Now He Wants the Wife He Pretended to Love
305 Views · Ongoing · Piper Hayes
My boyfriend of three years, Blake, had promised to propose at my twentieth birthday party.
But that night, he walked right past me with the ring and got down on one knee in front of my stepsister, Chelsea.
The whole room clapped. I just stood there, frozen, in the white dress I'd picked out for my engagement.
Everyone was just waiting to watch me fall apart.
Then Grayson, heir to the Hale family, pushed through the crowd and took my hand. "I've had feelings for you for years. Marry me."
I said yes.
Five years into our marriage, he still remembered how much cream I took in my coffee, that thunder scared me, and that I needed a lamp on to sleep.
Everyone in town said I was the luckiest woman alive.
Until the day I stood outside his study and heard his childhood friend Derek ask, "Chelsea's Mrs. Mercer now. How much longer are you gonna keep playing house with Elise?"
Grayson sounded completely unbothered. "If I can't have Chelsea, it doesn't matter who I marry. As long as Elise is with me, she won't go messing with Chelsea's marriage."
That night, I opened the locked bottom drawer of his desk.
Inside were cufflinks from Chelsea, a birthday card in her handwriting, and a stack of letters he'd written her but never sent.
The one on top was a single line.
"Just smile at me once and I'll do anything you want."
I took a job out of state. I'd start in two days.
When that day came, I'd walk out of his life for good.
But that night, he walked right past me with the ring and got down on one knee in front of my stepsister, Chelsea.
The whole room clapped. I just stood there, frozen, in the white dress I'd picked out for my engagement.
Everyone was just waiting to watch me fall apart.
Then Grayson, heir to the Hale family, pushed through the crowd and took my hand. "I've had feelings for you for years. Marry me."
I said yes.
Five years into our marriage, he still remembered how much cream I took in my coffee, that thunder scared me, and that I needed a lamp on to sleep.
Everyone in town said I was the luckiest woman alive.
Until the day I stood outside his study and heard his childhood friend Derek ask, "Chelsea's Mrs. Mercer now. How much longer are you gonna keep playing house with Elise?"
Grayson sounded completely unbothered. "If I can't have Chelsea, it doesn't matter who I marry. As long as Elise is with me, she won't go messing with Chelsea's marriage."
That night, I opened the locked bottom drawer of his desk.
Inside were cufflinks from Chelsea, a birthday card in her handwriting, and a stack of letters he'd written her but never sent.
The one on top was a single line.
"Just smile at me once and I'll do anything you want."
I took a job out of state. I'd start in two days.
When that day came, I'd walk out of his life for good.


















































