A Game To Make Him Fall

Part 1

"Get a child already"

That was my father's favorite phrase.

Born to a house where women were only seen as tools to birth children, I was already in my twenties. I was standing on the crossroads of life.
At my fingertips were close to fifty photos of different men. They were the marriage partner candidates my father had prepared.
Those who took the initiative and volunteered because they wanted his company, and those that were recommended to strengthen our ties with other companies. There were various reasons, but I was to marry one and build up a child.
That was my reason for existence in this house.

I don't think I can love another.

I wonder how everyone believes in something so shapeless as love. It was only a marvel to me.
That I couldn't do something any standard person could must be because I was a person who was never properly loved.
I put a break on the countless answerless questions I held since my birth and stared down at the photos around me.

That I chose him was truly a coincidence.

The largest reason I chose him was because his photo was at the very bottom of the stack. The order of the close-to-fifty photos was decided by how much profit each person could bring to the company. Since he was at the very bottom of the stack, he was practically pointless to my father's company. As revenge against my father, I took his photo in hand.
He of the photo was a plain man you could find anywhere. A man whose only real trait came from the diligent air given off by the glasses on his face. When it was a photo to hand to a potential marriage partner, he wasn't smiling at all. More than that, it even looked as if he were glaring. Angrily.

His unflattering bearing held a contrarily favorable impression.

Looking at the profile on the back of the photo, I was even more certain I would settle with that person.
His history indicated, after graduating a second-rate college, he entered a mid-tier company you could find anywhere, and his years in service to it would total five this year.
And for such a man, the reason for his candidacy was to save his grandfather's company, he wrote. My mind went strange.

"What a fool."

By the time I noticed it, I had leaked those words.
Going out of his way to marry a woman he didn't love to save someone else. He must have been unbelievably softhearted, and kind passed salvation.

'I can't think I'll love you, but if you're alright with me.'

Those words he let out the first time we met. I couldn't forget my father's face the moment he said it. Scowling, with his shoulders perked up, as he scattered shouts at me to give up on that man.
It was so amusing I couldn't help myself. That alone made me glad I chose him.

And we were married.

When our marriage was still young, he said this to me.

"I may kill you and take all the money you're to inherit for myself. Even so, are you alright with me?"

I thought he was a man to say interesting things. If he was really planning such a thing, he'd keep quiet and carry it out, but for some reason, he sought my consent.
At the very point he said it, I was sure he wouldn't kill me, but for some reason, his eyes were serious, and I laughed without restrained.
And I thought up a game.

"That's fine. It's only a matter if I can get you to fall before that, right"

I thought it would be interesting if he fell for me for real.
Though I doubted I would love him either, I could act in love as much as I wanted. On the other hand, with how blatantly it seemed he hated me, he was likely bad at lying.
Then to act out a happy couple, I knew it would be necessary to make him fall.