When Arthur Vance, the heir to the most powerful family in New York, was at his absolute lowest, I became his girlfriend. For three years, he lived in my tiny apartment, ate my food, and drank my water. The day he finally reclaimed his throne, I used my very last dime of savings to buy him a parting gift. I was preparing to say goodbye. But through the door, I heard him talking to someone: "She's not my girlfriend. I'll just keep her around as a kept woman, like a little canary." I hid the gift behind my back. Forget it, I thought. Leaving without saying goodbye is fine too. Later, he knelt in front of a church altar for three days and three nights, begging God just for a chance to see me one more time. 1 Holding the gift bag, I walked up to my cheap apartment. I had been rehearsing my farewell speech the entire walk home. But through the thin walls, I heard Arthur's voice. "Evelyn isn't my girlfriend. From now on, just consider her a kept woman, like a canary I keep by my side." His tone was casual, but the words pierced straight through me like a sword. I gripped the handle of the gift bag tightly. It felt like my heart was stuffed with cotton, making it impossible to breathe. So, this was what I was in his eyes? 2 The apartment door suddenly swung open. A man in a sharp, tailored suit saw me and froze. I instinctively took a half-step back. Behind him, Arthur was still wearing the cheap T-shirt I had bought for him at Target. Seeing me standing outside the door, his expression instantly stiffened. "Evie, why are you home so early?" I hid the gift bag even further behind my back. I squeezed out a smile. "Got off work a bit early today." Without waiting for him to say anything else, I used buying boba tea as an excuse, turned around, and practically ran down the stairs. 3 My apartment was in a rundown neighborhood, but the moment you stepped out of the alley, you hit the bustling, neon-lit heart of the city. Looking at the blinding neon lights I used to find so beautiful, my vision completely blurred. Unable to suppress the overwhelming pain, I finally let the tears fall, releasing everything I had been holding back. I heard two girls walking past me, talking excitedly. "The Vance family heir is so freaking hot." "It's like a real-life Succession drama." Right now, the entire city was gossiping about the exiled Vance heir finally reclaiming his billionaire status. And Arthur Vance was that heir. I pulled out my phone. My TikTok feed was completely flooded with news about Arthur. I clicked on a video I had already watched that afternoon. His handsome, aristocratic face looked directly into the camera. He politely declined a more in-depth interview, but said he wanted to thank one specific person. When reporters pressed him for a name, he refused to answer. How hilarious. I had actually been arrogant enough to believe he was talking about me. 4 Three years ago, Arthur lost a brutal war for control of his family's empire and was banished from New York. I "picked him up" in a small rural town upstate. At the time, he was practically blind from an injury, and his legs were broken. He had been thrown out of a moving car, looking no better than a homeless beggar. After I took him into my tiny house, he tried to end his own life multiple times. I stayed by his side, quietly keeping watch, until he finally gave up the idea. He never talked about his past. But I knew exactly who he was. Arthur Vance. The former golden boy of the New York elite. Because when he was in high school, he casually circled a name on a map for a charity project. That single action changed the lives of all the impoverished kids in my hometown. Including me. The Vance family established a charity foundation in his name. Every kid in our town, boy or girl, had their high school and college tuition fully paid for by the foundation. Unfortunately, the foundation only lasted for a few years. I just happened to be part of the very last batch of college graduates who benefited from it. When I started high school, I actually met Arthur once. He was pale and looked a bit sickly back then. He came as the representative of the foundation to hand out the scholarship checks to us. Making eye contact with him was like looking directly at the sun. He was so dazzling it hurt your eyes. He forcibly suppressed a look of intense impatience to take a group photo with us. 5 The next time I saw him, I had already graduated college and was working as a sales associate at a luxury boutique on Fifth Avenue. He walked into the store wearing an immaculate bespoke suit, his aristocratic face carrying a trace of cynical world-weariness. The store manager and the regional director personally rushed to assist him. The security guards outside immediately set up velvet ropes, preparing to clear the store. I heard a coworker next to me whispering in pure envy: "It's Mr. Vance." "If you close one sale with him, you won't have to worry about your quota for the rest of the month." I watched from a distance, the corners of my mouth curling up slightly. I hadn't seen him in years, and he had changed so much. The awkwardness of the high school boy was gone. He had the commanding presence of a grown man. His features were sharper, his aura even more untouchable. My coworker bumped my arm, thinking I was daydreaming about something impossible. "He's gorgeous, right?" "Stop dreaming. He's the crown prince of New York." I snapped back to reality, my smile unfading. Suddenly, Arthur took a phone call. He started cursing violently, a mix of furious English and something else, before storming out of the boutique like a hurricane. Based on the one or two sentences she caught, my coworker instantly started spinning the gossip mill: "The Vance family succession war is getting bloody." "The media is saying the old man is on his deathbed, and the second branch of the family is highly likely to seize control." Arthur was the son of the eldest branch. But his father had been in a severe car crash years ago and was in a vegetative state. I silently prayed that he would win this ruthless, blood-soaked battle for the billionaire throne. I never expected that a few months later... When I went back to my hometown upstate, I would "pick up" the man who lost that exact battle. 