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Chapter 2

Autor: Much Better
I suddenly laughed. "What kind of gift?"

"I don't know. Paige didn't tell me." Jared paused, then added, "But she said you'll definitely love it."

I leaned against the wardrobe, gripping my phone.

"Fine, she can be my bridesmaid."

There was a moment of silence on the other end, as if he hadn't expected me to agree so readily.

"I'll let her know then."

He was about to hang up, but I stopped him. "Jared."

"Yeah?"

"Did you mute me on Instagram?"

He went quiet for a few seconds. "I've been really busy lately, so I haven't had the time to look at my phone."

Hearing that, I sneered inwardly. He had used that excuse a thousand times. But I didn't bother arguing. Instead, I just hung up.

I opened Instagram. My latest post from yesterday stared back at me.

"I ended things with Jared. Ten years, and this is where it ends."

The comments section had exploded, but I didn't reply to anyone.

I tapped into my direct messages. Paige had just sent me two photos. One was a picture of a pair of pearl earrings, and the other was a screenshot of her chat with Jared.

"I'm getting these earrings for Heather. Quick, tell me if they're pretty!"

"Anything you pick is bound to be pretty."

"So, does this count as a gift I helped you choose?"

"Yep. Tell me one time in the past ten years you didn't help me pick out every single gift I've ever given her."

Seeing this, I suddenly felt utterly pathetic.

All those gifts I thought Jared had put genuine thought into were just another woman doing the choosing for him. It was Paige who told him the things I thought he'd remembered about me. It was Paige who reminded him of the little details I thought he'd quietly noticed on his own.

Ten years together, and it turned out I was just a joke from start to finish.

Seeing that I hadn't replied, Paige sent another message.

"Do you like your wedding gift?"

I thought for a moment, then typed back, "I have a gift for the two of you as well."

After sending it, I deleted the chat. Then, I opened my contacts and found Austin Hubbard's name.

"You free? Let me take you out to eat."

He replied instantly, "You?"

"Yeah, me."

"That's a surprise. Aren't you supposed to be getting married?"

"We broke up."

I compiled all of Jared and Paige's chat logs and handed them over to Austin. He was a computer whiz, and there were some things only he could do.

It was nearly 11:00 pm by the time I finished dinner with Austin. He walked me back, but we unexpectedly ran into Jared—who had apparently come back early from his business trip—downstairs by my apartment building.

When he saw Austin behind me, Jared frowned slightly. "What are you doing with him?"

"We had dinner together."

Jared pressed his lips together, remaining silent as he took my hand and led me upstairs. The moment we stepped inside, he dropped my hand and demanded in a hostile tone, "What's the meaning of your Instagram post?"

Oh. So he only rushed back because he finally saw my Instagram post.

I shrugged, entirely indifferent. "It means exactly what it says."

"All because Paige wants to be your bridesmaid? I already told you she means well."

Instead of arguing, I turned and walked into the bedroom.

When I came back out, Jared was no longer in the living room; the sound of running water echoed from the bathroom. His suitcase sat wide open in the middle of the living room, haphazardly stuffed with clothes, documents, and several exquisitely wrapped gift boxes.

I opened the first one. It was a set of high-end skincare products.

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  • A Joke Proved He Never Loved Me   Chapter 11

    Jared stood up and walked to the door."Heather, I didn't do those things because I actually cared that much about Paige," he pleaded. "I was just trying to make up for the regrets of my youth. It's like when a person knows their time is short, and they suddenly want to do all the things they never got around to when they were young."I looked him dead in the eye. "Here's what you don't get—while you were so busy making up for what you missed, you ended up throwing away what you actually had."He froze. Before he could speak, I pushed him out into the hallway and closed the door. He stood outside for a long time. Eventually, the faint sound of his footsteps faded down the hall. I leaned my back against the door and took a long, deep breath. The tears finally fell. I wasn't crying out of sadness, but because a profound sense of relief washed over me—I had finally let him go.My phone buzzed with a WhatsApp message from Austin."Do you want to go watch the sunrise at Seacester A

