Chapter 2: Backup Guy Blues

It took me a few days, but I finally figured it out: I was living inside a wish-fulfillment, role-reversal web novel. Mason Lane was the main lead, Julia Greer was the heroine, and I was her childhood friend, the honest ex-husband—the expendable backup guy.

The realization hit like a brick to the head. Every weird thing that had happened. Every time I felt like someone else was pulling the strings. It all made sense now, in the worst possible way.

Early in the story, Julia liked me a lot.

But the author spent a ton of pages showing how clueless I was, how badly I treated Julia.

Like, ditching her at our wedding. Giving her the cold shoulder after marriage. Forcing her to sign the divorce papers...

After all that, Julia got hammered post-divorce and, on a stormy night, was set up by a business rival and lost both her legs.

She spiraled into depression. Felt even more worthless.

Only when the main lead showed up did she find her confidence again.

When they met, Mason was secretly cooking in the office, accidentally started a fire, and burned a stack of important files.

The manager was furious and about to fire him, but Julia happened to pass by and was drawn in by Mason’s defiant, magnetic vibe.

She decided he was genuine and straightforward.

She fired the hardworking manager and put Mason in that role.

From then on, Mason leveled up, and Julia even gave him the CEO spot at Greer Industries.

At the end, Julia let go of her past. Forgot about me, her ex-husband. Lived happily ever after with Mason.

There was no official ending for me, but the author hinted in the extras that after the divorce, my life went downhill—miserable, really.

Piecing the plot together, I just felt ridiculous.

Julia liked me for ten years?

No way. If she did, why’d she turn me down at our college graduation?

Julia and I grew up together, childhood friends.

Because of her werewolf blood, her parents didn’t love her, and her family shunned her.

The first time I met her, she was a skinny, battered little girl, face streaked with mud, head bleeding.

Her chubby older brother was sitting on her, beating her up. I rushed over and shielded her behind me.

I punched the little bully till he bawled, cheeks jiggling.

Her eyes lit up. She pulled out a piece of hard candy. “Here—you can have it.”

We became each other’s best friends.

She always seemed distant with others, but with me she was careful, gentle, and considerate.

With everyone else, she was cold and aloof.

So I mistook that double standard for a crush, and finally confessed to her on graduation day.

“Julia, I like you. Do you like me?”

I was full of hope, but she just looked at me coldly: “Gross.”

That one word shattered all my dreams. She hated me. Turns out I was just fooling myself.

After that, I signed on with an international firm. Cut off all contact with her.

Until three years ago, when the Brooks family ran into a financial crisis and tricked me into coming back to the States.

“Noah, the Brooks family raised you. We need a marriage of convenience. If you won’t marry Julia Greer, you’re ungrateful! You hear me?”

“If Julia hadn’t insisted on you, I’d have pushed your little brother into it already!”

I watched my stepmom rant, my stepbrother glaring with jealousy.

So I ran off—I wasn’t going to marry a woman who didn’t love me.

At that time, Julia had just started running Greer Industries. No one respected her—not even her own family.

She found me. “Noah, the Brooks family needs money. I need a marriage of convenience. I need your help.”

To pay the Brooks family back, I agreed. What else could I do?

For three years, I helped Julia secure her place in the Greer family. Three years of silence.

All that time, she stayed cold and distant. We barely said a word to each other. How could she possibly like me? No way.

[Hehe, the heroine bought new underwear for the backup, but the dense guy still hasn’t noticed.]

[Noah is as clueless as a brick—everyone knows it. Our Mason is way sharper. By the way, Mason just joined the heroine’s company. Can’t wait for their first meeting!]

[Yeah, sharp—real sharp. First day on the job, he tripped over himself ten times, flirted with three coworkers, and tossed out the financial reports by mistake. What a lovable airhead.]

[Hahaha, finally someone said it. The male lead’s teen fans are so aggressive, no one else dares say a word.]

[Maybe it’s a regional thing. Where I’m from, we don’t call airheads male leads.]

[Hey, those are my words!]

[...]