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I Stepped Aside for Best Friend and My Husband, They Regretted It
I Stepped Aside for Best Friend and My Husband, They Regretted It
مؤلف: Mash Addict

Chapter 1

مؤلف: Mash Addict
Two painfully familiar faces turned toward me at the same time, both wearing expressions of remorse.

After a brief silence, Derek was the first to reach for my hand.

"Sophie, let me explain. I drank too much tonight. I got confused and thought she was you. Please... can you forgive me?"

Nicole's tears spilled instantly. She grabbed my other hand.

"Sophie, don't blame him. I was the one who drank too much and went to sleep in the wrong room..."

"I'm not lying to you! No one would joke about their... first time."

She glanced back at the drop of blood on the bedsheets, biting her lip hard, looking as though she were the one who'd been wronged.

"Sophie, can we just pretend nothing happened?"

The corner of Derek's mouth twitched.

He felt sorry for her.

My heart clenched in response.

Three hours ago, the three of us had been at a restaurant celebrating the bank loan approval. Our pharmaceutical company could finally get off the ground.

It was the dream all three of us had fought for over the past ten years.

Everyone had gotten hopelessly drunk.

I'd passed out on the bathroom floor after throwing up.

When I woke up, I found my husband Derek naked in bed with my best friend Nicole.

From the look of them, it hadn't been their first round that night.

The second-happiest day of my twenty-eight years had turned into hell.

The happiest had been the day I married Derek.

"No. I can't pretend."

I shook off both their hands, sat down at the table, and picked up a pen.

"And I can't forgive you."

Derek started toward me, still trying to argue, but then he saw the words I'd written across the top of the page: MARITAL SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT.

His expression hardened instantly.

"Sophie Archer, we've been together for ten years. I've always treated you well. I've listened to you. I've done everything you asked."

He snatched the pen from my hand.

"We've eaten dollar-menu dinners, lived in run-down apartments, and worked three jobs at a time. When your appendix surgery went wrong and you hemorrhaged, I donated more than a pint of blood! Two years ago, when your fever wouldn't break and the blizzard shut down every cab in town, Nicole carried you all the way to the ER. She damaged her ankle so badly it still aches whenever it rains!"

"Does everything the three of us survived together mean less than one mistake?"
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  • I Stepped Aside for Best Friend and My Husband, They Regretted It   Chapter 10

    Derek wore an expensive suit. The watch on his wrist had to be worth around $30,000.Nicole wore a white mermaid gown and a pearl necklace that clearly wasn't cheap.They looked less like wedding guests and more like they were there to steal the show.Nicole walked up to me with her chin raised and her hips swaying, looking down at me with undisguised contempt.Layers of foundation still couldn't hide the exhaustion on her face."Sophie, turns out you were the most calculating of the three of us.""So that's why you left in such a hurry. You'd already latched onto a rich man. You couldn't even bother to acknowledge an old friend like me. But then again, Derek and I made it on our own. We didn't need to cling to someone else.""Derek and I were invited to a pharmaceutical conference in Washington, D.C. We're on a tight schedule, so we didn't have time to buy a proper gift. But for old times' sake, we thought we'd stop by."Derek's eyes never once left me.He produced a ring from somewhe

  • I Stepped Aside for Best Friend and My Husband, They Regretted It   Chapter 9

    The moment I left, Derek submitted "my" samples to Vincent's center for validation and help with a patent filing.Predictably, they failed the first round of formula verification.When he ran his own analysis, he finally saw how badly the formulas had failed.He texted me: "Sophie, you did that on purpose? Is this your revenge? I know you'd never make such a basic mistake!"I texted back, "Derek, are you saying you stole from me? I took everything when I left. How do you have copies?"He didn't reply.He was probably too guilty to answer.Even with only two ingredients changed, he couldn't reverse-engineer in days what had taken me three years to develop.Nicole had always been the weakest researcher of the three of us, and now all her energy went into clinging to Derek. She couldn't recreate it either.Eventually, Derek gave up. He submitted several colleagues' formulas and a few of his own.Only one passed testing.The patent brought in $30,000.Nowhere near enough to pay back the ma

