I Was Never More Than His Backup Plan

Tessa's POV

Yana Carter hung up immediately.

For a second, it felt as if every drop of blood in my body had turned to ice. My ears rang so loudly I could barely think.

"I'm sorry..."

Yale Jensen was still mumbling in his sleep on the couch. This time, he said my name.

"Tessa... I'm sorry..."

My throat tightened. I looked at the deep crease between his brows and let out a bitter laugh.

Marrying me meant betraying Yana Young, betraying the love he'd carried through his youth.

Sleeping with Yana before our wedding meant betraying me, the woman he was supposed to love.

I went into the kitchen and filled a glass to the brim with cold water. By the time I came back, my hand was shaking so badly the water nearly spilled over the rim.

I threw the entire glass in his face.

"Yale Jensen. Wake up."

Ice-cold water ran through his hair, down his jaw, and soaked into his shirt.

His eyes flew open. Instead of getting angry, he immediately reached for me in a panic.

"I'm sorry, Tessa. I shouldn't have drunk that much. They just kept making me take shots.

"I had a nightmare. I dreamed I overslept and you got mad and went to City Hall without me.

"What time is it...?"

He started looking around for his phone.

Then he saw the letters on the floor by my feet.

Whatever drunken haze had been left in his eyes vanished instantly. He lunged forward and snatched them up.

His voice changed completely, panic and anger spilling through despite his attempt to hold them back.

"Where did you find these? Who told you you could read them?"

I gave a cold laugh, took his phone out of his hand, pulled up the recording of the call, and hit play.

"Yale Jensen! You said you used a condom! How the hell am I pregnant?"

Yana's scream cut through the quiet room.

"You heard her." I stared at him. "How? I'd like to know too."

"Tessa, let me explain..."

He had barely gotten the words out before nausea hit me so hard I had to run for the bathroom.

I bent over the toilet and threw up.

Behind me, Yana's name lit up his phone screen again.

I had always known there was a part of Yale's heart that belonged only to her.

He'd loved Yana for three years. They finally got together after high school graduation, but only lasted two months before she left the country for college and they broke up.

I had first known Yale back in school.

The first time I ever learned his name was when I heard a group of people teasingly call out, "Yale Jensen!"

We didn't actually become close until years later.

After college, once we'd both started working, Yale and I happened to run into each other on the subway. That chance meeting brought an old message thread back to life after years of silence.

We started talking again.

Every now and then, we'd grab dinner or go hiking together.

Then, on my birthday, a few drinks gave me enough courage to joke about the crush I'd had on him back in school.

Three months later, he confessed.

"The Yale Jensen I am now has fallen for twenty-seven-year-old Tessa Sinclair."

Before I gave him an answer, I spent two hours on the phone with Yana.

Yana's voice caught as she reassured me, "Tessa, if you like him, then be with him. I truly want you to be happy."

I had been so moved.

The weight I'd been carrying finally lifted. I thought I wouldn't have to lose either of them. I could keep my best friend and have the man I loved too.

A few days ago, I told her Yale and I were going to City Hall the next day to make our marriage official.

There was silence on the other end for several seconds.

Then, after a long pause, she seemed to snap out of it and laughed.

"Really? That's great, Tessa. Congratulations. I hope you'll be very happy."

At the time, I'd thought she was simply caught off guard.

Now I knew better.

Those few seconds of silence hadn't been surprise at all.

I'd once been so grateful, convinced I had both friendship and love safely in my hands.

Instead, the night before I was supposed to marry Yale, the two of them handed me two "gifts" of their own.

An emotional affair layered on top of a physical one.

The man I loved and my best friend had both betrayed me.

My stomach cramped violently. The pain twisted together with the agony in my chest until I could barely breathe.