Chapter 2

Seraphina POV

“What’s going on here?”

I demanded the second my hips hit the cushions of the sofa.

Across from me, two pairs of eyes locked onto mine with an unsettling, heavy weight. The air in the room felt thick, suffocatingly tight.

“Phina, it—” Derek started, cutting himself off with a sharp intake of breath, his jaw clenched.

“You never liked me in the first place,” he said, his voice rising. “It felt like I was just some sort of garbage you were managing.”

Garbage?

Managing?

What the absolute, mind-bending fuck was going on? Where on earth was this coming from?

Panic mixed with sheer disbelief fluttered in my chest. I whipped my head toward Marina, searching her face for an explanation, a joke, a sign that this was a hidden camera prank.

Instead, a dry, mocking chuckle slipped past her lips as she met my gaze with cold indifference.

“It happened, Sera. Deal with it,” she rolled her eyes, leaning back against the cushions like she was talking about the weather.

I blinked, my brain violently short-circuiting as I tried to process her words.

“What the fuck did you just say?” I raised a brow, my voice dropping an octave.

She sighed pinching the bridge of her nose , as if I was the unreasonable one right now. Slowly, deliberately, she raised her left hand.

My gaze dropped, landing on a flash of silver and diamond catching the light on her ring finger. I bit down hard on my lower lip, completely paralyzed, my mind refusing to bridge the gap between what I was seeing and reality.

“And?” I forced out, my voice dangerously flat. She threw her hands up, frowning deeply. “Are you not getting it, or you’re just genuinely dumb.”

Okay. Would someone, anyone, please tell me what the hell was happening?

When did she start talking to me this way? No—when did she start acting like this at all?

“Look. Derek and I hooked up about two months ago,” she said, dropping the bomb like it was nothing. “We both realized we actually like each other, so we got engaged. And... we’re expecting.”

Expecting?

Hooked up?

Two months ago?

My head snapped toward Derek.

Two months ago?

Wasn't that the exact same month we made things official? Wasn't that the exact month I finally said yes after he wore me down with a full year of relentless pursuit?

“Stop looking at him like that!” Marina’s voice cracked through the silence, sharp and defensive.

I whipped back to her, my chest tightening. “So, you two...” I pointed a trembling finger back and forth between them.

“Like, are a thing? You both started the exact same month we started?” The word we tasting like ash in my mouth.

“Yeah,” she muttered defiantly.

“Why?” I whispered, the absurdity of it all crashing down.

I never wildly fell head over heels for him. I didn’t write poetry about him.

But I did give us a chance. I stepped out of my comfort zone, shot my shot, and let my guard down because I wanted someone in my corner—someone I thought wouldn't walk away.

And instead, he was cheating on me with my own ride-or-die from day one?

“You could have told me, you both should have said something,” I muttered, a sudden wave of blistering stupidity washing over me.

I would have withdrawn.

I swear down.

Can I really live a life without Marina or him? Derek used to be the one person I’d lean on if Marina wasn’t there and now these?

Becoming a surrogate for my first love and now them? I wipe the tears falling from my face violently.

All those weeks of telling myself Derek is a nice guy, all those reassurances that Marina is my sister, she’s cool, she’s got my back—was it all a sick joke?

“You both played me like a fool,” I said, my voice shaking as the betrayal finally clawed its way up my throat, tearing at my ribs. “I came to you with everything, Marina. I poured my heart out to you about him in this very room. And yet you sat there and didn't utter a single word about you two?”

I stared at her, waiting for a shred of guilt, an ounce of remorse.

Anything to prove the girl I had known for years was still somewhere beneath that cold exterior.

“Seraphina, I really didn’t mean to break you this way, I swear,” Derek chimed in, a pathetic ping of grief in his voice.

“But you have to remember... I chased you for a whole year before you finally agreed. And when you did agree, what were you even like? Cold. Distant. Like you were doing me a massive favor.”

I stared at him, my mouth parting slightly.

“What was I like? Tell me,” I challenged, ice-cold anger instantly surging up and drowning out the hurt, his lips smacking shut.

“Stop trying to rage-bait him!” Marina snapped, leaping to his defense like a loyal guard dog.

I took a deep, shuddering breath, aggressively blinking back the hot tears of frustration pricking my eyes.

Slowly, I pushed myself off the sofa, standing tall to shake off the pathetic weight of the room.

Marina watched me stand, her eyes narrowing before she sneered, “And honestly, why did you even come over here this late anyway? And soaked? Did your wrecked-up family start the usual drama again?”

I froze. My brow shooting high it might have practically vanished into my hairline.

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” I demanded, the temperature in the room dropping.

She just offered a casual shrug.

I stood there for a second, inhaling deeply to keep myself from grabbing a lamp and launching it straight across the room.

I looked at Derek, whose eyes suddenly dropped to the floor, too cowardly to meet mine. Then I looked back at Marina, watching the cruel, petty stranger wearing my best friend's face.

A low, humorless chuckle slipped past my lips.

Not wasting another breath, not giving them the satisfaction of another tear or another argument, I turned on my heel, walked straight to the door, and slammed it shut behind me.