The Fickle Heart

I watched as Angela approached Carl and murmured something to him. Immediately, the manner in which Carl carried himself changed entirely. He looked unusually gentle.I sifted through all the memories I had of Carl throughout the last two decades or so. He had never smiled at me the way he was smiling at Angela now.Carl and I were childhood friends. We had played with each other since we were children. Being a rather carefree person myself, I often went around climbing trees and scampering outside with Carl.When others bullied me, he would defend me and beat them up to chase them off. When I cried, he would patiently soothe me.Even when we had grown up, Carl never bothered to put on any sort of pretense around me. I thought that meant he treated me like his soulmate, but as it was, he was merely treating me as if I were his pet.When I saw the intimacy he shared with Angela, I finally realized just how worthless my love was to him. I didn't even know when he got so close to Ang

That night, Henry invited me over to have dinner at the Moran residence.When I arrived, Angela was bustling around the kitchen."You're here, Iris! So, you're the guest Uncle Henry mentioned, huh?" Angela said as she shot me a teasing wink.Chuckling, I rolled up my sleeves and lent her a hand in the kitchen. Henry was a germaphobe, so it seemed like Angela was the one in charge of all the house chores.When Carl arrived, he was startled to see me. Acting as if he didn't know me all that well, he greeted me stiffly.Almost as if we had come to a tacit agreement, none of us mentioned the whole affair with the canceled engagement.Throughout dinner, Carl kept serving Angela."Angie, the doctor said you need to avoid spicy food because of your injury," Carl said before shoving the plate of buffalo wings—the only spicy food on the table—toward me.Our eyes met, and he hesitated briefly. Carl knew I couldn't eat spicy food, but he didn't care. Angela was all he cared about.I was

Carl froze and stared at me in disbelief."Angie, what did you just call her?" he asked.Puzzled, Angela glanced between Carl and me as she replied, "Aunt Iris, of course. She and Uncle Henry registered their marriage not too long ago. They just haven't gotten around to having their wedding ceremony yet."I patted Carl on the shoulder and said, "Congratulations on your wedding, my new nephew-in-law."Then, I took Henry's hand and walked into the venue."Are you alright?" Henry asked as he fixed his eyes on me. It looked like he was worried I would feel even the slightest flicker of hurt."I'm fine. I've moved on from him already. Otherwise, I wouldn't have married you," I replied as I tapped his hand reassuringly to indicate that I was okay.By the time I returned to the Moran residence after the wedding reception, it felt as though my face had frozen into a perpetually stiff smile.Everyone knew about my relationship with Carl. There were bound to be some who were waiting for

A few days later, Henry carved out some free time to head back to my family home with me.Mom pulled me aside and asked, "Iris, did Carl come looking for you lately? A few people said so, and they all sounded so sure about it."Hearing that, I frowned. The situation between the four of us was a little complicated right now. Who was spreading this news around?"Make sure you explain things properly to Henry. Don't let him misunderstand anything. He's a far better man than Carl," Mom reminded me with a pat on my shoulder, warning me to take this seriously.Nodding back at her, I replied, "Don't worry about it. I've already told him everything. Besides, how is Carl better than Henry in any way? I'm not blind, you know!"News got around among our social circle. Henry knew about my engagement too. Since he married me anyway, that meant he didn't care about my past.Henry spent some time in the living room with my parents before leaving because he had work to attend to at the office. B

Once I got home, Henry and I discussed having a wedding ceremony. If we didn't, there was always going to be someone who didn't know how to back off. Carl's daily harassment frustrated me to no end.On our wedding day, nearly half of the business industry was in attendance, including Carl.As Henry and I exchanged our rings and our vows, Carl's eyes reddened, and he balled his fists so tightly that his veins popped. His eyes were glued to me, almost as if he would grab me and take me away the moment I looked at him.Alas, even as the wedding reception ended, I never looked his way.After that day, to avoid letting Carl pester me any further, I started buying up shares in Anderson Enterprise, the Anderson family's company.Having acquired a lot of the shares at a low price, I ended up holding an equal amount of shares in the company as the family did, effectively giving me the power to make decisions too.Thanks to several of my "bold" strategies, Anderson Enterprise made several