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He Called Me His Pet, Now He's Begging on His Knees
Novelix
Completed
I asked him to marry me fifty-two times. He said no every single time. For seven years, I was never his fiancée. I was just something he kept around. Like a pet. Then I heard him say it himself: "People don't marry their pets." I didn't argue. I didn't cry. I just walked away. He didn't follow. Two years later, he's on his knees in front of me. He's been searching every city, begging every person who knew me. He says I'm the only woman he's ever loved. He says he'll give me anything. But I already gave him everything for seven years. And he gave me nothing. Now his regret? It's not my problem.
Chapters (3)
第1章
After Adrian Pierce turned down my fifty-second proposal, he rested a hand on my head and spoke in the same cool, detached tone he used for everything.
“Come on, Claire. People don't marry their pets.”
I had spent years believing Adrian's supposed diagnosis explained his distance. That was the excuse everyone around him used, and I had been foolish enough to accept it.
For seven years, I wasn't his partner. I was something he kept around.
For him, I walked away from a promising career in medical research and took a clinical job close to home.
Now I knew better.
The truth had nothing to do with a diagnosis.
He was perfectly capable of showing up for someone. He had simply never chosen to show up for me.
“Claire's a pet,” Adrian said from inside the private dining room. “Something pretty to keep around. Why would I marry her?”
Laughter followed.
“I've never tried being with anyone else. How am I supposed to know she's the best I can do?”
Then his voice softened in a way it never had for me.
“Besides, I made Nina a promise. On my twenty-eighth birthday, I'd ask her to marry me. Claire already has everything. Nina has no one but me. She's different. She's the one exception I'll always make.”
Nina Lawson was the adopted daughter of Adrian's mentor and the girl he had grown up with. The Lawsons had raised her as their heiress before discovering that she had been switched at birth with their biological daughter. When their real daughter was found, Nina was sent abroad.
And today was Adrian's twenty-eighth birthday.
I had come to surprise him.
Instead, he had surprised me.
Fine.
If he wanted Nina that badly, he could have her.
Seven years of devotion. Seven years of my life.
Happy birthday, Adrian. You could keep them.
***
Noise spilled through the half-open door. There were congratulations, flattery, and laughter at my expense.
My hand hovered inches from the brass handle, trembling so violently I had to curl it into a fist. I bit the inside of my lip until I tasted blood.
Seven years.
After seven years, what was I to Adrian Pierce?
Something convenient. Something disposable.
I forced back my tears and turned to leave. Before I could take two steps, a familiar woman appeared at the end of the hall.
“You must be Claire.” Nina Lawson widened her eyes as though this were a delightful coincidence. “Adrian talks about you all the time. Thank you for taking care of him while I was abroad.”
She linked her arm through mine before I could move away.
“Why are you standing out here? Come on. Let's go in.”
Her smile stayed sweet, but triumph flashed in her eyes.
“No, thank you. I have somewhere else to be.”
Someone inside heard us. The door swung open.
The room went silent.
A dozen strangers stared at me with expressions ranging from curiosity to open ridicule. Adrian looked from me to Nina, who was still holding my arm. For one unguarded second, confusion and something almost like panic crossed his face.
Then he pulled Nina behind him.
“What are you doing here?” His voice was low and warning. “I told you I'd celebrate with you at home tonight. This dinner is for Nina. Don't make a scene. We'll talk when we get home.”
Home.
As if we had ever truly shared one.
For seven years, I had asked him to acknowledge our relationship and introduce me to his friends. He always gave me the same answer.
“You don't take a skittish house cat into a crowded room. It'll only get sick.”
He had been right about one thing. I did feel sick.
My fingers loosened around the cake box.
I looked past Adrian at Nina. She wore a white wedding dress.
“Do women usually wear wedding dresses to welcome home dinners?” I asked.
Adrian's expression hardened. “What is that supposed to mean?”
In seven years, I had seen real emotion on his face only twice before.
The first was when Nina fell ill in France. Adrian had abandoned me in the emergency room after my car accident to fly to her side.
The second was when the Lawsons tried to arrange Nina's marriage to the son of another prominent family. Adrian got drunk for the first time in his life. By the following morning, every Pierce company had terminated its contracts with that family.
“You're reading too much into it, Claire,” one of his friends said quickly. “Nina always dresses like this.”
Nina's eyes filled with tears. “Claire, I didn't mean to...”
I stepped away from her.
Didn't mean to wear the dress? Or didn't mean for me to see it?
I was about to leave when Adrian caught the wrist of the hand holding the cake box.
“Claire.” He frowned. “That cake is loaded with sugar and saturated fat. It shouldn't even be in your hands.”
Adrian's need for control extended to my body. He tracked my weight, my meals, even my body fat. On my birthday, he let me have salad.
On the table sat a cheap supermarket cake covered in pink frosting. Crooked letters spelled out HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ADRIAN, surrounded by lopsided hearts.
I looked at it, then at the cake in my hands.
Without a word, I dropped mine into the trash.
Then I walked away.
Outside, the cold night air hit my face. Tears finally spilled down my cheeks, but I let them fall only until I reached the end of the block.
Then I called Lucas Reed.
“That research position you offered me,” I said. “If it's still available, I accept.”
***
第2章
Lucas went silent.
