The Canary Who Flew Away

My sugar daddy was about to enter an arranged marriage, and after three years of keeping him company, I was about to be laid off.

On our last night, he held his phone out to me and said, offhand, that he wanted a new pet and could I help him pick one.

There were no cats on the screen, just photo after photo of young, beautiful women. The pet he meant was a canary.

And I, the canary who'd kept him company for three years, seemed to be getting laid off. Because a private investigator had gotten pictures of me.

And because the fallen heiress already knew I existed—the one who'd turned him down more than ten times and now had no choice but to marry him. Chapter 1 Graham got out of bed.

He picked my nightgown up off the floor and handed it to me.

He could always say the most heartless things like they were nothing. "Barring any surprises, tonight should be our last time." "From now on, don't show up at this house without my permission." He watched me pull the nightgown on numbly.

Then he suddenly laughed out loud. He didn't take his heated gaze off me until he'd finished straightening his clothes.

I lowered my head and answered in a muffled voice. "Okay." I got out of bed, even though my legs were so weak that for a moment I could barely stand.

Graham steadied me, looking at me with a halfsmile. "Oh, right." "If you need a new sugar daddy, I can recommend someone." "But if you'd rather find some decent, honest guy to marry, I can also put together a perfect résumé for you." "Jessa, you're still young." "Don't waste your time on a man who has a fiancée." It was the first time Graham had acknowledged Tatiana as his fiancée in front of me.

After Tatiana showed up a few days back, he kept saying he couldn't stand her. And I believed him.

So much so that when the private investigator she sent started following me, I didn't think anything of it.

After Tatiana got the investigator's photos, she even swallowed half a bottle of sleeping pills. That night, Graham didn't get back from the hospital until the small hours.

His tone was as disgusted as ever. "Work at the company keeps me busy enough as it is." "Now I have to deal with her worthless life on top of it." Back then, I naively believed Graham truly loathed Tatiana.

Only now did I realize that if Graham really hated Tatiana, he'd never have lowered himself to marry her.

The official status I hadn't gotten in three years by his side, he'd never give to someone he loathed. It wasn't so much that he loathed Tatiana.

It was more that he loathed how Tatiana hadn't loved him back then. So. Graham wasn't necessarily looking for a new canary at all. He wanted to humiliate me.

He wanted to settle a score for the fiancée he'd worked so hard to win.

Once I'd sorted out my thoughts, I took two steps back, putting a little distance between us. "I'll pass." "Thank you, Mr.

Yardley." But the moment the words were out, the man frowned slightly.

Maybe because I was being obedient, he offered me a way to save face. "If you really miss me, go to the old house on the edge of town." "If I have time, I might stop by." The first time Graham met me, he'd told me: A canary has no pride.

It's something you whistle for when you want it and wave away when you don't. It has to know its place. But we'd been together a long time.

Chapter 2 He'd spoiled me so much that I'd forgotten his warning. So right then, I actually cried in front of him out of humiliation. I thought Graham would get impatient.

But instead he reached up and wiped my tears away.

His voice instinctively softened a little. "Okay, don't cry." What Graham did best was give you hope and then crush it. "Tatiana's performance just ended.

I have to go pick her up and bring her home." "So tonight, I'll need you to go ahead and pack up your things." "Then have the driver take you home." He put on his watch and finished dressing.

After a while, he glanced down at the time. "The drive to pick up Tatiana and bring her home takes about fortyfive minutes." "In the next fortyfive minutes, take every last thing of yours with you." When Graham talked about Tatiana, an unconscious warmth crept into his voice. "Otherwise, if Tatiana sees any of it, she'll make another scene and threaten to kill herself." In those fortyfive minutes, I packed only the most expensive, most valuable luxury goods, clothes, and jewelry.

As for the stuff that wasn't worth anything, I had the housekeeper throw all of it out for me. A woman who can be someone's canary doesn't carry a torch for long.

I believed I'd get over Graham soon. When I got into the car with bag after bag, even the driver shot me a disgusted look.

That look seemed to say I was greedy and could never get enough. But I'd grown up poor, and I was scared to death of it.

If there was money I could pocket, I wasn't letting a single cent of it get away. By the time I got back to my apartment, it was the early hours of the morning.

I took the designer bags and designer clothes Graham had given me and laid every one of them out on the bed, photographed them, and listed them on a resale site.

Most had barely been carried, barely been worn. So they'd still fetch a good price.

The one thing I didn't know how to price was the highjewelry set, the priciest jewelry he'd ever given me.

Graham had said he won it at auction, keeping his paddle up no matter what it cost. Just as I was about to look up that auction online, someone knocked at the door.

When I opened it, it was Graham. He was still wearing the couture coat he'd left in.

Only now he was carrying a box of crawfish, which looked completely out of place on a man with his money. Graham used to hate eating stuff like this.

It wasn't until he was with me that he slowly started to try it.

Back then he'd always laugh and flick my forehead. "You're the one who corrupted me." "How should I punish you, hm?" But the Graham in front of me was no longer the Graham who indulged me in everything.

