Challenge 100, I Bet You Love Me

I called my dad in Switzerland and told him I wanted to move in with him.

After my mom passed away five years ago, my dad had been living a secluded life in the small Swiss town where they had fallen in love, surrounded by her memory.

As for me, I had stayed in New York for Sheldon, turning down every career opportunity in Europe, barely seeing my dad more than once a year.

I once thought I could melt Sheldon’s icy exterior, forgetting that melted ice is just bone-chilling water.

My all-consuming love had been nothing but a wager, and I was just the pawn in a game for his fiancée's amusement.

Hearing my decision, my dad was overjoyed. "My dear daughter, you've finally come to your senses!"

I held back my tears and managed a soft, "Mm-hmm."

"Dad, I need you to help me stage a plane crash."

Though he didn't understand, he agreed without question.

A plane crash was my final gift to Sheldon.

The name Ariel Reid—I would make it a scar on his memory for the rest of his life.

I deleted all our photos together from my phone. While packing at home, an encrypted folder on Sheldon's computer caught my eye.

The folder's icon was the first logo I ever designed for the game Echoes of Eternity—a phoenix rising from the ashes.

Sheldon had set it as the icon. Inside were screenshots of all my game design prototypes from over the years, which he had meticulously collected, claiming he would help me realize my dreams.

I froze when I got to the seventh screenshot. Next to a photo of me in my glasses, debugging code, was a digital sticky note:

[The way she cursed at her computer over a bug today was like an angry kitten. And her revised code was ten times more efficient. How can someone so brilliant be so fiercely adorable?]

I remembered how every time I pulled an all-nighter to meet a deadline, Sheldon would stay with me, giving me massages and ordering takeout.

Because of a single offhand comment I made, he once scoured all of Manhattan in the middle of the night to buy me a cheesecake. When I was on my period, he always had hot chocolate and a hot water bottle ready.

Was this all just a game? It seemed the lead actor had started believing his own lines.

But the last file in the folder documented his seventy-second challenge for Anastasia. He had tricked me into waiting for him at the studio all night to polish a demo, while he took Anastasia on a vacation to the Hamptons.

Raindrops pattered against the window.

Any affection he felt was built on self-deception. He might have had feelings for me, but he loved his empire and his title more. I was just a means to an end.

With trembling hands, I took out my phone and scheduled an abortion.

Late that night, I was lying in bed when I heard Sheldon come home, bringing the night's chill in with him. I pretended to be asleep.

A long moment passed without a sound. I heard him stop just inside the door.

Strange. I hadn't fallen for his prank, which must have made him lose face with Anastasia and their friends. Was he just going to let it go?

The mattress behind me dipped, and a pair of strong arms wrapped around my waist.

Sheldon buried his head in the crook of my neck, like a weary bird returning to its nest. His warm breath was laced with an unexpected joy. "We're having a baby, my Ariel."

Ariel. He always called me that, saying the name was as bright as a star, shining only for him.

But I knew that behind my back, he told Anastasia he only called me that for fun, that I was just an oblivious bookworm.

All to watch me transform from a promising designer into a fool blinded by love.

I remained silent. He didn't know I had already decided not to keep the baby.

Sheldon didn't seem to notice my mood. He took out my pregnancy test and drew three little hearts on it with a fountain pen.

It was the Montblanc I had bought him with my first-ever paycheck. He had carried it with him ever since.

I didn't respond. Sheldon held me tighter, whispering endless words of love, but my heart felt like a stone at the bottom of a frozen lake.

"I'm tired. Let's sleep."

He immediately fell silent. "We'll go to Anastasia's birthday party together tomorrow," he said, and then he was asleep.

And I lay awake all night.

Sheldon had staged a game of feigned love, and I had wagered three years of my real heart.

Fine. I would stage my own death and make him carry that regret for the rest of his life.