Seven Years A Shadow, One Day A Prize

She walked into the expansive, sunlit lobby of the main building. The first thing that caught her eye was a massive, gilded easel displaying a life-sized wedding portrait.

Jessie stopped dead in her tracks.

In the photograph, the bride possessed a sweet, radiant beauty. Her smile was blindingly bright, and it was obvious to anyone looking that she was deeply in love and deliriously happy. Jessie's gaze slowly dragged itself from the bride to the groom. The breath was knocked out of her lungs. It was Garrett. Her husband. His handsome, sharply defined face looked relaxed, a soft expression in his eyes that she hadn't seen directed at her in years. The image of the two of them together burned into her retinas like acid.

"Who might you be?" a sharp voice interrupted her spiraling thoughts.

Jessie turned to see a well-dressed, middle-aged couple approaching her. The man was eyeing her with a mixture of suspicion and protective authority. "You've been standing in front of my daughter and son-in-law's photo for quite a while. Are you here for the wedding?"

Daughter and son-in-law?

Jessie's mind raced. These must be Brittnie Rivera's parents.

"I'm looking for Garrett Swanson," Jessie managed to say, her voice tight. "I am Garrett's..."

"Oh! You must be a relative from Garrett's side of the family!" Mr. Rivera interrupted, his suspicion instantly melting into a welcoming grin.

Technically, he wasn't wrong. She was a relative. She just wasn't some distant cousin; she was his legally wedded wife.

"Yes," Jessie nodded slowly, the word tasting like ash in her mouth.

Hearing this, both Mr. and Mrs. Rivera's faces lit up with sheer delight. Mrs. Rivera immediately stepped forward and linked her arm affectionately through Jessie's. "Why are you arriving so late? Come on, let's hurry inside. The ceremony is about to start."

Too numb to resist, Jessie allowed herself to be pulled along the plush carpets toward the grand ballroom.

As they walked, Mrs. Rivera couldn't stop talking. "I have to tell you, we are just absolutely thrilled with Garrett. He is the perfect son-in-law. Not only is he incredibly handsome and highly educated, but his background is impeccable. You really can't find a single flaw in the man. I am a thousand percent satisfied that our Brittnie is marrying him."

Jessie stared blankly at Mrs. Rivera's deeply lined, beaming face. The woman was radiating genuine joy. "Is Garrett... does he treat Brittnie well?" Jessie asked, her voice sounding hollow to her own ears.

"Oh, wonderfully!" Mr. Rivera chimed in, puffing out his chest with unconcealed pride. "And it's not just Brittnie he treats well; he's been a godsend to our entire family. Just recently, he pulled some strings and got Brittnie's younger brother a fantastic corporate job. And our new house? Garrett paid for the construction. All the furniture inside? He bought it all, top-of-the-line imported stuff."

Mrs. Rivera eagerly took over the boasting. "And last month, when I was having terrible stomach pains, Brittnie was so worried about the local clinics. Garrett immediately stepped in and arranged for me to be transferred to the best private hospital in the city. He stayed with Brittnie the entire time, running around, making sure I had a VIP suite, and even got the Chief of Medicine to personally oversee my case."

"Oh, hush," Mr. Rivera scolded his wife playfully, though he looked just as smug. "It turned out you just ate some bad seafood, making a massive fuss over nothing."

Jessie's arm, still linked with Mrs. Rivera's, went rigid.

Last month.

Last month, Jessie had undergone surgery to remove a thyroid tumor. The hospital policy strictly required a direct family member to be present to sign the consent forms and wait during the procedure. She had told Garrett about the surgery weeks in advance, and he had promised, with his usual impatient wave of the hand, that he would clear his schedule.

But on the morning of the surgery, he never showed up. When she called him from her hospital bed, her hands shaking with fear, he either declined the calls or let them ring out.

In the end, Jessie had to beg the hospital administration to let her sign her own forms. For the three days she spent recovering in the sterile room, she had relied entirely on a temporary nurse she hired out of pocket.

When she finally confronted Garrett about his absence upon returning home, he had been furious.

"Can you please just be reasonable, Jessie?!" he had shouted, his voice echoing in their massive foyer. "It was a routine thyroid removal, not open-heart surgery! You weren't going to die! Do you have any idea how demanding my schedule is? I was dealing with a medical emergency for a very important elder! I transferred money for a nurse, didn't I? Stop acting like a martyr."

Looking at the glowing, healthy faces of Mr. and Mrs. Rivera, a localized, agonizing pain bloomed in Jessie's chest.

So, the "very important elder" who required Garrett's undivided attention and a VIP hospital suite... was Brittnie's mother. And all for a stomachache.