look around your office?" "Ferdinand said you've collected a lot of antiques." "I'd love to see them." She wandered around, cheerful as anything. She stopped in front of the bookshelf and reached out to touch a blue-and-white porcelain vase. "Don't touch that!" I called out to stop her. But it was already too late. There was a crash of shattering porcelain. Her hand froze in midair. Her eyes went red, all wounded innocence. "I was only looking…" "I didn't mean to break it. I'm sorry. How much was it worth?" "Enough to buy your life." She gave a weak little laugh. "Sis, you really know how to joke." I wasn't joking. "Pay for it now." "Otherwise, I'm calling the police." I picked up my phone. I pressed three keys. "911." Linda's face changed. "Sis, are you serious?" "Do I look like I'm joking?" She bit her lip. Staring at the pile of shards on the floor. "How much… I'll pay it." "One price. Fifty million." "What?!" "A broken vase, worth fifty million?" "Ming-dynasty imperial blue-and-white. You tell me." Her face went white, then red. Red, then white again. "I'll pay!" "I'm calling Ferdinand right now!" She yanked out her phone. Her hands were shaking hard. She had to dial twice before it went through. "Hello… Ferdinand…" "I… I've made a mess of things…" "I'm in Phyllis's office. I accidentally broke one of her antique vases…" "She wants me to pay five million…" "I don't have that kind of money…" "Could you please…" There were a few seconds of silence on the other end. Then I heard Ferdinand's voice. "Put her on." The phone came to me. Ferdinand sighed. "Phyllis, don't stoop to her level." "She's still young, clumsy. Fifty million is too much. Can't you make it cheaper?" "Here we go again." I gave a cold laugh. "Ferdinand, can't you come up with a different excuse?" "She's twenty-two. That's not young." "My interns are younger than her, and none of them cause this much trouble." "You tell me, what exactly do you see in her?" "Pretty face? Sweet voice?" "Or do you just like them stupid and cute?" Ferdinand's voice dropped. "Phyllis, watch your mouth." "She's my little sister." "And you're my girlfriend." "Can't you cut her some slack, for my sake?" "Haven't I cut enough slack already?" I threw the question back, cold as ice. "She pranked me with a bug and tanked an acquisition I'd spent two months building." "That whole wall of designer bags of mine, she took every one." "And now she comes here to provoke me and smashes an antique vase in my office." "Ferdinand, don't you think the two of you have gone too far?" Ferdinand was silent for a long time. In the end, he caved. "Fifty million. I'll wire it to you." "You let Linda go, and no more of this talk about calling the police." The corner of my mouth curved. "Deal." That day, I had my secretary see Linda out, all politeness. The fifty million hit my account. Ferdinand, now you don't even have your last bargaining chip or your last bit of cash left. Two days later, to cheer Linda up, Ferdinand took her to an auction in the next city over. The day they left. I received an email. From the board of directors. Saying Ferdinand had made poor decisions lately. Several major projects had suffered heavy losses. Someone needed to step up and take responsibility. I deleted the email. And made a call. "Those companies we acquired, how's the integration coming along?" "Already done." "Good." "Next step, prepare for the shareholders' meeting." "Set it for next month." I hung up. I walked to the floor-to-ceiling window. Looking down at the endless stream of traffic on the street below. This city was vast. Vast enough to hold countless dreams. And small enough that it couldn't hold one man's greed. A pity, really. Ferdinand had walked this road so long he'd forgotten why he started. He didn't know that every time he took a bag from me. He was cutting away his own flesh. He didn't know that behind every one of those bags. There was a share-transfer agreement, already signed with my name. But soon. He would know.

When we came back from the auction, Linda was in a state. The insects she kept in her room, every last one of them, had been killed overnight by insecticide. She came to me crying, looking for a fight. "Phyllis, I've done everything I can to stay out of your way. I don't provoke you." "How could you be so vicious?" "You waited until Ferdinand and I were at the auction, and then you poisoned all my little pets!" I looked at her calmly. "I didn't do it." If I ever did something like that, I'd do it to their faces. I wouldn't sneak around behind anyone's back. I said I wanted a full investigation. But Ferdinand wouldn't hear it. His eyes were full of anger. "Phyllis, haven't you caused enough trouble?" "Do you have any idea how long Linda cried?" "Her eyes are swollen from it." I held his gaze, calm. "And so?" "What am I supposed to pay for this time?" Ferdinand narrowed his eyes and stared at me for a long moment. "You're too immature. You're really not fit to be Mrs. Stephens." "Let's push the wedding from next month to sometime next year." I gave a mocking little laugh. "Fine." Three days later, Ferdinand found out the truth. The insects had been killed by accident, sprayed with insecticide by the new housekeeper. "Phyllis, I owe you an apology." His eyes were full of guilt. "I was wrong to accuse you last time without hearing you out." "Let's keep the wedding on schedule after all. What do you say?" I closed my eyes and said nothing. He didn't know there was no wedding anymore. "After we're married, I need you to promise me one thing." "Stop giving Linda a hard time." "She's timid. She can't handle being frightened." I couldn't help but laugh. "Me, giving her a hard time?" "She's the one who's been coming after me." "The insects, the bags, the antique vase..." "Which time didn't she start it?" Ferdinand frowned. "That's her one little hobby. Keeping insects, liking pretty things. What's wrong with that?" "You blow everything out of proportion every time." "It's just a few bags." "I'll pay you back double later." I looked at this man who took his childhood sweetheart's side the way he always had. And suddenly I felt tired. "There's no need to pay me back." "What?" "Those bags. Consider them donated to the beggars." Linda's face went white. Ferdinand froze too. I stood up. "Is there anything else?" "If not, please see yourselves out." "I have a meeting to get to." I sent them off. On his way out, Ferdinand's face was livid. "Phyllis, you'll regret this." I heard that to make up for the roomful of insects killed by the insecticide, Ferdinand was going to take Linda on a road trip. When I heard, I just smiled. "If he insists on walking off a cliff, that's no longer my concern." Soon enough, it was the anniversary gala for Ferdinand's company. He made a big production of it. Invited half the business district. I got an invitation too. On the day, I wore a simple white dress. No makeup at all. When I walked in, I drew plenty of eyes. Ferdinand came over with a glass in his hand, his gaze amused. "You seem... very different today." "Different how?" "I can't put my finger on it." "There's just this... very appealing ease about you." "Like you've stopped caring." I smiled. "Caring about what?" "Caring about... the bags that got taken from me?" "Or my boyfriend who's always so cozy with his childhood sweetheart?" None of it was as useful as the money and the shares in my hands. Seeing that I had no interest, Ferdinand suddenly caught my wrist, his voice softening. "Phyllis, I admit I've neglected you these past few days." "In a few months I'll send Linda away, and I'll buy all those bags again for you." "No need." I shook off his hand. "Ferdinand, not everything gives you a chance to make up for it." "You took my bags away, again and again, just to placate Linda." "Want to guess what I took from you?" Ferdinand's expression changed. "What do you mean?" I curved my lips. "You'll find out in a bit." I turned toward the stage. The host was announcing the start of the anniversary gala. The chairman was to come up and give his speech. Ferdinand straightened his suit. Getting ready to go up. Just then, my phone rang. "Hello." "Ms. Henson, everything's ready." "Good." I hung up. I looked at Ferdinand. "You might not be going up on that stage today." He was baffled. "Why not?" I curved the corner of my mouth. "Because you're not the chairman anymore."