Then his voice came through bright and clear. “You have no idea how long I've waited to hear you say that. Claire, you belong at the forefront of biomedical research, not trapped in a small hospital.”
“Tell me what you need,” he continued. “I'll have the institute start the paperwork tonight.”
“I need three days to settle things here,” I said. “I'll see you after that.”
The moment we hung up, a message arrived from an unknown number.
It contained a video and more than a dozen screenshots.
In the video, Adrian smiled while Nina fed him a forkful of the cheap cake. Everyone around them cheered.
The screenshots came from Nina's Instagram. Adrian stood at a stove wearing an apron, surrounded by the rich food he had banned from our home. In another photo, they played video games late at night. In another, they climbed a snowy mountain to see the northern lights.
In seven years, Adrian had never cooked anything for me except unseasoned vegetables. He had never introduced me to his friends. He had never stayed up late with me, traveled with me, or done anything simply because I wanted to.
We had shared an address, not a life.
I deleted the message and blocked the number.
Then I went home.
I didn't scream or confront him. I opened the drawer that held my important documents and went straight to the county clerk's office.
By the time I returned, it was nearly midnight.
I called a realtor and began packing the few things that were actually mine.
Adrian called himself a minimalist. What he really disliked was anything he couldn't control. Over the years, I had thrown out everything he considered useless and given up every habit and hobby that annoyed him.
I stood in the dark, empty living room and gave a bitter smile.
Did I regret loving him?
No. But I was done paying for that choice.
The locks on my suitcase clicked shut just as the front door opened. The lights came on, and Adrian walked in smelling faintly of alcohol.
He hated alcohol.
Yet his face was as calm and blank as ever.
“You went too far tonight,” he said. “Nina just came back. She wasn't prepared to meet you.”
Prepared to meet me?
“She's not like you,” he added. “You have everything. I'm all she has.”
I pushed my suitcase into the corner before he noticed it.
“I didn't cause her problems,” I said.
Surprise flickered across his face. He wasn't used to hearing me disagree.
He was used to my agreement, not my opinion.
“I'm not feeling well,” I said, picking up a pillow. “I'll sleep in the guest room.”
I had barely lain down when Lucas called.
“Everything has been taken care of,” he told me in French. “All you have to do is come. With you on the project, we may finally get the breakthrough we've been chasing.”
“Thank you. I'll see you the day after tomorrow.”
The door opened behind me.
Adrian stood there, his face darker than I had ever seen it.
“What happens the day after tomorrow?” he asked. “And who are you meeting?”
***
第3章
I turned too quickly and nearly dropped my phone.
Lucas and I had always spoken French when discussing research so Adrian would not understand us. Adrian spoke several languages, but French was the only one he had refused to learn. His father had died in a car accident in France, and Adrian had even canceled all of the Pierce Group's business there.
Then I remembered one of Nina's Instagram captions.
Who starts a French lesson in the middle of the night? I'm not that hopeless.
The photograph showed Adrian's unmistakable profile.
For Nina, he had learned the language tied to his worst memory.
For me, he had never bothered.
“The clinic is sending a team to an overseas conference,” I lied. “I'm coordinating with the host hospital.”
His suspicion eased, though it did not disappear.
“Tomorrow night is the family dinner,” he said. It wasn't a request. “Grandmother expects you to come.”
I nodded.
If I was leaving, I wanted to say goodbye to Eleanor Pierce. She was the only member of Adrian's family who had ever treated me with kindness.
Years ago, I had saved her during an emergency. Without that accident, Adrian and I might never have spoken.
The following morning, I told Adrian I had been called in for emergency surgery. Instead, I finished my paperwork and canceled the fifty-second appointment I had booked at the county clerk's office.
The confirmation email joined fifty-one others.
Each time I proposed, I scheduled the appointment because I believed this time he might say yes. Each time, I canceled it alone.
A horn sounded outside.
Adrian was waiting at the curb.
Out of habit, I climbed into the back seat. He had always said the passenger seat was for his wife. Until we were married, I didn't belong there.
Nina sat in it now.
“This candy is amazing,” she said, holding up a gummy she had already bitten. “Try it.”
She pushed the other half between Adrian's lips.
He smiled and ate it.
Adrian was fanatical about cleanliness. Our sheets were changed daily, the floors had to be spotless, and he expected anyone entering the apartment to shower immediately. More than once, he had pulled me out of bed and sent me back to wash again.
But sharing Nina's half-eaten candy didn't bother him at all.
My stomach rolled. I covered my mouth, fighting a wave of nausea.
Only then did they seem to remember I was in the car.
Adrian glanced at me in the mirror, irritation plain on his face.
“You don't have to put on an act.”
Then, as if I had complained, he added, “Nina gets carsick. She needs the front seat.”
So did I.
I had been taking motion-sickness pills before every drive with him for years.
I no longer bothered to explain.
When we arrived at the Pierce estate, Adrian's mother hurried down the steps and embraced Nina. She fussed over her as if welcoming home a daughter.
In seven years, Victoria Pierce had never once greeted me with a smile.
Adrian always defended her.
“My mother has the same diagnosis. Don't take it personally.”
Watching her laugh with Nina, I finally understood. The label had never been the problem. They had used it as cover whenever they wanted to dismiss me, then dropped the act the moment Nina walked into the room.
I stood at the edge of the foyer and said nothing.
***