  • A Joke Proved He Never Loved Me   Chapter 10

    And now, after doing all that, Jared was telling me that I was the one he wanted to marry?"I think there's really nothing left for us to talk about anymore," I said."What will it take for you to forgive me?" he asked."I don't need to do that, because there's nothing to forgive between us. We're simply done."With that, I ended the call.Austin stood nearby, quietly watching me. Taking a deep breath, I slipped my phone back into my pocket and returned to browsing the shelves.Jared didn't give up. The evening he finally tracked me down, I was in my hotel room putting away the things I'd bought at the supermarket. When a knock sounded at the door, I assumed it was Austin. But the moment I pulled it open, I froze. It was Jared. He looked terrible. His hair was a mess, and he was still wearing his suit from the wedding. His tie was missing, and the top two buttons of his shirt were undone."Finally, I found you. I called over 30 hotels in Southville."He really was capable

  • A Joke Proved He Never Loved Me   Chapter 9

    In the hotel room, I lay alone on the bed, staring at the ceiling.Austin had left after dropping me off. He told me to get some rest and said he would be here for me again tomorrow.Turning over, I picked up my phone and disabled airplane mode.Messages flooded in immediately. But instead of Jared, the first notification was a voice message from Paige. I hesitated for a moment but ultimately clicked on it."Heather, you'd better answer me honestly—was it or was it not you who put up that video? Do you know that Mr. Foley is calling off the wedding? He said his family's reputation has been completely ruined!"You did this on purpose, didn't you? You couldn't stand to see Jared happy, so you chose the wedding day of all days to pull something like this. Meet me outside. We're settling this face-to-face."I didn't reply. I simply blocked her number too.Then came a text from Jared. He had switched to a different number just to message me."Heather, I admit I messed up. But you sh

  • A Joke Proved He Never Loved Me   Chapter 8

    "Heather?"Austin's voice pulled me back to the present.I snapped out of my thoughts and replied, "Honestly, I can't really say for sure."Austin didn't press further and immediately switched topics. "What's your plan going forward?""I've already found a job. I just need to go in for onboarding in a few days, and then I'll look for a place to rent.""Why don't you stay at my place for now?"I turned to look at him.He quickly explained, "I have two apartments in Southville. I live in one, and the other is just sitting empty. Since no one's using it anyway, you might as well stay there. It beats letting it go to waste.""Austin, you've already helped me more than enough."He smiled. "This is nothing. Do you have any idea how happy I was when you messaged me on WhatsApp and asked me to look into Jared? You said you'd finally come to your senses—do you know how long I've been waiting for that day?"My heart jolted, as if something had knocked right into it."When you messaged

  • A Joke Proved He Never Loved Me   Chapter 7

    "I only moved to Lunaton because you were there. When you decided to stay in Lunaton after college, I followed you. Now that you're leaving, there's no reason for me to stick around either," Austin explained calmly, as if stating a decision he had made long ago.I asked, "But what if—"He cut me off. "There's no 'but,' and definitely no 'what if.' The reason I waited until today to say anything is that I knew that until you saw Jared for who he really was, you'd only have eyes for him."You couldn't see anyone else at all. If I had rashly told you all this back then, it would have only backfired."He was right.In those ten years, my world had shrunk down to nothing but Jared. For him, I had given up my career, my friends, and myself.I was like a bird locked up in a gilded cage, convinced that it was happiness. I had no idea that somewhere just out of sight, someone had been waiting for me all along."Why are you telling me this now?"Austin dropped his smile and looked at me

  • A Joke Proved He Never Loved Me   Chapter 6

    When the train started moving, I leaned against the window and watched the outline of Lunaton recede little by little.A decade's worth of memories, and I had just walked away from all of it.After I turned my phone back on, notifications flooded in like a tidal wave. There were 23 missed calls from Jared and a barrage of WhatsApp messages."Heather, where the hell are you?""The wedding is ruined. Are you happy now?""Pick up the phone!""I know you're looking at your phone. What was that video all about?""Heather, don't you think you've gone too far?"Instead of replying, I blocked his number.Then came Paige's WhatsApp messages."Heather, have you lost your mind?""Why did you put that video up?""Do you have any idea how humiliated Jared is right now?"I simply blocked her too.There was also a voice message from Nadine—nothing more than a torrent of furious scolding—so I listened for all of three seconds before turning it off.I switched my phone to airplane mode,

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