Ficorpio
Chapter 1
With less than a day left before the wedding, I was rifling through the cabinet when I found a red marriage certificate.
It was Adrian Sterling and Fiona Vale’s marriage certificate.
I snapped a photo and sent it to him.
[Explain this.]
I thought it was just some stupid prank. Instead, my phone lit up almost immediately with a sixty-second voice message.
[Future Mrs. Sterling, I’m sorry. We were at a downtown bar yesterday, and I was just joking around. Adrian and I drank too much and ended up registering the marriage.]
[Don’t worry. Once the mandatory divorce waiting period is over, we’ll go file for the divorce right away.]
[I’ll give him back to you, for sure.]
I was silent for two seconds.
Then I blocked her account.
Three hours later, Adrian came home just as I was dragging my suitcase downstairs.
His eyes landed on the red certificate on the coffee table, and he pressed a hand to his temple.
“It’s not a big deal. She was just being childish. Is it really worth making such a fuss over it?”
“You waited six years for this wedding. Can’t you even wait one more month?”
I smiled faintly, not denying it. “Yes. I can’t wait anymore.”
…
Adrian blinked in surprise.
He reached out on instinct and stopped me. “Chloe, don’t do this.”
“The invitations are already out. If you leave now, how are both families supposed to clean this up?”
I brushed his hand away and kept walking toward the door.
At last, his voice dropped. “Just because of something this small, you’re willing to throw away six years between us?”
I stopped and turned to look at him.
“Six years?”
“Adrian, when you registered that marriage with her, did you think about these six years at all?”
He went quiet.
After a pause, he forced out a hollow explanation. “The bar was loud. A few guys kept pouring drinks into me. She blocked a lot of it for me, and she was already pretty out of it herself.”
“There were too many people egging us on… I got caught up in the moment and went along with it.”
He paused, then lifted his eyes, his usual composure returning. “It was just a joke. We can fix it.”
I looked at that indifferent expression on his face and didn’t even feel like arguing.
A joke?
If marriage itself could be a joke, then what in this world was supposed to be serious?
Just as I turned away, his phone rang.
He glanced at the screen. “It’s Fiona. She knows she was wrong and wants to apologize to you…”
I ignored him and pulled the door open.
But Fiona was already standing outside.
Her short hair was neat and sharp.
She wore a motorcycle jacket and twirled a set of car keys in her hand.
“Future Mrs. Sterling, you’re really leaving?”
I dragged my suitcase around her.
Fiona clicked her tongue and reached out to snatch the handle from my hand.
“Was that really necessary? Fine, I’ll admit I was wrong.”
Chapter 2
“I was the one who talked him into registering it, and I was the one who kept forcing drinks on him. If you want to be mad, take it out on me. Don’t drag Adrian into this.”
Adrian stepped out from inside the house, his brow tightly furrowed. “Fiona, watch your tone with your sister-in-law. Give her the suitcase back.”
Fiona didn’t let go. Instead, she pulled it behind her.
“Give it back to her, and tomorrow at your wedding are you planning to exchange rings with empty air?”
Then she turned back to me, her gaze sharp.
“Mrs. Sterling, I’m not like you. I don’t spend every waking minute orbiting a man and have no life or career of my own.”
“But I do know that for someone like Adrian, business dinners and a little social theater are just part of the job.”
She stepped closer, her tone dripping with open arrogance.
“We used to run around barefoot together when we were kids. I was the one helping him pick up bricks when he got into fights. Where were you back then?”
“Given the bond Adrian and I share, what’s wrong with a joke and a fake certificate?”
Fiona let out a sharp little laugh and looked me up and down.
“You’re really running away from home over something this small? Isn’t that a bit dramatic? Could you try being reasonable for once?”
I met her lecturing stare and answered calmly, “Since you’re so reasonable, and since you’re so considerate of him…”
I paused.
“Then you can take tomorrow’s wedding.”
“That works out perfectly. You can be the leading lady, and the fake certificate can become real.” I reached out and dragged my suitcase back toward me.
Fiona’s expression changed, as if my words had lodged in her throat.
Her chest rose and fell twice. Then, suddenly, she pulled her mouth into a smile.
“Fine.”
She reached into her shoulder bag and took out that red marriage certificate, pinching it between her fingers and waving it in front of me.
“You care about this stupid thing that much?”
“Then I’ll tear it up. Will that make you happy? Consider it my apology.”
And then she really did it.
Riiip.
The marriage certificate split cleanly down the middle.
Fiona threw the two torn halves onto the ground.
Then she stepped on them.
“There! No wedding, then!”
Her voice rang out, loud and aggrieved, as though she were the one who had suffered the worst insult.
“If you can’t take a joke, just say so. God, how boring.”
Adrian Sterling’s face darkened. “Fiona, what the hell are you doing?”
Fiona shrugged.
“I’m helping you solve the problem.”
“The certificate’s gone. She should be over it now, right?”
Chapter 3
She turned to me. “Satisfied?”
After that, she shot me a glare, her eyes red, and ran off.
I looked coldly at the red scraps on the ground.
For several seconds, I said nothing. Then I lifted my eyes to Adrian. “So this is her idea of an apology?”
Adrian’s gaze pulled away from Fiona’s disappearing figure.
Irritated, he pressed a hand to his forehead.
“She’s impulsive. She was just trying to give you a way to vent.”
Vent?
I almost laughed from sheer disbelief.
“If she tears up the marriage certificate, then before the two of you can file for divorce, you’ll have to apply for a replacement certificate first.”
The faint smile left my face. “Adrian Sterling, she wasn’t helping me vent. She was rubbing salt into the wound.”
The fingers pressed against his forehead tightened. “She didn’t think that far.”
“Right. She doesn’t have to think.” I nodded. “Because in the end, she isn’t the one who has to deal with the consequences.”
I stopped looking at him, took hold of my suitcase, and turned away.
The taxi driver helped me load it into the trunk.
Adrian caught up in a few strides and braced one hand against the car door before I could close it. He bent down to look at me.
“Chloe Bennett, you can go back to your parents’ house and cool off. Take some time to reflect on whether you’re being too extreme.”
“But tomorrow, all the guests and the media will be there. You know how to be a proper bride with dignity.”
“The reputations of the Sterling and Bennett families are not yours to throw away on a tantrum.”
Slowly, I raised my head and looked at him.
Again, it was reputation.
Again, it was the two families.
For six years, Fiona had crossed boundaries under the excuse of being one of the guys, and it wasn’t as if I had never felt my heart go cold enough to consider ending things.
Every time, Adrian would either blur the issue with, We grew up together, don’t overthink it, or he would do exactly what he was doing now—drop his face, lower his voice, and remind me that the interests of both families mattered most.
He was so certain I couldn’t leave him, emotionally or financially, that he had never once considered keeping a proper distance from Fiona.
I did believe they hadn’t crossed the final line.
But what had I seen all these years?
Fiona could throw herself onto his back whenever she wanted and make him carry her.
She could drink from his glass without asking.
She could call him late at night to cry about her troubles.
She could even take his phone, scroll through it, and use it as if it belonged to her.