The Betrayal

ADELINE'S POV

I devoted six years of my life to the only man I had ever loved, my ex-boyfriend, Chris Blackwood.

The diamond ring sparkled under the auditorium lights as Chris dropped to one knee in front of over five hundred people.

My heart stopped after six years together, he was finally proposing.

Then he turned away from me and faced Caroline.

"Caroline Hayes, will you marry me?"

The world shattered.

I stood three feet away, my graduation cap still in my hands, watching my boyfriend of six years propose to my best friend.

"YES!" Caroline screamed, throwing her arms around his neck.

The crowd erupted in applause like they were watching a romantic movie instead of my complete destruction.

I couldn't move or process what I was seeing.

"Wait." My voice came out broken. "Chris, what are you—"

He stood up with Caroline's hand in his, the ring glittering on her finger, and finally looked at me.

"Sorry, Adeline. You weren't supposed to see this yet. We were going to tell you after graduation."

"Tell me what?" Tears streamed down my face. "That you've been cheating on me? That everything was a lie?"

"Cheating?" Caroline laughed, actually laughed. "Oh sweetie, you can't cheat on someone you were never really with."

The crowd had gone silent now, everyone watching like this was better than the actual graduation ceremony.

"What are you talking about? We've been together for six years!"

"No." Chris stepped closer, his voice cold. "I've been using you for six years. There's a difference."

The words hit like a physical blow.

"Using me?"

"You had three jobs, Adeline. I had tuition to pay. Caroline and I needed someone to fund our education." He shrugged like it was obvious. "You were convenient."

My knees went weak. "You're lying."

"Am I?" Caroline pulled out her phone. "Want to see the photos? We've been together for three years. Every night you worked double shifts so Chris could 'study', he was in my bed."

She turned the screen toward me.

Photo after photo. Chris and Caroline kissing on dates, in bed together. Time-stamped over three years.

"No." I shook my head. "You told me you loved me. You said after graduation we'd—"

"I said whatever I needed to say to keep you working." Chris's voice was brutal. "You were so desperate for love after your parents died that you'd believe anything. It was pathetic how easy you made it."

Someone in the crowd gasped.

"Don't bring my parents into this—"

"Why not? They're the reason you're so broken." Caroline stepped closer, her voice venomous. "Your parents died in that car crash trying to get away from you, didn't they? Taking a vacation to escape their disappointing daughter even they couldn't stand being around you."

The auditorium went dead silent.

"That's not true," I whispered, but my voice had no strength.

"Tell me, Adeline." Caroline's smile was cruel. "When was the last time anyone chose you? Your parents left. Your boyfriend used you. Your best friend betrayed you." She tilted her head. "Maybe the problem isn't us. Maybe the problem is you're fundamentally unlovable."

"That's enough." An older woman pushed through the crowd. "You've made your point."

"Have I?" Caroline looked at me. "Because I don't think Adeline understands yet that she's nothing. She's always been nothing. A charity case who worked dead-end jobs with zero future. Without us, she'd still be completely alone with nothing to live for."

"I gave you everything." My voice cracked. "I skipped meals so Chris could eat. I donated blood for money so you could buy textbooks. I worked myself to exhaustion—"

"And Chris used that blood money to take me to dinner at that Italian place you always wanted to try." Caroline's smile was vicious. "The pasta was delicious, by the way."

The crowd gasped again. Then someone laughed.

Then everyone was laughing.

"You're monsters." Tears poured down my face.

"We're realists." Chris put his arm around Caroline. "You should be thanking us, actually. We gave you purpose for six years because without us, you'd have had nothing to work for."

"I hate you." The words tore from my throat. "I hate both of you so much—"

Caroline's hand cracked across my face.

The slap echoed through the silent auditorium.

My cheek burned from the slap and I tasted blood where my teeth had cut my lip.

"You don't get to hate us." Caroline's voice was ice. "You don't get to feel anything except grateful. We gave you six years of thinking you mattered. That's more than you deserved."

She grabbed the microphone from the podium.

"Everyone, can I have your attention?" Her voice carried across the auditorium. "I just want to publicly thank Adeline Monroe for sponsoring mine and Chris's education these past six years. Without her working three jobs and donating blood for money, we wouldn't be standing here today as graduates and an engaged couple."

The crowd's laughter was deafening.

"So thank you, Adeline." Caroline's smile was radiant. "For being exactly as stupid and desperate as we needed you to be."

