CHAPTER 3: THE BET
1597 Words
I couldn’t believe this was happening to me—everyone was here, watching as my pride and dignity crumbled before their eyes.
I didn’t know how to take it all in, how to process the weight of their stares, their whispers pressing against my skin like needles.
I looked around as I forced myself to breathe, before I absentmindedly turned my gaze to Tyler, who looked at me as nothing of someone he knew of three years, like I'm just a stranger to him. my voice shaking from all the emotions inside of me
“If it was just a game…” My throat tightened, and my voice shook from all the emotions inside of me but I swallowed past it. “Then why did it take you three years?”
If the whole point was to win the captain title, he could have ended it long ago.
So why?
That thought alone made my heart grasp at a sliver of hope that in those three years Tyler had developed feelings for me—especially when, for the briefest moment, something flickered across Tyler’s face. Hesitation. Regret?
But just as quickly, it was gone.
“Well, I think I’m to blame for that,” a new voice chimed in.
I turned as James, one of Tyler’s wealthier teammates, stepped forward and stopped beside him. He held a check between two fingers, casually extending it toward Tyler.
“Here you go,” he said with a smirk. “Three million dollars, just as promised.”
My heart dropped seeing that especially when Tyler just casually took the check without a word, glancing at it briefly before slipping it into his pocket like it meant nothing.
James turned to me, a grin tugging at his lips as if this was all just some amusing joke.
“See, Clara,” he drawled, “it would’ve been boring if the game ended just like that. So I decided to make things a little more interesting.”
My shaking hands clenched at my sides. “What are you talking about?”
James chuckled. “I made Tyler a new offer after the first month,” he said, shrugging. “I told him I’d give him a million dollars for every year he stayed in a relationship with you.”
I felt like I had been punched in the gut hearing that.
One million dollars.
Every year.
Is that why he chose to stay with me all those years?
Was if fun for him to continue toying with me with something like that in return?
My breaths came shallow and uneven as I looked at Tyler with sad eyes
I couldn't believe that he a wealthy second generation heir would stoop so low, for money
“So really,” James continued, amused, “you should feel special, Clara. He could’ve left you anytime, but look how long he stuck around.”
Laughter rippled through the room again, but all I could do was stare at Tyler.
Three years.
Three years of my life, my love—wasted.
All along, it had been nothing more than a game.
I swallowed against the lump in my throat, my voice barely above a whisper as I asked, “Why?”
Tyler exhaled, looking almost bored with the conversation now. He shrugged. “It wasn’t about the money, if that’s what you’re thinking.”
My fingers curled into fists. “Then why?”
He tilted his head slightly, considering. Then, with a smirk, he said, “Because I needed you.”
My breath hitched.
“For what?” I forced out.
Tyler sighed like he was explaining something painfully simple. “After I became a captain, I found out I was failing a few of my subjects. If I didn’t pass, I’d be off the team.”
He paused, then let out a low chuckle.
“And, well, you just happened to be the perfect solution. Smart, reliable, and so damn eager to do anything for me.”
I felt like the air had been knocked out of my lungs.
“So, really, James’ money was just a bonus,” he continued. “The real reason I stayed was because you were useful.”
Something inside me cracked.
Three years.
Three years of love, devotion, and trust—only for him to see me as nothing more than a convenient way for him to stay on the team.
"You…You didn’t really think I’d fall for you, did you?" Tyler asked, his tone dripping with mockery.
“She was probably fantasizing about wedding bells and white dresses,” someone snickered.
“Poor thing,” another girl added mockingly.
“She really thought she had a chance.”
I couldn't believe this was happening.
The room around me blurred, laughter echoing in my ears like a cruel melody. My chest tightened as I breathed unevenly, before I forced myself to look at him straight to his eyes
A cruel chuckle sounded beside me.
"Seriously?" Britney sneered, crossing her arms as she eyed me with disdain. "You actually thought someone like Tyler would genuinely fall for a girl like you?”
I flinched.
Because those were the exact words I had thought when Tyler started to show interest in me, and hearing that again now made me realize that I have been right all along.
“Be honest, Clara,” Britney continued, tilting her head. “Have you ever looked in a mirror? For you to think that any man would actually want you?”
Tyler let out a laugh, shaking his head. "Come on, Clara. Be serious.”
I stood there, frozen, as the room filled with soft laughter and whispered taunts. My chest ached, but the pain hadn’t fully settled in yet.
Not until I looked at Tyler.
Not until I saw the sheer amusement on his face.
Britney’s words stung, but the way he didn’t deny them—he didn’t defend me—was what shattered me the most.
I swallowed, forcing my voice to stay steady. “So that’s what you think of me?”
Tyler shrugged, slipping his hands into his pockets like this was just another casual conversation. “What do you want me to say, Clara?” His lips curled into a smirk. “That it was real? That I actually cared?”
The laughter erupted again as my tears burned the back of my eyes, but I refused to let them fall.
Not here.
Not in front of them.
I clenched my fists. “What did I do wrong to you to do this to me?”
Tyler let out an amused breath, tilting his head as if the question actually puzzled him.
“Wrong?” he repeated, chuckling. “Clara, you didn’t do anything wrong.”
His words should have been reassuring, but the way he said them—so carelessly, so dismissively—only made the pain worse.
“You were just there” He shrugged. “The perfect target. The quiet, bookish girl who’d believe anything if you wrapped it up in a pretty enough lie.”
I searched his face for even a shred of guilt, some sign that this was all some horrible joke, but there was nothing. Just cold indifference.
“Why?” My voice cracked, but I didn’t care anymore. “Why would you do this to me?”
Tyler sighed like he was growing tired of the conversation.
“I already told you,” he said. “It was a game. A bet. And you were just…” He waved a hand vaguely. “Convenient”
Convenient.
That single word hit harder than anything else.
Three years of love. Three years of trust.
Three years of believing in someone who never once believed in me.
And all I had ever been to him was convenient.
A sharp breath left me.
“That’s all?” I whispered.
He nodded, completely unbothered. “That’s all.”
Britney laughed, stepping closer to loop her arm through Tyler’s. “Honestly, Clara, you should be proud. You were useful at least.”
Right I was useful, that is why he stayed with me
He didn't stay with me because of me but because I was his toy, a tool he had been using for three years.
That is all I am to him, not anyone, not even Clara, a human
Why am I so naïve and gullible? All I wanted was to be loved by someone I love and in three years, I thought I had finally found him but now, I was standing in the middle of a nightmare I couldn't wake up from.
“You should stop dreaming,” Britney sneered, her voice dripping with mockery. “Did you really think someone like you—who doesn’t even have the looks or the body—could ever keep someone like Tyler?”
She let out a laugh, flipping her hair over one shoulder before stepping closer to him.
“Guys like Tyler don’t date girls like you, Clara. They use them”
She smirked. "And just so you know, someone who actually deserves him is already right where she belongs.”
Then, without breaking eye contact with me, Britney tiptoed and pressed a slow, deliberate kiss on Tyler’s lips.
And I just stood there, watching it all happen in front of my eyes, frozen in place, trying to absorb it all.
Trying to understand how everything I had believed in, everything I had trusted, had been nothing but a cruel illusion that ended in my own heartbreak.
- Writer
