His Mother Put Something In My Medicine

Maura's POV: I was planning every detail of my proposal to Ansel Renshaw when a new message popped up on the account where I offered readings from The Book of Answers. I was about to reply that I was taking a short break from readings when another comment caught my attention. The profile picture looked just like my golden-furred cat. A: I think my girlfriend's planning our wedding again. But I promised Odette I wouldn't get married before she did. The smile froze on my lips. The name matched that of Ansel's childhood friend, Odette Hensley. The user's golden-furred cat avatar kept flashing as more comments came in. A: This is the eighth time she's planned our wedding. Should I turn her down again? I counted them off on my fingers. Our wedding had fallen through exactly seven times, from his mother's sudden illness 3 years ago to my unexpected miscarriage 6 months ago. I opened The Book of Answers in front of the camera. "Don't force it." He seemed pleased with the answer. A: Right. It's still not the right time. I shouldn't force it. Now I just need to think of another "accident" to use as an excuse. I calmly closed The Book of Answers. 'Don't force it.' It answered the question I had silently asked myself. ***** After ending my livestream, I sat in my room for a long time, turning everything over in my mind. My phone vibrated, jolting me out of my thoughts. For the first time, I felt afraid when I saw Ansel's name on my phone screen. The first thing he said when I answered extinguished the last of my hope. "Maura, I've just been in a car accident. I'm at the hospital getting patched up." Perhaps his guilty conscience was getting to him. As he spoke, Ansel sent several close-up photos of his bandages. Now an "accidental" injury was about to derail our wedding for the eighth time. I had so many questions, but the words stuck in my throat. There seemed little point in confronting him now. "I found the diamond ring in your drawer this morning... I couldn't let you be the one to propose. I wanted to beat you to it, but I was in such a hurry that I ended up crashing the car." Ansel sounded utterly sincere. But I couldn't forget what had just happened on the livestream. 'Ansel, are you really that afraid to marry me?' I thought about it for a long time, but I couldn't bring myself to say it. "Okay." He seemed taken aback by my reply. I hung up before he could say anything else. Then I called my father. "I'll agree to the arranged marriage. Tell my sister she doesn't have to run away." My stepmother let out a delighted cry beside him. "Really? Your sister's boyfriend came to plead with us again. He said he'd work for the Fenwick family for the rest of his life if we let her choose whom to marry. She was just insisting on signing a five-year independence agreement like yours. If she could build a career without the family's help within that time, I'd have to call off the arranged marriage. You have different mothers, but you're just as stubborn as each other. Maura, your father has always wanted you to inherit everything. He's been sighing and worrying about you ever since you left home." As my stepmother described my sister, I could almost see myself in her, living a different version of my life. Only my sister had won. I had lost completely. My father, never a man of many words, interrupted her. His voice was thick with emotion. "I'm willing to let the past go." I knew he had never stopped feeling that he had betrayed my mother by giving in to his family's pressure to remarry. Even after I had left home, he had never cut me off completely. I could always go back if I wanted to. When I got home, Ansel deliberately pulled back the blanket draped over his wheelchair. His bandaged left foot came into view. "Maura, I was just too eager to marry you. Honestly, you should have let me be the one to propose." Every word he said sounded rehearsed. Each lie covered up the last, leaving no obvious cracks in his story. I instinctively moved closer to check his injury. 'What if the person using that golden-furred cat as a profile picture isn't him?' But I had only taken a few steps when Ansel called out for me to stop. "Maura, they've only just finished dressing the wound. Leave it alone." He looked down, his eyes darting nervously, as though he was afraid of giving himself away. "The doctor says I'll have to stay in the hospital. Could you pack a few changes of clothes for me?" He carefully spread the blanket over his legs again. The blanket I had knitted for him couldn't hide his lies. He was picking at his fingers without realizing it, just as he always did when he lied. "If you don't believe me, I can ask the doctor for a medical report..." I waved a hand, cutting him off. "There's no need." I didn't make a scene the way I had the previous seven times he had postponed our wedding. Ansel frowned deeply. "Maura, Odette did a tarot reading. She said our wedding keeps running into trouble because all you think about is your career. That's what's getting in the way of our marriage." I stopped packing his suitcase. I had once shared all kinds of predictions based on star signs and birth charts with him. He had always told me that people should take charge of their own fate. That was why I hadn't even told him when I started doing readings from The Book of Answers online. Now he was using the very fortune-telling he had once despised to deceive me. What Ansel didn't know was that I had to establish a career of my own within 5 years to escape the arranged marriage. I had never imagined he would be the reason I lost everything I had fought for. Unwilling to give up, I asked him again, "Do we really have to postpone it?" A mocking voice came from outside the door. "Maura, he's in a wheelchair. How exactly do you expect him to propose?" Odette appeared in the doorway, holding a key to my home. The spare key Ansel had refused to let even his own mother have was in her hand. Ansel made light of it. "I know work's all you care about, so I asked Odette to help. Finish packing my things for me." 'That suits me just fine. Once I've finished packing his things, I can start on mine.'