Theater: NovelMaster | Language: English | NEW
Synopsis
My fiancé had a bizarre rule: every single holiday, we had to draw lots.
It was supposed to fairly decide whether we spent the holidays at my parents' house or at the home of his female best friend, Chloe.
In our five years together, my name was never drawn. Not once.
Until right before this Thanksgiving.
For the first time, I begged him to skip the game.
"Logan, we're getting married soon, and my parents haven't even met you yet."
He just looked annoyed.
"It's a rule we agreed on. We can't just change it because of what you want."
"Besides, what about Chloe? What is she supposed to do?"
He sounded so righteous and unshakeable that there was nothing I could say.
So I went quiet and didn't bring it up again.
And I didn't tell him what happened half an hour earlier.
While dusting the living room, I had accidentally knocked over his wooden lot container.
Two sticks rolled across the floor, stopping right at my feet.
One had Chloe's name carved into it.
The other one had Chloe's name, too.
His so-called "fair rule" was rigged from the very beginning.
Every holiday was already promised to Chloe.
My phone buzzed in my hand.
It was a text from my mom, asking yet again if I'd be bringing my fiancé home this time.
I smiled faintly and texted back a single word:
"Yes."
On the day of the Thanksgiving draw.
Logan's best friend, Chloe, burst out laughing the moment she saw my packed suitcases.
"Saffron, aren't you a bit too eager? You really can't wait to drag Logan home, can you?"
She turned to Logan, slipping her arm around his waist and playfully pinching him.
"Come on, Logan. Call me babe just once."
"If you do, I'll make an exception this year. No draw—you can just go straight home with Saffron!"
Logan smiled indulgently and interrupted her:
"What nonsense are you talking now?"
"If I really didn't go home with you to visit your mom, you'd be crying your eyes out."
He tapped Chloe's nose, his eyes dripping with affection.
He shut down the idea of skipping the draw without a second thought.
And he never once bothered to ask if I needed him by my side.
This was our fifth year together, and our first Thanksgiving since getting engaged.
Living six hundred miles away, my parents had never once laid eyes on my fiancé.
They had called and asked over and over.
Every time, I could only tell them, "Soon."
When "soon" would actually come, I had no idea.
After all, Logan still had to play his drawing game with his darling best friend.
Remembering how I hadn't won a single time in five years, I fought back the sting behind my eyes.
I stepped forward and linked my arm through Logan's.
"Let's go. Time to draw."
I forced a tight smile.
"My parents are waiting for us."
As I pulled Logan away, Chloe's hands were forced off his waist.
Her jaw clenched, and when she met my gaze, the smug challenge in her eyes was barely concealed.
"Honestly, Saffron."
"What makes you so sure your name will come up?"
A smirk crept onto her face.
"You haven't been picked once in five whole years!"
"Maybe fate just isn't on your side."
Seeing how smug she was, it was obvious she knew Logan had rigged it all along.
My name wasn't even on the sticks. How could I ever win?
It felt like a thousand needles pricking my heart.
Yet my footsteps didn't falter for a second.
Logan pulled out the wooden container.
He shook it twice, pulled out a stick without looking, and tossed it onto the coffee table.
Clatter.
The second the wooden stick hit the surface, Chloe was already chattering away with Logan about their Thanksgiving plans.
Fancy dinners, holiday movie marathons, going to a spa resort...
Whatever Chloe suggested, Logan nodded along without hesitation.
"I can never say no to you," he sighed playfully, stroking her hair. "What kind of guy is ever going to put up with you?"
Chloe gave a mock huff.
"They say best friends are for life! I'm sticking with you forever!"
Staring at their casual intimacy, I lowered my gaze.
I spoke softly, cutting into their bubble:
"You haven't even looked at the stick yet."
Chloe scoffed under her breath.
"Saffron, you really don't know when to quit, do you?"
"Did you honestly think there was a chance it'd be—"
Realizing she was about to slip up, Logan quickly placed a hand over her mouth.
He flashed me an easy smile.
"Chloe's just blunt, Saffron. She doesn't mean anything by it."
"Let's check it now."
He slowly picked up the wooden stick from the table, already wearing an apologetic look.
"See, Saffron, looks like I can't come home with you again—"
His voice caught in his throat.
His eyes widened as he finally read the name carved into the wood.
Saffron.
His fiancée.Logan had confessed his feelings to Chloe back in college.
Chloe had slipped that into a casual conversation at a party a while ago, making sure I heard every word.
Even so, I had never doubted Logan's love for me.
Until I saw those two sticks, both bearing Chloe's name.
And until I saw the look on his face right now.
Logan froze for a second.
Then, pure fury flashed across his features.
