fucked with our lives for ratings.
—Interview with Luke Cross for TV Buzz Daily, after the finale
I jump from the chair, trying to run after Penny, but I forget the mic tethering me to the chair. By the time I loosen it, she’s gone. The camera catches my furious expression.
“Oooooh,” Will Wang says. “Looks like Luke did not expect that answer at all!”
I see red. “Fuck you,” I tell him, storming off the stage.
The first person I see when I get behind the curtains is Eloise Barker, who’s reaching out her hands to me to calm me down.
“You!” I growl, pointing a finger at her. “You fucking did this! What the fuck was that? What did you fucking do to her?”
She gives me a condescending smile. “Luke, my dear. I have no idea what you’re talking about. That was reality. Whatever you think you may have had with Penny? That was the fantasy.”
What. The. Fuck? “Why would you . . . ?”
“Because,” she says, breezily, “the world loves you. But they want you single.”
I rake my hands through my hair. “This is fucking ridiculous. You wanted to save the studio half a million dollars, is that it? I don’t care about the goddamn money. Keep it. I love her. I want to be married to her.”
She shakes her head. “Apparently, she doesn’t want to be married to you. I’m sorry, Luke. She gave you her answer, and that’s final. And she already signed the paper.” She holds it up to me, with Penny’s scrawled signature on it. “Your marriage will be annulled.”
No. This is a nightmare. I had it planned. After the live finale, when all the confetti poured down on us, I was going to take her in my arms and kiss her for the world to see. And then I was never going to let her go. I had a hotel room booked with our name on it. I’d been practically salivating for the moment I’d take my wife up there and sink into her, where I belonged.
Instead, on stage, the audience applauds, and no confetti is thrown. Canned music plays. The rest of the contestants file off the stage, looking at me with more fear than pity, like I’m a time bomb that’s about to go off.
They’re damn right about that.
Charity steps off the stage, blinking like a deer in the headlights when I corner her. “What the fuck was that?”
She gives me a disgusted look. “I didn’t say anything you weren’t thinking. You wanted me from the start. That was obvious.”
I raise my hands up in fists, and they’re shaking, I’m so angry. “What? I never fucking touched you!”
I push away from her. I can’t fucking breathe from this suffocating tie. I want to lash out, hit something, hit someone, but everyone’s keeping their distance. Ripping the tie off my neck, I race to the back of the stage, calling for my wife.
But I can’t find Penny anywhere.
She’s fucking gone.
And she’s not my wife anymore.
MOVING ON
Nell
TV Buzz Daily has attempted to contact Penelope Carpenter on numerous occasions for her take on the shocking Million Dollar Marriage finale, but she could not be reached for comment.
It’s Christmas Eve.
It’s been a week since the finale, and the outside world is a bigger minefield than it’s ever been.
I sit in my darkened bedroom with my laptop. This is my fortress. I’ve been in bed most of the last week. The sheets are dirty because I haven’t showered. I don’t eat, can’t even bring myself to do the normal things that used to make me happy, like listening to classical music and reading my books. Everything I do that once brought me joy just reminds me of him.
When I came home from the finale, Courtney tried to talk to me, but I told her I wasn’t feeling well, and I locked myself in my bedroom. I’ve seen her maybe twice since, though she’s always knocking at my door whenever reporters show up to ask questions. I ignore her or tell her I’m fine but need some time.
I’ve gotten—and deleted unanswered—at least two hundred emails from various news sources, wanting my take.
My take?
I wish I’d never signed on for that damn show in the first place. I have the money, which has helped take care of a lot of my bills. But if I could do it all over again? I’d take the bills, every time.
Because now I have this worthless broken heart that hurts so much, I think I might be