Chapter 3

Chase's POV

Halfway down the road, I found my legs giving out. I stumbled and nearly hit the ground.

Thankfully, my neighbor, Fiona Sadler, caught me in time. She saw the sweat on my forehead and took one of the suitcases from my hand.

"Hey, Chase. Where are you off to?" she asked casually. "I'm free anyway. Might as well get some exercise."

I gave her a grateful smile, and the two of us walked side by side.

The next second, I locked eyes with Cecilia. Her gaze was icy, and she looked between Fiona and me for two seconds before walking straight past us.

I sighed in relief, but only for a second. After a few steps, Cecilia suddenly turned back, snatched the suitcase from Fiona's hand, and glared at me. "Where does this need to go?"

A strange feeling rose in my chest. I gave Fiona an apologetic smile before following Cecilia to the shipping office.

As she watched me fill out the form, she suddenly said, "Don't go around flirting with other women. Have some self-respect."

My pen stopped mid-stroke. Frankly, her words made me sick.

Cecilia could fool around with other men with no consequences, yet somehow, she thought she had the right to humiliate me for simply speaking to another woman.

I ignored her and kept my head down, continuing to fill out the form.

She wasn't amused. That strange feeling she had these past few days refused to go away. Suddenly, she realized I hadn't spoken to her in a long time.

Usually, I couldn't seem to stay quiet. I was always chattering away beside her, finding one thing after another to talk about.

Cecilia's throat felt strangely dry. For the first time, she actually asked about me. "What did you send home? Why didn't you tell me anything?"

"Just some things I don't need anymore," I said flatly, just finishing filling out the form.

Clearly, she wasn't satisfied with my answer. She parted her lips, but no words came out.

Out of the blue, Harry came running over and wrapped an arm around her. "Come on. Lola wants to hang with us!"

Cecilia's expression softened at once. She was just about to turn around when something struck her. She grabbed my arm. "Come with us. What are you going to do sitting at home all day?"

I almost laughed at that. She acted as if she had wanted me anywhere near her social circle.

Once, I couldn't stand being left behind and insisted on going with them. The moment we arrived, everyone took turns getting me drunk, as if they had all agreed on it beforehand.

By the end of the night, I was completely drunk, sprawled half-dressed in a flower bed by the roadside. Countless strangers took pictures of me and posted them online, calling me a pervert and an exhibitionist.

I fell into a severe depression afterward.

Then, one day, when Cecilia thought I was asleep, I overheard her conversation with Harry on the balcony. "Your plan worked perfectly. He's finally stopped bothering us."

"Don't blame yourself," he said. "He's the one with no sense of boundaries, always clinging to us like a damn leech."

My thoughts snapped back to the present. Before I knew it, Cecilia had already dragged me into the car. Harry shot me an unhappy look, his disdain more than obvious.

Not long after, we arrived at a party. The two of them walked inside hand in hand, their fingers tightly intertwined.

Lola Kelce and her best friends came out to greet us. "Finally! We've been waiting for you two. We even prepared a surprise. You two are going to…"

She stopped halfway when she noticed me. A flicker of awkwardness crossed her mischievous eyes. "Chase, you're here, too. Welcome!"

I could tell she was only being polite.

"You guys have fun. I'm going to catch a movie."

Before I could turn around, Cecilia grabbed me. "You're already here. Come on. Don't be so petulant."

Ignoring my struggle, she pulled me into a private room. Inside, Harry happened to press play on the surprise Lola prepared. It was a montage of Cecilia and Harry's past year together.

There were clips of them strolling hand in hand along the beach, shots of them dancing together in a crowd… They had even put on bridal and groom wear and posed goofily for the camera.

Someone shouted from behind the camera, "So, when are you two going to make it official?"