"Did you touch my sticks?!"
"How dare you!"
He gripped the wooden stick so tightly his knuckles turned white, as if venting his rage.
He was the one who had played me for a fool for five long years.
He let me pray like an idiot before every single draw:
Please let it be me this time.
I really just want to spend the holidays with you.
And every time, Logan had simply smiled.
After drawing the rigged result, he would patronize me:
"Since Chloe's name came up, we have to stick to the rules."
"Just wait for the next holiday, okay?"
Even now, caught red-handed, he didn't offer a single word of explanation.
There was only resentment and blame.
My heart sank completely.
"I should be asking you that," I said, my voice shaking as years of suppressed pain broke through.
"Why wasn't my name on either of those sticks?"
"For five years... I actually thought I was just unlucky..."
Every word felt like tearing open an old wound.
Tears streamed down my cheeks, unstoppable.
Logan stared at my tears and let out an exasperated sigh.
He took a step toward me, opening his mouth to speak.
Chloe instantly darted between us, cutting him off.
She looked at me with open disdain.
"Since you already know, I'll just be blunt."
"Logan was never going to your house."
"The whole drawing game was just a little trick to keep you quiet!"
A loud buzz rang through my head.
"What do you mean?"
Logan caught Chloe's hand, stepping in to speak for her:
"Chloe and I have been best friends for over a decade. I've spent every holiday with her."
He sighed again, sounding burdened.
"After we started dating, she started worrying you'd take me away from her completely."
"So I came up with the idea of the draw."
"That way, I had a valid reason to go with her, and you'd still have something to look forward to."
His eyes shifted away.
"It made everyone happy."
He called wasting five years of my life 'making everyone happy.'
Listening to him, it felt like my chest was being ripped apart.
The entire thing was a sickening joke from day one.
Chloe snapped the wooden stick with my name on it in half.
She tossed the broken pieces aside and gave me a smug smile.
"Friends are like family. Partners can be replaced whenever."
"So even if you pulled cheap tricks to get your name drawn, Logan is still coming with his best friend."
Logan stood silently beside her, not uttering a word of protest.
"Chloe already told her family I was coming," he murmured, glancing at my pale face with a fleeting flicker of guilt.
"This draw doesn't count, Saffron."
"You can wait for next time."
"Don't be a sore loser."
Then, lowering his voice, he added:
"Next time, I promise I'll make it completely fair."
As if a casual promise could buy another round of my blind devotion.
I clenched my fists so hard my nails dug into my palms, the sharp pain keeping me grounded.
Then I looked up at Logan, curved my lips into a faint smile, and nodded.
What he didn't know was this:
My parents had made it crystal clear. This Thanksgiving, I had to bring my fiancé home.
And that fiancé didn't have to be him.When Logan was ready to leave for Chloe's hometown, he took my hand gently.
"Wait for me to get back."
"That floral lace wedding dress you liked finally arrived at the bridal boutique. We'll go try it on together as soon as I'm home."
I stared blankly at the diamond ring on my finger.
We had been engaged for six months.
Over the past half-year, Logan had shown zero interest in any wedding planning.
Whenever I tried showing him bridal magazines, he was too busy gaming with Chloe.
He would barely glance up before muttering dismissively:
"All wedding dresses look the same anyway."
"Just pick whatever you like."
And now, out of nowhere, he remembered which dress I wanted.
After a long pause, I simply whispered, "Okay."
Chloe came running over holding her phone, deliberately raising her voice:
"Look at this, guys! Logan actually knows how to sweet-talk a girl!"
"Though honestly, Saffron is so needy. He's just stepping out the door and she already needs to be comforted."
"When I hurt my back last month, I didn't even ask Logan for half this much attention."
Through the speaker, Logan's circle of friends erupted into rowdy laughter.
"Didn't Logan literally massage your back for hours?"
"What, wasn't his technique good enough for you?"
Someone else chimed in with a suggestive chuckle:
"Seriously, Chloe, if you hadn't played hard to get in college and just locked him down, that high-maintenance girlfriend of his wouldn't have stood a chance."
"To the rest of us, Logan's only real girl has always been you!"
Chloe blushed, playfully cursing at the screen.
Then she turned to me.
"Don't read into it, Saffron."
"Logan and I are purely platonic!"
She flashed a bright smile, but her eyes were dripping with malice.
"Even though he only started dating you right after I turned him down in college, I'm sure he really loves you now."
I glanced at Logan.
He just stood there with an amused, fond expression, watching Chloe like she was the most adorable thing in the world.
Back when we first started dating, he took me to meet his friends.
One guy had made a bet, pointing right at me and claiming Logan and I wouldn't last three months.