My manner cooled without my meaning it to. "What are you doing here?" Graham raised an eyebrow and barged right into my place. "Tasty, unhealthy junk food like this—I'm still used to eating it with you." I looked at Graham, already settled in my living room, and pushed back. "But I don't want to have a breakup dinner with you." "Mr.

Yardley, please leave." Graham lowered his eyes and sneered. "What are you thinking?

What breakup dinner?" "Jessa, were we ever dating?" Graham slid the engagement ring off his ring finger. He set it aside carefully.

He opened the box of crawfish and looked up at me. "Come to think of it, it's your fault for clinging to me so tight in bed." "Tatiana happened to see the red mark under my collar and threw me out." "You started this.

Shouldn't you at least take in the victim?" I pressed my lips together and hesitated for a long moment.

Then I walked over to the dining table after all and picked up my purse. "Then you eat here. I'll go out." "You're the sugar daddy, after all.

You call the shots." Chapter 3 I'd just picked up my purse to go when he caught my wrist and held it tight.

Graham's occasional moments of vulnerability always tricked me into thinking he depended on me. "Stay and finish this latenight snack with me." "I'll double this month's money." "Or triple it, or quadruple it—whatever you ask." After we ate, he turned off the lights with practiced ease and sat down on the couch.

He switched on the projector and picked a romance movie.

That way Graham had of being not quite an employer and not quite a boyfriend had once given me far too many fantasies I had no business having.

Seeing me zone out, Graham opened his arms to me. "Come here. Let me hold you for a while." "Work's been swamped lately. I'm honestly exhausted." Fine.

I'd let this be the last time. After this, there'd be no chance of anything between Graham and me. His cologne was still the woody one I'd given him back then.

I lay quietly in his arms, listening to his heartbeat. When I looked up again, he was asleep. But his arm stayed locked tight around my waist.

A call on his phone woke him before I could. When I saw the caller ID, I froze. He had Tatiana saved as Tati, with her birthday next to it.

But for three years, he'd had me saved under my full name: Jessa Tully. Graham let go of me and answered. The room was quiet.

So quiet that even I could hear Tatiana's voice, stubborn yet pleading. "Graham, the power's out at your place." "I'm… kind of scared." Graham rubbed his temples, then grabbed his coat and got up to leave.

But when he reached the door, he suddenly turned back. Graham took a box of pills out of his coat pocket and set it in front of me. His manner turned cold. "Oh, right.

I almost forgot to tell you." "Remember to take the pill." "If anything goes wrong and you end up with a kid, I want nothing to do with it." Looking at the box, I finally remembered.

At Graham's house, right at the end, the condom seemed to have broken. I gave a selfmocking laugh. So this box of pills was the real reason he'd come to find me.

After I took the pill, I couldn't sleep. Before I knew it, it was daylight. Then I suddenly thought of the highjewelry set again.

I found the details of that auction: the set was the only one of its kind in the world, worth $6.5 million. For a moment I was stunned.

Honestly, in three years, the most expensive thing Graham had ever given me was this apartment, right downtown, worth a little over a million dollars.

I'd truly never imagined the jewelry was worth that much. After thinking it over, I listed it on the resale site anyway. Whether it would sell, I'd leave up to fate.

Half an hour later, someone actually messaged me. The buyer sent a substantial deposit almost immediately. She wanted to meet in person.

She was in a hurry, so she wouldn't give me time to get an appraisal report. When I got to the place she'd chosen, she was already there ahead of me.

When I saw her face clearly, I stopped short. It was Tatiana. I'd seen her photo on Graham's phone. But when she saw me, her expression didn't change at all.

It was like she'd known all along I'd be the one coming. I sat down across from her and handed over the jewelry box without a word. All I wanted was to get out of there fast.

But Tatiana opened it, took one look, and closed the box.

Her tone was mocking. "Sweetheart, what you sold me is a knockoff." But Graham wasn't the kind of cheapskate who'd give me a fake. "That's impossible." Chapter 4 When I argued, Tatiana laughed. "Why is that impossible?" Tatiana gently tugged her collar open, revealing the same necklace. "After all, the real one is around my neck." "And Graham gave it to me himself, right there at the auction." I looked at that identical necklace, and all at once I couldn't get a word out.

Tatiana, though, was looking past me, toward the front entrance. "Real or fake—how about we have Graham come check it for you?" I followed her gaze and turned my head.

Tatiana had called Graham here too. The second Graham saw it was me, he frowned. But soon, as if he'd never met me, he looked away from my eyes.

Tatiana waved at Graham. "Graham, I'm over here." The moment Graham sat down, Tatiana hooked her arm tightly through his.

She leaned half her body against him—nothing about it looked like someone who hated him. Her eyes bright, she smiled and handed Graham the jewelry I'd given her.

But when she turned to me, her gaze cooled bit by bit. "The little girl you keep sold me a $6.5 million fake." "And the money I sent came out of your account." "Graham, do you think we should call the police?" Graham's low voice cut through the chilly silence