Chapter 4

Ryan posted a photo of Hannah wearing the ring online.

In it, she was leaning against Yates, the custom ring he'd had made for her clearly visible on her finger.

It didn't take long for people to dig up the rest.

Yates and I had been together for five years. And at Hannah's engagement party, I had been the one who put his hand in hers and asked him to pretend to be her boyfriend.

The backlash against Hannah was immediate. Everyone accused her of betraying the friend who had helped her and stealing my boyfriend.

As the scandal grew, Yates showed up with his PR team.

He handed me a prepared statement.

According to their version of events, Yates and I had ended our relationship amicably long ago, and I had personally brought him and Hannah together at the engagement party.

Hannah came out completely clean.

I became the unhinged ex who couldn't let go, harassed her former boyfriend, and maliciously smeared her own best friend.

Yates sat across from me.

"Sign this and record a short video. Once you do that, this whole thing goes away."

"Why am I the one apologizing?"

His brows drew together.

"Hannah doesn't handle this kind of pressure well. You know she's only just started getting over what happened with her engagement.

"She can't handle having the entire internet attack her like this."

There it was again.

Hannah couldn't handle it, so I was supposed to carry every humiliation for her.

To make the statement more convincing, the PR team wanted every trace of Yates deleted from my social media.

He held out his hand.

"Tessa, give me your phone."

I unlocked it and handed it over.

For five years, every photo I'd posted of us had been one he'd picked himself. Every public caption had been written by him, usually with my phone in his hand.

On our first anniversary, he'd posted:

[Thank you, Ms. Xavier, for walking into the rest of my life.]

On our third:

[Once I've chosen someone, that will never change.]

On my birthday last year, he'd posted a photo of the keys to our new home.

[The position of Mrs. Grant belongs to Tessa Xavier and no one else.]

Back then, he'd said there was no reason to hide our relationship. If he'd had his way, the whole world would have known I was his girlfriend.

Now he was holding that same phone and deleting five years of photos and promises, one post at a time.

The last picture was of the three of us before Hannah's engagement party.

I stood in the middle with one arm linked through Yates's and the other around Hannah.

Yates stared at it for two seconds.

Then he opened the crop tool and cut me out, leaving only himself and Hannah.

One of the PR staff handed me the prepared script.

The livestream began.

I read exactly what they had written.

"Yates Grant and I ended our relationship a long time ago.

"At the engagement party, I was the one who introduced him to Hannah.

"Hannah never interfered in our relationship."

By the time I finished, my hand was trembling so badly around the paper that one corner nearly cut into my fingertip.

A tear fell onto the words "harassing my ex," but I didn't dare wipe it away.

The camera was still on me.

So I sat there and personally turned five years of love into a story where I was the shameless woman intruding on theirs.

Comments flooded the screen almost immediately.

Some said I had finally admitted the truth. Others called me vicious. Some demanded that I apologize to Hannah.

One of the PR staff leaned closer and reminded me quietly, "Ms. Xavier, there's still one final line."

Hannah finally broke down.

"That's enough."

"We can't keep making Tessa take the blame for me."

Yates just looked at me.

"You're stronger than she is. It's one sentence. Say it, and this is over."

I looked at Hannah. She was wearing my pajamas, living in my bedroom, and wearing the ring Yates had custom-made for her. Yet there she stood with tears in her eyes, as if she were the one who'd been hurt.

My voice came out soft.

"Hannah, I'm sorry."

In the end, the person who had been betrayed stood in front of everyone and apologized to the people who had betrayed her.

Once the livestream ended, public opinion flipped almost immediately.

Hannah went from the woman who stole her best friend's boyfriend to the victim of a malicious smear campaign.

And I became the crazed ex who couldn't let go, harassed her former boyfriend, and spread lies about her best friend.

Yates visibly relaxed.

Hannah, however, couldn't handle the emotional strain. She ran out of the press conference in tears, and Yates immediately went after her.

Before leaving, he even turned back to tell me, "Go home and wait for me.

"Once I've settled Hannah down, I'll come back tonight, and we'll talk about us."

He had just erased every public trace of our five years together and forced me to admit that he was nothing more than my ex.

Yet he was still completely certain I would return to the home where Hannah had taken over our bedroom and wait for him.

I did go back.

But only to collect the last of my things.

When Yates came home late that night, my closet was empty.

The guest room had been cleared out completely.

My shoes were gone from the entryway. My toothbrush was gone from the bathroom.

The only thing left on the table was the statement he'd personally handed me.

Beneath my signature, I'd added one line.

[As of today, this statement officially takes effect.]

At that same moment, Hannah's phone lit up.

It was a scheduled message I'd arranged in advance.

[I saw your post the day you said you didn't want to give him back.]

[Now he's yours.]