"She looks like the clingy, dramatic type," the guy had sneered. "Nowhere near as chill as Chloe."
Logan had punched him square in the jaw on the spot.
Back then, Logan had declared:
"Chloe is my best friend."
"But Saffron is the only woman I ever want to marry."
"I won't let any of you disrespect her in front of me!"
And now? He stood there smiling while everyone tore me apart.
Whatever warmth had briefly sparked in my chest was instantly doused in ice water.
My throat felt tight, but I kept my face utterly calm.
"I know," I said evenly. "If that weren't true, why would I be the one engaged to him, about to walk down the aisle?"
Chloe choked on her words.
The friends on the FaceTime call started whistling and cheering, prompting Chloe to glare and abruptly hang up.
It was almost laughable.
If they were truly just "best friends," why was she so triggered?
"Alright, Saffron, that's enough," Logan finally spoke, frowning at me. "Chloe was just joking around. Why do you always have to blow things out of proportion?"
Those words hit me like a slap to the face.
The last trace of patience in my mind snapped.
When Chloe and his friends humiliated me, he stayed silent.
When Chloe flaunted their history, he didn't correct her.
Yet the moment I stated a simple fact, I was the one making a scene.
I pressed my lips together and didn't say another word.A verbal defense from Logan wasn't enough to satisfy Chloe.
Before walking out the door, she found another way to put me in my place.
Her eyes landed on the engagement ring on my finger.
Logan had driven across three states just to track down that specific cut for me.
When he slipped it onto my finger back then, there wasn't a trace of exhaustion in his eyes.
"It's gorgeous," he had said with the sweetest smile. "Only my future wife deserves something this perfect."
The stone sparkled brilliantly under the light.
Chloe's eyes flashed with jealousy.
She pointed at my hand and said casually to Logan:
"I need some nice jewelry to show off to my family back home. Why don't you let me borrow Saffron's ring?"
It was an engagement ring, after all. Logan hesitated.
Chloe instantly dropped her smile.
"What? You always say you'd take a bullet for your best friend, but now you won't even lend me a ring?"
Logan immediately scrambled to appease her:
"That's not what I meant."
"Whatever's mine is yours."
He turned to me, his tone leaving no room for argument:
"Take it off and give it to her."
I stared at him in disbelief.
"Logan, this is our engagement ring."
"You're giving our ring to her? Are you planning to marry her instead?"
Logan faltered, his expression darkening with annoyance.
"She just wants to borrow something pretty for a few days! Why does your mind always jump to something so malicious?"
He grabbed my wrist, prying the ring off my finger with rough force.
He didn't even notice that the edge of the band scraped my skin, drawing blood.
Watching him gently slip the ring onto Chloe's finger, my entire body trembled violently. Tears finally spilled over.
"It's just a piece of jewelry. I'll buy you another one when I get back," he mumbled dismissively.
As Chloe brushed past me toward the door, she let out a quiet chuckle.
Her voice was barely a whisper, meant for my ears only:
"You don't need to cry over it."
"That diamond isn't even real."
My head snapped up.
Chloe smirked, relishing the shock on my face.
"I borrowed the real one to try on months ago and accidentally dropped it somewhere."
"Logan didn't want you to find out, so he bought a cheap glass replica to propose with."
A crushing weight slammed into my chest, suffocating me.
"That's... impossible..."
Chloe touched her glossed lips, her voice dripping with venom:
"Face it, Saffron. If I want it, you don't even get to keep the fake one!"
"Shut up!"
My voice cracked as I shoved her away with everything I had.
Chloe stumbled and hit the floor hard. Looking up at me from the ground, she gave a triumphant wink.
"I win," she mouthed silently.
Smack!
Before I could even process what was happening, Logan's hand cracked across my face.
His eyes burned with disgust.
"You've crossed the line, Saffron."
"Apologize to Chloe. Right now."
Holding my stinging, swollen cheek, I glared at him with pure defiance.
"She deserved it."
Logan glared at me, the veins on his neck bulging with fury.
He looked exactly like he did years ago when he punched the guy who disrespected me. Only this time, his rage was directed at me.
In the end, Chloe pulled him toward the door.
"You need to learn a lesson," Logan said coldly before leaving. "Until you apologize for what you did, the wedding is postponed indefinitely."
Those were his parting words.
I stood frozen in the quiet apartment for a long time.
Then, my phone vibrated in my palm.
The voice on the other end asked softly:
"Are you still sure you want me to come home with you to meet your parents?"
A faint smile touched my lips. "Of course."
"Good. Look out the window."
"I'm already here."
Chapters (4)
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Watch & Promotions
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