From a Humiliating Bet to the Boss He Can't Have novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: The Prenup Pool
At her engagement party, Jo watches forty people bet on whether she will sign a prenup or cash a check, refuses both and walks out; her phone lights up with a job she turned down twice.
The prenup was on the coffee table at our engagement party, and forty people were watching me look at it.
Blaine's friends had pushed the sofa back and set up a screen the size of a door.
On the screen was a group chat called "The Prenup Pool."
Cynthia Pemberton stood beside it with two champagne glasses and a warm smile.
She had spent the whole evening finding me a chair, a plate, and a quiet corner when Blaine's aunt cornered me.
"Here, Jo," she said, and pressed a glass into my hand. "You look like you need this. Whatever happens next, I'm on your side."
She kept her phone angled toward the screen.
Next to the prenup lay a check for one hundred thousand dollars.
Sign the agreement and give up any claim to his house and his family's money, or take the check and go.
Blaine had called it a formality an hour earlier, in the hallway.
The chat showed it was a game with a pot.
Some friends had bet I would sign, some that I would cash the check, and some that I would throw a fit first.
Under the bets, they had written about me.
"Three years raising his daughter. She isn't leaving for a hundred grand."
"She wants the house."
"The no-money act is the long con. Wait until after the vows."
"Girls from where she grew up know how to land a man with money."
Blaine stood beside me with his jaw tight.
"How long has this chat existed?" I asked him.
He looked at the carpet. "Not long."
"You knew about it."
"They're joking, Jo."
"Was making me a bet a joke too?"
"If you really don't care about the money, this shouldn't bother you." He kept his voice low. "Sign, and they'll shut up."
I looked at him and understood.
He wasn't trapped in this room with me.
He wanted the same answer they did, and he wanted it on paper, with an audience.
We had been together four years.
For three of them I had packed his daughter Birdie's lunches and signed her reading logs.
I had turned down the Chicago job twice for that house.
The first time, he promised to make it up to me. The second time, he said we'd be married soon.
I had believed him both times, and I had never asked what his family was worth.
I split every trip and returned the gifts I could.
I kept a spreadsheet of every household bill, and twice I covered the mortgage when his payment came late.
I thought clean numbers would protect me from exactly this.
Cynthia tapped the prenup with one finger. "You call them your family, Jo. What's the big deal about signing a piece of paper?"
"If it's only paper," I said, "why make it a betting pool?"
She smiled at me. "Because we wanted to know if your sincerity was worth a hundred thousand dollars."
The room laughed.
Blaine said my name, low and warning, and put a pen in my hand.
"Don't make this harder than it has to be," he said. "Sign, and we'll go ahead with the wedding."
I looked at the pen, then at the check.
If I took the money, they would say I'd shown my true colors. If I signed, they would say the test had worked.
Either way, four years of my life would become one line in their chat.
So I put the pen down.
"I'm not signing," I said.
Cynthia laughed. "I win."
"I'm not taking the check either."
I walked to the window and slid the engagement ring off my finger.
In my other hand was a small gift box I had been carrying since morning.
Inside were cuff links, engraved on the back with three names: Blaine, Birdie and mine.
I had meant to give them to him tonight, for the day we became a family.
I took both back to him. "Take them."
The moment he saw the ring in my palm, his face finally changed.
Cynthia stepped between us. "Don't panic, Blaine. This is her real play. She refuses the prenup, then she hands back the ring, and you fold."
She picked the cuff links out of the box and held them up to the room.
"She even engraved the kid's name. She wants you to feel guilty so she can name her price."
Every phone in the room was pointed at me.
Blaine looked at the cuff links, and the panic in his face drained away.
He believed her.
"That's enough," he said. "Put the ring back on. Whatever your terms are, we'll talk at home."
"You think I'm setting terms?"
He didn't answer.
"Of course she is," Cynthia said. "You spent four years getting here. Nobody throws that away over one agreement."
I laughed once.
None of them were afraid because they were sure I had put in too much to leave.
I put the ring on the table, next to the check.
"We're done, Blaine. Keep your pool. I won't sign and I won't take the money. I'm just not marrying you."
"She'll be begging by tomorrow," Cynthia said.
Blaine's hand had started toward my arm. It dropped.
"Fine," he said. "I'd love to see how many days you last."
"Then watch."
I left through the front door, and nobody followed me.
On the sidewalk, my phone buzzed with a new message in the group chat they hadn't taken me out of.
They were already betting on what time I would come back.
I opened my email instead and found the Chicago offer I had never deleted.
I typed a single word and sent it before I could think.
"Yes."
The reply came before I reached the corner.
"Good. I've kept your desk empty for two years. Be here Monday."
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