Chapter 1

Rory's POV

It felt like something had torn open inside my chest, and the cold was pouring straight through.

Keith Hollister was my closest friend. When I was eight, traffickers grabbed me off the street. Keith held onto the van's door handle and got dragged for half a mile before he pulled me free.

After that, we weren't just friends anymore. We were family.

But I never imagined that Keith, who bickered with my girlfriend, Sasha Belmont, every time they were in the same room, would be the one to betray me.

It took a long time before I found my voice again, raw and barely there. "When did it start?"

"Does it matter?" Sasha leaned back, completely unbothered.

"I was annoyed by him at first too. He was always stealing you away from me. But then he stopped picking fights, and I kind of missed it.

"Don't overthink this. I'm still going to keep my promise. I'll finish my studies, come back, and marry you."

I looked at the expression on her face, that unmistakable glow of someone in love, and something twisted hard in my chest. My whole body trembled.

Before I could explode, Keith rushed over and shoved Sasha aside, grabbing my hands. His were shaking.

"Rory, don't be mad at me. Just say the word and I won't go abroad with Sash."

I forced a smile, but it came out worse than crying.

Sash? What an intimate thing to call her.

But Sasha seemed to have forgotten. When the people who came after her family killed her parents, my dad was the one who dove into the river to save her. She made it out alive, but he didn't.

Even though I was still drowning in my own grief, I comforted her. I stayed by her side through the worst of her depression and helped her come out the other end.

Growing up, the thing Sasha said to me most was, "Rory, I owe you my life. I'll spend the rest of mine taking care of you."

Then Keith came along, and the two of them were constantly fighting over who had more claim to me.

"I was here first. I'm his best friend, so back off!"

"Too bad you're a guy. As long as I'm here, you're irrelevant."

Back then, I was naive enough to believe I was the luckiest person alive. But now the two people who made me that happy had both betrayed me.

The second Keith finished speaking, Sasha's face went dark. "If you even think about backing out, I'll knock you out and drag you with me."

Watching her care about someone else like that sent a sharp ache through my chest. I thought about how she used to go out of her way to provoke Keith after every class, how the whole hallway would ring with the two of them going back and forth.

I told her to stop more than once. She'd always scowl and say, "With that temper of his? I'd have to be blind to fall for him."

And Keith would throw his arm around me and scoff. "She's such a princess. I just can't stand her!"

One time during a track meet, I took a fall and went to the nurse's office. On the way, I caught the two of them slipping out of the equipment room.

Sasha's shirt was hanging open, her skin covered in red marks. Keith's lips were swollen beyond recognition.

They said they got stung by wasps. I believed every word and hobbled around on my bad leg, dabbing iodine on both of them.

The memories sank in like hooks.

They'd already been together back then. I just never saw it.

My fists clenched at my sides. I wasn't ready to let it go. I forced the words out past the tightness in my throat.

"Keith, you knew how much I loved her. How could you do this to me?

"And Sasha, did you forget how my dad died? After everything, how do you two live with yourselves?"

"Rory." Sasha sighed and cupped my face in both hands, her voice soft.

"I told you. I'm going to marry you. Just wait for us to come back. It's only three years."

I looked into her soft eyes and felt nothing but ice in my veins.

Keith trailed after me, nervous. "Rory, don't worry, okay? I'll call you every single day. You can keep tabs on us the whole time."

I gave a faint nod, and they both finally relaxed, laughing between themselves.

"See? I told you Rory isn't petty like you."

"Fine, fine, you're the generous one, Saint Keith."

While they went back to teasing each other, neither of them noticed me looking down at my phone, typing out a message.