Chapter 3

「Once the company goes public and everything's stable, I'll bring you out into the open.」

「Don't rush me.」

Ursula's voice was frantic.

「Don't do anything stupid.」

「I'm coming right now.」

「I'm on my way this second.」

I watched her through the feed. That panic on her face had never once shown up in front of me. And it struck me that whenever Ursula had mentioned Arthur, it was only ever in a few words.

Materialistic.

A realist.

Cared about money, not feeling.

She said Arthur had looked down on her for being poor and gone off with someone richer.

She said Arthur would get dumped sooner or later.

I opened my messages, found the assistant Grandma had assigned me, sent him the study and balcony surveillance, and told him.

【Look into everything between Ursula and Arthur for me.】

【Especially anything to do with money.】

【And,】 I tapped my fingertip against the desk: 【what Arthur's been up to overseas these past few years.】

The assistant worked fast. A file came through almost at once.

I opened it and watched Arthur go from sitting one desk over from Ursula in high school, to the day they graduated, when Ursula took half a year's saved-up wages and bought Arthur ninety-nine roses, bought fireworks, and confessed to him in front of every teacher and student there.

And in the middle of that grand, blazing confession, Arthur said yes.

Four years of college, and Ursula studied hard, saved money, planned surprises for Arthur, carved out time every day to be with him, played games with him, bought him gear, bought him luxury goods, took trips just to show it all off to anyone who'd look. Right up until her parents died in a car crash.

Then, out of nowhere, Arthur told her he wanted to break up.

It was all in the file.

Even the hospital surveillance from that day, captured clearly.

Ursula on her knees on the floor, crying, begging Arthur not to go, and Arthur not turning his head once, just tossing back a single line.

「Ursula.」

「The way you are now, you're not good enough for me.」

Arthur vanished.

Ursula spent her days drinking herself sick, all the way up to the night I saw her being mugged in an alley, pulled her out of it, met her, and everything from then until now.

Ursula had told me she'd stopped loving Arthur a long time ago.

「Young Master James.」

The assistant sent a video.

「Back then, the sudden collapse of Summers Group, the wager agreement Ursula told you about, it wasn't because of you.」

The assistant produced a document.

「It was because of Arthur.」

「Arthur got mixed up in the underground gambling den and racked up debts, came to Ursula, and she shouldered it for him, put the company up as collateral in that wager. That's what set off the whole chain of events after.」

My face went white. My nails dug hard into my own flesh, and I didn't even feel the blood seeping out. I thought back to what Ursula had said to me then.

「Honey, they say you're an orphan, no father, no mother, that you only got where you are by selling yourself!」

「I couldn't stand it!」

「They can call me a sewer rat, call me a frog at the bottom of a well, but not one word against the person I love most!」

「I couldn't stand it!」

Ursula had been shaking all over, as if I really mattered, mattered so much I could never be defiled by anyone, mattered so much that just looking at her made life feel worth it, and I'd held her tight.

「I'll gamble with you!」

We lost until we had nothing left, lost until we were living on tap water to keep our stomachs full, like rats with nowhere to hide.

But for Ursula, it was never about me.

「Young Master James.」

The assistant sent another video.

「Ursula's at a private hospital the James family invested in, keeping Arthur company.」

In the video.

Arthur was tucked against her chest, crying so pitifully it could break your heart.

「I just don't want to keep hiding it. I know it's ugly of me to want us back together, I know I'm wrong, but I can't help it, I just love you——」

Ursula hugged him back, hard.

「Wait a little longer.」

「Wait for Tony James's birthday.」

「Wait for the company to go public.」

「Then it'll all be settled.」

「Once the company goes public,」 I looked into the feed and matched Ursula's exact tone: 「it'll all be settled.」

「Tell Grandma.」

「There's no rush.」

「Since Ursula's so fond of her tragic love story with Arthur.」

I smiled.

「Then I'll play along with her little show.」