Chapter 3

The room was silent.

It felt like a dull blade was lodged inside my skull, and the pain made it hard to breathe.

Then the doorbell rang.

I assumed it was my DoorDash order.

I opened the door.

Natalie stood there holding a food container, as if she'd been waiting for a while.

She didn't give me a chance to react. She walked straight into the apartment.

She openly looked over everything in the place, then smiled and spoke.

"Ethan said you were sick, so I came to check on the patient."

With that, she pulled a dark blue tie out of her bag.

She set it on the table.

"He left in a rush this morning, so I dropped this off for him on my way."

Six years of feelings don't vanish overnight.

Natalie's voice was soft, but it still stirred up more than a few ripples inside me.

"Actually, I came today to apologize."

"If Ethan hadn't kept begging me to play one more round yesterday afternoon, you wouldn't have gotten caught in the rain and gotten sick."

"And you wouldn't have broken up with him in a fit of anger."

Her gaze swept lightly over my face.

"But then again, it's good when a person knows her place. Breaking up sooner is the right call."

"After all, you two have been together all these years, and Ethan never once took you home to meet his parents."

"Yesterday Mrs. Caldwell was chatting with my mom, and they were joking about how Ethan and I were childhood sweethearts who grew up together."

"They said if I don't mind him, we could set a wedding date in a little while. After all, our families know each other inside and out."

Natalie's lips were a frightening shade of red.

Her eyes were like a venomous snake flicking its tongue.

Ready to kill me at any moment.

"Wren, you're a smart woman."

"Better to leave on your own than wait for us to drive you out. Look. Ethan doesn't really love you that much anyway."

Natalie handed me her phone.

The illness had left me dazed and wound tight.

I reached out without thinking.

What filled my vision next was a group chat.

The name was blunt: [Did Ethan and Wren Break Up Today?]

Natalie had created the group.

Ethan was an admin.

The blood in my body seemed to surge out of control as my eyes stopped on messages from six months ago.

[Fam, Wren dumped Ethan AGAIN today. Place your bets!]

[Bet on how many days till they make up.]

[I'm going with five days.]

[Five days is way too long. Someone as shameless as Wren won't last three before she's texting Ethan like a lost puppy.]

Plenty of people had joined the betting.

My fingertip scrolled down, message by message.

Natalie: [I bet seven days!]

Natalie: [Ethan, what do you think?]

Ethan, the man at the center of it all, didn't say much.

He just quoted Natalie's first message and added [+1].

[When have I ever let you lose?]

Ethan had never let Natalie lose.

But he let me lose everything.

My eyes stayed locked on his message, and I couldn't help thinking back to six months ago.

I'd been so happy when I brought up with Ethan whether our relationship could take the next step.

He smiled. "Of course. You set it up."

I set everything up.

But the day before our parents were supposed to meet, he disappeared.

When I finally got him on the phone, he brushed me off carelessly.

"Wren, I forgot to tell my parents about the meeting. They're overseas right now."

Were they really overseas?

At ten o'clock that night,

I saw a photo on Natalie's Instagram of six people at dinner.

Ethan and Natalie stood behind both sets of parents.

The truth was, I had never won.

His friends were right. I was the one who chased after this relationship.

"Done looking?"

Half a yard away,

Natalie's eyes were full of mockery.

She took her phone back, and the motion pulled me out of my memories.

"So what?" I raised my eyes to meet hers. "You came here today because you're afraid things between me and Ethan aren't over for good, right?"

Seeing her thoughts exposed, she stiffened her back.

"I underestimated you."

"But you're not that smart."

She tossed out the words, a flicker of amusement in her eyes. "Guess who Ethan will believe, me or you?"

It happened in an instant.

The glass of cold water Ethan had left on the table was in her grip.

Before I could react, Natalie threw the water in her own face.

The glass fell.

It hit the floor with a dull thud.

At that same moment, the closed front door was pushed open from outside.

I looked up.

My eyes met Ethan's, then moved past him.

When I saw clearly who was standing behind him,

I froze.