Chapter 3

The next day, I returned to the company to complete the handover.

My coworker, Sophie Bennett, came over and asked, “Amelia, did you really break up with Nathaniel?”

I nodded.

She looked indignant. “Good. Nathaniel is such a jerk. Just now, Isla started dry-heaving a few times, and he immediately panicked, scooped her up, and rushed her to the hospital.”

My fingers paused over the keyboard. “Dry-heaving?”

She nodded repeatedly. “Yeah. Everyone’s saying that, judging by the way she was acting, Isla is probably pregnant.”

She glanced around before lowering her voice.

“Amelia, I know she’s your best friend, but she’s never really treated you like one. She and Nathaniel have been involved for a long time. Isla originally didn’t meet the hiring requirements, but Nathaniel was willing to accept lower compensation just to bring her into the company. But when you joined, he didn’t say a word about it…”

I swallowed the bitterness in my chest and forced a smile.

“So it wasn’t a campus recruitment offer…”

She shook her head, looking at me sympathetically. “Of course not. HR told me personally.

“You’re a designer who’s won major design awards, yet you’ve been stuck working the front desk here. You deserve better. Come on, let’s get your things packed.”

Sophie’s eyes reddened as she helped me gather my belongings.

I hadn’t wanted to move to Brookhaven in the first place, but Nathaniel and Isla had both persuaded me.

They said we had all received offers from the same company and could look out for one another.

They hadn’t exactly lied.

They really had been looking out for each other.

Just not in the way I thought.

They had spent eight years sleeping together at the same programming company where I had worked all this time.

I had stayed there for eight years, yet my belongings didn’t even fill a single box.

Just like the home I had shared with Nathaniel for eight years, my things couldn’t even fill a twenty-inch suitcase.

Nathaniel had been right.

I was stupid. I was an idiot.

Anyone with eyes could have seen what was happening, yet I refused to accept it until I received that hotel booking notification.

Because back in college, Isla would stuff a heat pack into my hands whenever my stomach hurt too badly.

Whenever I was too nervous to enter a design competition, she would throw an arm around my shoulders and boldly declare, “Our Amelia is the best!”

Whenever I worried about whether I would pass my final interview, she would pat her chest and promise, “With Nathaniel and me looking out for you, no one will dare bully you!”

Her eyes had been so sincere whenever she said those things.

So even later, I could never have imagined that the person who would hurt me the deepest would be my best friend.

I hated what she had done.

But more than a decade of friendship had been real once.

Clutching the cardboard box, I stumbled into the hospital room, only to find them embracing with their backs to me.

Isla’s voice trembled as she pleaded, her eyes red.

“Nathaniel, let’s get rid of the baby. Amelia has already planned our wedding. We can’t keep doing this…”

Nathaniel hurriedly cut her off.

“No! Being with her has only ever been an act. You’re the one I truly love.

“When her parents came for the first time, I wanted to tell her everything, but you kept stopping me. Now that this baby has come along, maybe we can…”

The door slammed open.

I stood in the doorway, my face pale.

“You two hid this from me because you were certain I was too stupid to figure it out?”

Nathaniel suddenly turned around, his entire body going rigid.

His mouth hung slightly open as he stared at me.

Isla hurriedly tugged at his arm.

“Quick! Explain it to Amelia!”

But Nathaniel continued staring straight at me.

“Now that you know, maybe it’s for the best. I’ve been tired of hiding it from you for a long time.”

“Nathaniel!

“Don’t say that!”

Isla grabbed his sleeve, her eyes red as she looked at me, practically on the verge of tears.

“Amelia, please listen to me. It was an accident, really… I’ll get rid of the baby. I’ll go far away and never bother you again. Please don’t be angry with me, okay?”

The moment he saw her cry, Nathaniel panicked.

He pulled her into his arms and gently comforted her.

“Isla, don’t cry. It’s not your fault that I don’t love her.

“Seeing you cry like this breaks my heart.”

The two of them stood before me, one crying and the other comforting her.

I never knew my ex could be so good at comforting someone.

Too bad that in ten years of being together and eight years of living together, not once had he shown me this kind of tenderness or compromise.

Yet he had given it to my best friend time and time again.

Amid the whispers around me, I felt tears welling in my eyes again.

But I quickly wiped them away.

I took several steps back.

“Isla, Nathaniel and I are already over. Whatever happens between the two of you has nothing to do with me.”