Chapter 3

Suddenly, she knelt before me. Hitting her head on a stone, she sobbed, “I already know how sorry I am, Clara. Please don't curse me anymore. I have already gone through a lot. If you curse me to be divorced again, I would rather die than apologize to you.”

"What are you doing?" I gasped, recoiling in horror.

"Clara! Forgive me, please!" she shrieked, her voice echoing off the buildings.

"What the hell is going on here?"

The roar came from behind me. I turned to see Julian sprinting toward us, his face a mask of pure, unadulterated fury. He didn't even look at me as he shoved past, nearly knocking me off my heels to get to the sobbing woman on the floor.

"Elena! My God, are you okay?" He gathered her into his arms, checking her forehead, which was now scraped and bleeding.

"I knew you were cold, Clara, but I didn't think you were pathetic enough to assault your friend in broad daylight," he hissed.

"I didn't ask her to do that. She threw herself down. I didn't ask her to do that pathetic act before me." I spat.

Just then, a couple of phone cameras shifted in our direction as a few passersby happened to be capturing the whole event.

“Isn't that the billionaire, Julian Morgan, and his loving fiancée, Clara, whom he proposed to in a live telecast?”

A voice echoed from them and followed the other, “Who is that girl crying and begging Julian's fiancé? Must have offended her anyway to end up like this.”

“She must have tried to seduce Mr. Morgan and ended up begging Miss Clara like that. What a slut!”

Elena shrieked, listening to the passersby’s judgment. Julian and I had long been public and people adored us watching together. In their eyes, Elena was still a third party, trying to steal my man.

However, just as the cameras flashed towards Elena and people began slandering her, Julian pulled her in his arms, his grip tight and affectionate as he declared, “Elena is my girlfriend. We are soon to be getting married. Whoever offends her is offending me. So, I demand everyone to mind their language.”

Julian's words fell like a bomb, stunning everyone, including me. We had been together for three years, and he didn't even care about my reputation before making his relationship with Elena official.

It was just as he had protected me three years ago against the media. His words still echo in my head ‘I like her. Please don't disturb our peace.’

The love, the adoration, the protectiveness was still the same in his eyes; only one person was replaced.

However, what hurt me the most was how quickly he declared his wedding to Elena. Even after being together with me for three years, he had always avoided the topic of the wedding. He said it was just a formality. Why bother?

But, within three months of being with Elena, he agreed to get married to her.

It seems like he didn't have a problem with getting married; he only had problems with getting married to me.

It was a hard slap on my face, who once thought that since Julian’s actions were so firm and confident, my place in his heart was irreplaceable.

Even Elena, who was earlier begging me, looked up at me and said, “See, Clara. He is ready to marry me. Perhaps you two were never meant to be together. You were just keeping him for me.”

She pointed at the blood stained on the stone and said, “Whatever I owed you, I have repaid you today. I don't care if you resent me or hate me. From now on, you and I are even.”

Elena and Julian were long gone while I continued staring at the blood Elena pointed at. She and I became friends just like that.

After my mother’s death, my father brought another woman to our home, who mistreated me to the point of leaving me scars and wounds.

Elena was the first girl in the school who noticed the abusive environment around me and alerted social services. That's how I escaped my father and stepmother’s cruelty.

After that day, we were inseparable. When I got a scholarship abroad, I worked part-time jobs and called her to live with me just to afford her daily expenses.

The first salary I received from my permanent job, I sent it to Elena's parents to clear the debt they were in because of Elena's extravagant living style.

I never disregarded her for spending too much. I, in fact, helped her financially to maintain her expenses.

Even when Julian proposed to me, I was hesitant. It was she who pushed me to accept his proposal, telling me how gentle a man he was.

When she was getting married, I declined my first vacation with Julian and chose her wedding over our quality time despite knowing how hard he manages time for us to spend some time.

Julian often got mad at me for giving importance to my friend over him and even joked that if he could murder one person, it would be Elena, just to get a competitor out.

His words hit differently when I realised how soon she turned to my competitor from his.

They were once the two most important people in my life, and now they were the two people who had hurt me the most.

But they forgot– to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

I grabbed my phone and dialed a number I hadn't dialed for years.