6 During the months I stayed with him, his broken legs slowly healed. Eventually, he listened to my advice and stopped wallowing in self-pity. He agreed to go to the hospital to treat his eyes. I emptied out my entire life savings and took out loans to pay for his surgery. We eventually moved to Chicago. Sometimes, I would stand with him on a high balcony, looking eastward, toward New York. But he never explained why. Until the anniversary of his mother's death. That day, he suddenly pulled me into a crushing embrace. He buried his face in my neck, trembling violently, and spat out words laced with pure agony: "They killed my mother. Then they banished me from New York and forbade me from ever stepping foot there again." I felt something freezing cold against my neck. It was the tears he had been holding back for so long. He told me all the vile, filthy secrets of his family. I cried with him, and I didn't forget to encourage him. "As long as there's life, there's hope." 7 After that, we stayed in Chicago for three years. We holed up in the tiny apartment I rented. During the day, I went to work at a luxury boutique downtown. Arthur stayed home, busy with his own secretive affairs. Occasionally, at the store, I would serve wealthy clients visiting from New York. I would listen to them gossip about the shifting power dynamics of the Vance family. Until recently, when I heard that the current head of the Vance family had been implicated in a murder scandal. And the eldest son, who had been declared a permanent vegetable, had miraculously woken up. The leadership of the Vance empire was about to change hands. I knew that Arthur was highly likely to reclaim his position as the crown prince. I had been preparing my goodbye speech for a long time. But over the past few days, every time I practiced it in my head, I couldn't stop myself from choking up. Today, I heard that people from New York had arrived to see him. I took the absolute last bit of money I had managed to scrape together over the past six months. I bought a designer silk pocket square at my boutique. I thought it would be a dignified parting gift. The massive gap between our social classes meant our story ended here. But I never imagined that was what Arthur truly thought of me. Tears of profound grievance kept falling. It took a long time before I finally wiped them away and walked into a boba shop. 8 An hour later, I walked back into the apartment holding two cups of boba tea. Arthur had taken a shower and was wearing the cheap pajamas I had bought for him. He didn't offer a single word of explanation about the man in the suit. He just stared at me with his deep, dark eyes, as if waiting for me to ask. I don't know why, but the tiny apartment I usually found so cozy suddenly felt suffocating. The cheap wallpaper was peeling in the corners, revealing the crumbling drywall underneath, making the place look even more impoverished. I subtly looked away and forced a casual tone. "It's a new flavor from the boba shop. I waited in line for over half an hour." As I spoke, I unwrapped a straw, poked it in, took a massive sip, and then handed it to him. "Try it." He didn't take it. A heavy, dead silence spread between us. I awkwardly pulled my hand back. Of course. He was about to go back to being a billionaire heir. Why would he want to drink this cheap, sugary garbage anymore? Let alone share a cup with someone like me. But I still remembered when we were first together. He used to complain about me eating junk food, but he would still lean over and take a sip from my boba tea. A wave of bitter acidity washed over my chest. I pretended I was sweating, set the boba tea down, and walked toward the bathroom. 9 When I came out after showering, the overhead light suddenly started flickering violently. After a few seconds, it burnt out completely, plunging the room into total darkness. Arthur walked over, wrapped his arms around me, and coaxed me gently. "It's okay. I'm here." The pain I had forced down surged right back up to my chest because of that one sentence. It felt like thousands of tiny needles were being driven into my heart. Wave after wave of suffocation. If he hadn't just told his guy that I wasn't his girlfriend... If he hadn't literally said he was going to keep me as a "canary"... With how deeply affectionate he sounded right now, I really would have believed he actually loved me. In the dark, he tried to kiss me. I turned my face away to avoid it. I reached up to push him away, but then I heard him say: "Evie, we're going to be together forever." I gave a soft "Oh." My heart was rapidly sinking into an abyss. Together forever? As your kept woman? 10 I didn't let Arthur see my emotions. I fumbled in the dark to find the hairdryer. He turned on his phone's flashlight to illuminate the room and helped me dry my hair. He also said he really loved the pocket square I gave him. Only then did I realize he had already opened the gift I bought. The explanation I had prepared died on my lips. I just gave an "Mhm" and said, "I'm glad you like it."
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