She handed the microphone back and turned away like I didn't exist anymore.

I stood there in front of five hundred people who'd watched my destruction like entertainment.

My phone buzzed.

Caroline: Your stuff is outside the apartment. We're changing the locks. Don't come back.

Another text. A photo of Chris and Caroline in bed together, naked, smiling at the camera.

Caroline: Thanks for paying for the ring. It's exactly what I wanted.

Something inside me broke completely.

I turned and ran, pushed through the crowd while they laughed and took videos on their phones.

I burst through the auditorium doors into the freezing night.

I kept running until I couldn't breathe anymore.

Until I collapsed against a brick wall in an alley, sobbing so hard I thought I'd break apart.

My parents were dead, Chris had used me for six years and caroline had betrayed me.

And five hundred people had watched it happen and laughed.

I had nothing, no one and nowhere to go.

I pulled out my phone to call someone, anyone, then realized I had no one to call.

Caroline had been my only friend. Chris had been my only family after my parents died.

I was completely alone.

A bar sign glowed across the street. Expensive looking. The kind of place I'd never been able to afford because every dollar went to supporting Chris.

I had twenty-three dollars in my wallet. My last twenty-three dollars in the world.

I walked across the street and pushed open the heavy door.

The bar was dark, elegant, filled with people in expensive clothes who'd never been humiliated in front of five hundred people.

I sat at the bar and the bartender approached.

"What can I get you?"

"Whiskey." My voice was hoarse from crying. "The strongest you have."

He poured without comment. I downed it in one swallow.

The burn felt better than the pain in my chest.

"Another."

By the fifth drink, the room was spinning.

By the eighth, I couldn't feel my face.

"You're going to make yourself sick." The bartender's voice sounded far away.

"I want to forget." Tears streamed down my face. "I want to forget this entire night existed."

"That's not how it works—"

Strong fingers wrapped around my wrist, stopping me from reaching for another glass.

"That's enough."

I turned and found myself staring into grey eyes that burned through me like fire.

A man sat beside me. Tall, expensive suit, dark hair, face so beautiful it almost hurt to look at.

"Let me go." I tried to pull my wrist free.

"You're going to kill yourself drinking like this."

"Good. Maybe I want to."

"Bad night?" he asked quietly.

"The worst night of my life." I finally yanked my wrist free. "Not that it's any of your business."

"My fiancée rejected my proposal by showing me the ring on her hand saying a business man asked her out a month before my proposal ." His voice was rough and he looked hurt. "She said she can't continue staying with me that I'm not rich and I can't take care of her and she apologized for not telling me sooner"

"I worked so hard just so I could get her what she wanted, I bought her a car with my first salary and even paid for her mom yearly surgery. We have been dating for the past 4 years and this is how she repaid me? I even neglected my mom for her", he said bitterly, like it was a badge of honor than regret.

I looked at him closely at his expensive watch and custom suit. The kind of face you saw on magazine covers and eyes that looked as destroyed as mine felt.

"My boyfriend proposed to my best friend," I said. "At our graduation in front of over five hundred people after I spent six years working three jobs to put him through college. Then my best friend slapped me and told the entire auditorium I was worthless."

"What???"

"She said my parents died trying to escape me. That I'm unlovable. That I should be grateful they used me because at least I had a purpose." My voice cracked. "Then everyone applauded like destroying me was entertainment."

The stranger's jaw clenched. "They applauded?"

"Like it was a show. Like I wasn't even human."

"Fuck them. Fuck all of them."

We sat in silence for a moment.

"What's your name?" he asked.

"Does it matter?"

"No." His grey eyes burned into mine. "It doesn't."

"Good" I said quietly because I don't want to remember tonight."

"Neither do I." He said

I stood, took a deep breath, and held out my hand. "Want to forget together?"

He stared at my hand, and he in that moment, he knew exactly what I was offering.

I should say no because I knew this was reckless and dangerous and everything I'd never done but I'd spent six years being careful and good. Sacrificing everything for people who'd thrown me away like garbage.

I was done being careful.

I took his hand.

His fingers wrapped around mine, warm and strong.

"I have a room upstairs."

"Then take me there."

We left the bar together. In the elevator, he pinned me against the wall and kissed me hard enough to make me forget my own name.

I kissed him back with six years of rage and pain burning through me.

"I don't even know your name," I gasped between kisses.

"Good." His mouth moved to my neck. "Keep it that way."

The elevator doors opened and he pulled me down the hallway to his room.