Chapter 1 Everyone Knew but Me

Kellan's POV

The arcade was filled with noise and laughter, but I could barely hear any of it. Everything around me felt distant, as though I were trapped behind a wall of glass.

I didn't snap out of my daze until Kian walked over and nudged my shoulder. "Hey, Kellan. What's the matter?"

The game on the screen was still waiting for us to start. Green lights flashed across my face, making it easier to hide how pale I'd become.

I shook my head and handed his phone back. "Nothing. I'm just going to the bathroom."

Kian immediately caught my arm, looking strangely nervous. "Want me to come with you?"

Just minutes ago, I'd thought of him as the best friend anyone could ask for. Now, even his concern made me sick.

I forced a smile. "Oh, come on. I'm just going to the bathroom. You don't trust me to handle that on my own?"

Guilt flickered across his face before he let go with an awkward chuckle. "Of course I do. Just don't take too long."

I nodded, then turned and walked away.

Instead of heading to the bathroom, I slipped out of the arcade, went downstairs, and hailed a taxi.

Just as I got out of the taxi, my phone rang.

It was Elsie.

I ignored the call and opened my call history instead. As I scrolled through the screen, I realized she'd been calling me almost every half hour.

I'd once teased her about being overly protective, but she pulled me into her arms and told me how terrified she was of losing me again.

"Kellan, I need to know you're safe. I can't relax unless I hear it from you myself."

The doctors had warned me that Elsie struggled emotionally after my accident. They even said that if anything happened to me again, she might not be able to handle it.

That was why I never ignored her calls. Even when she called more than a dozen times a day, I always answered and told her where I was.

I'd thought she was doing it because she loved me. Now, I understood she only wanted to track my whereabouts so she and Jude could meet without getting caught.

The ringing finally stopped, only for my phone to light up again seconds later. This time, I answered.

"Kellan! Where are you?" Elsie's frantic voice came through the phone. "Kian said you went to the bathroom and never came back! He's been looking everywhere, but he can't find you!"

I held back the tears in my eyes. "It was getting stuffy in there, so I stepped outside for some air."

A brief silence fell before Elsie spoke again, her voice thick with emotion. "Okay, Kellan. Please don't scare me like that again. Where are you? I'll have Kian come pick you up."

I stood outside the apartment building, staring up at the tightly drawn curtains on the sixth floor.

Before I could respond, a soft, breathless moan came through the phone, followed by a man's faint groan. My whole body went cold, and the call ended abruptly.

I doubled over, dry heaving and retching until my stomach cramped painfully. I could barely breathe. Just as I managed to straighten up, two familiar figures emerged from the building.

One was Jude Johnston, the man who'd run me over three years earlier. The other was Elsie, clinging affectionately to his arm.

I stood frozen as she rose onto her toes and kissed him gently on the lips.

"Kellan will be back soon," she said softly. "I'll come visit you tomorrow, okay? I'm sorry you have to put up with all this, Jude."

Jude slipped an arm around her waist and shook his head. "It's okay. I was the one who fell for you back then. I got jealous and lost my head, and that's why I ran him over."

My breath hitched.

Jude continued, "But you never blamed me. His parents even wrote a letter asking the court to go easy on me because I was still young. I already owe Kellan so much for what I did. I don't deserve to ask for anything more."

I stared at him in disbelief as the truth finally sank in.

Jude hadn't hit me by accident.

He'd deliberately run me over out of jealousy, leaving me in a coma for three years. Yet while I'd been lying unconscious in a hospital bed, everyone I loved had already forgiven him. I was the only one who'd been kept in the dark.

I bit the inside of my cheek so hard I nearly drew blood.

Elsie wrapped her arms around Jude, looking at him with a tenderness I'd once believed was reserved for me.

"I'll take you home first—"

Before she could finish, Kian came running toward them. "Elsie! Kellan's gone! I can't find him anywhere!"

Elsie's expression changed instantly. The affection on her face vanished, replaced by the same desperate panic I'd seen countless times whenever she feared something might have happened to me.

She shoved Jude away and grabbed Kian by the arm. "I gave you only one job! All you had to do was keep an eye on him! How could you lose him?"

Her face twisted with fury, and for a moment, she looked almost frightening.

I watched her in silence.

Without seeing the group chat or hearing Jude's confession, I might have mistaken her reaction for love and believed she was terrified of losing me because I meant everything to her.

But now, I knew better.

Before any of them could turn and notice me, I lowered my head and walked away quietly.