  • I Stepped Aside for Best Friend and My Husband, They Regretted It   Chapter 8

    The Ashton Biomedical Research Center was one of the country's top independent drug-development facilities. It conducted its own research and ran preclinical validation for companies preparing FDA submissions and patent filings.Only after a drug cleared this level of review could its data package move on to the FDA and support a formal patent application.Even our team's six formulations had been validated at this center."Vincent, you work here?"Vincent shrugged."I run the place. No big deal."He had far more authority than I'd imagined.Vincent brought me to his two-story house. I had the entire second floor to myself.Everything in the room was brand new, and the closet held several outfits that suited my style perfectly."Get some rest for a few days, then straight to work.""I pulled a sample from your shipment and ran a preliminary test. The results are excellent. I'm going to repeat the tests for a few more days, then personally prepare the FDA package and patent filing."He

  • I Stepped Aside for Best Friend and My Husband, They Regretted It   Chapter 7

    I looked up and met Derek's bloodshot eyes.Maybe he'd had too much to drink."None of your business."I pulled free.He grabbed me again, tighter this time."Sophie, we've been separated for one day! The divorce isn't even final!""And you already have someone new?"My temper flared."You got together with someone else while we were still married, and I caught you in bed with her! We're separated now. I'm free to see whomever I want!"The people filing out behind him exchanged stunned whispers."My God, no wonder they went from being so close to announcing a divorce overnight!""So that's what happened... She slept with a married man and took his wife's place? And she has the nerve to brag about it..."The words, though murmured, hit Nicole's ears like needles.She stamped her foot and yanked Derek's arm."I wasn't the other woman. You were. He never loved you!""I've been swallowing my feelings for years and I've had enough!""Derek! Let's go! I refuse to waste another second on this

  • I Stepped Aside for Best Friend and My Husband, They Regretted It   Chapter 6

    Everyone was already seated, looking uncomfortable.The restaurant's usual glassware had been replaced with gold-rimmed champagne flutes.Nicole wore a champagne-colored strapless mermaid gown. Derek's tie matched the gold-and-white decorations.Nicole spotted me and rushed over with exaggerated warmth, looping her arm through mine."Sophie, what took you so long?""I know you and Derek are over, but we're still friends. Make yourself at home. Sit wherever you like."She dragged me to a seat as if she were the hostess of the evening.My chair faced the enormous engagement portrait on the wall.I recognized the gown Nicole wore in it.The year Derek and I went to try on wedding gowns, Nicole had come along, of course.I'd picked one out for her and told her to try it on too.When she came out, she kept staring at me, her eyes red.I asked her what was wrong. She said, "I just realized my best friend is getting married. It hit me that we've suddenly grown up. I got emotional."I hugged h

  • I Stepped Aside for Best Friend and My Husband, They Regretted It   Chapter 5

    I went to the lab on purpose.Evan Harris always grinned when he saw me. "Here comes our star scientist!"Today he just gave me a nod, his eyes darting away. He'd just come out of my research room.I figured Derek had asked him to swap out my work.I played dumb, went along with the ruse, and packed everything up into a cooler as if nothing were wrong.When I walked out carrying my bags, every single person at the lab came to the door."Sophie, where are you headed? Are you staying in Brookhaven?""Sophie, we've fought together since graduation to get to this point. The company loan just came through. We're so close to making it. Where are you going..."My nose stung.A small team of just over a dozen people. We'd worked side by side since the day we graduated college.At the beginning, we'd pooled every dollar we had to rent a cleanroom no bigger than three hundred square feet. We'd built everything from there.It really hadn't been easy.I wiped the corner of my eye and forced a smil

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