Chapter 2

Carissa pushed his hand away and walked over to me. "I can explain, Rose!"

"Oh?" I snickered, though tears were already pooling in my eyes. "What are you going to tell me? That the husband you've been secretly married to for three years isn't him? Or that the child you carried for nine months and gave birth to isn't his?"

Her silence was her confession, and in that instant, the truth laid itself bare.

No wonder she had never introduced us. No wonder there was always that unreadable emotion in her eyes whenever I brought up her husband.

"I'm the one to blame here. If you have a problem, take it out on me!" Landon pulled her behind him, shielding her with his body.

The icy look in his eyes made him feel like a total stranger to me. "She didn't do anything wrong. Don't you dare hurt her!"

We had been together for eight years, and this was the first time Landon had ever defended someone else in front of me.

In the past, no matter what happened, he had always stood firmly by my side. If a shadow of a frown so much as crossed my features, he would cup my face in his hands and do everything he could to make things right.

He would ask, "What's wrong? Who bullied you? Tell me. I'll teach them a lesson right now!"

However, in the end, the person who hurt me the most was the man I had given my heart to.

I took a deep breath, forcing myself to remain calm. My fingers, however, dug into my palms, leaving deep, red indentations. "When did it start?"

Was it when he started staying out all night and hid his social media feed from me? Or was it when he started spacing out during our conversations, completely tuning me out?

Landon shook his head. It was neither.

It had started during that trip the three of us took. I had caught a cold and turned in early, whereas the two of them went out for a drink.

Like a moth to a flame, sparks ignited in an instant. From that night on, he used the guise of picking me up as a convenient excuse to catch a glimpse of Carissa. And just like that, the two of them traded secret glances, keeping their romance hidden from the world.

However, when Carissa found out she was pregnant and panicked, resolving to terminate it, Landon stopped her. Behind my back, he married her and gave her a home. He had given another woman the future I had fantasized about countless times and longed for ages.

I'd stayed by his side for eight years. I'd gone through hell with him, lived in leaky apartments, and split a single piece of bread just to get his career to where it is today. Yet, he still abandoned me without the slightest hesitation.

After learning the truth, a lump formed in my throat. I closed my eyes as an unprecedented helplessness engulfed me.

"Alright," I said.

It was a simple, decisive word, yet it carried far too many tangled emotions.

I was about to leave when Carissa abruptly dropped to her knees in front of me. "I'm the one who wronged you, Rose. I'm the shameless one who seduced him. You can hit me, curse at me, and do whatever you want, but please don't be this calm…"

Her eyes were wild with anxiety, and her voice choked with sobs.

After all, during my darkest bouts of depression, she was the only one by my side. Innumerable times, I would calmly tell her to go home, only to turn around the very next second and cut myself. Even though she hid every sharp object in the house, I always found a way to torture myself.

Terrified, she would always hold me tightly in her arms, tears streaming down her face as she begged me to live on. However, none of that pain even came close to one ten-thousandth of what she had brought me today.

Landon couldn't stand it anymore. His brows knitted as he tried to pull her to her feet.

Yet, Carissa refused to budge. Anchoring herself to the ground, she reached out to take my hand. "I don't want to lose you, Rose. You're my best friend… Don't worry, I'll get a divorce right away and leave with Leo. I'll give you back everything that's yours, okay?"

Her gaze was sincere, similar to the time she had told me she only wanted me to be happy. However, certain lines, once crossed, can never be uncrossed.

Slowly, I pulled my hand away and said flatly, "From this moment on, we are no longer friends, and I have nothing to do with Landon anymore."