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Chapter 3

Author: Lily Pears
At lunch, Anders got seasick, and Brielle stayed by his side the entire time.

My stomach hurt so badly I couldn't eat, so I asked the server to bring me some plain oatmeal instead.

Preston laughed. "Clark, what's with you? You're feeling sick now too? Don't tell me you saw Anders getting seasick and decided to copy him."

The others laughed along with him.

Brielle looked up at me. "You've never had a problem on boats before."

"I didn't eat this morning. My stomach hurts a little."

But she had already looked away, handing Anders a glass of warm water. "Then just deal with it for now. Don't make things more difficult."

The server soon brought over a bowl of plain oatmeal.

I had just reached for it when Brielle pushed it toward Anders. "Try to eat a little."

My hand stopped in midair before I slowly pulled it back. I'd ordered that oatmeal, yet no one seemed to think there was anything wrong with what she'd done.

Anders took two bites before complaining that it was too bland. "I don't want any more."

He pushed the half-eaten bowl toward me. "Clark, didn't you say your stomach hurts? You can have it."

He'd already stirred the oatmeal into a mess. In the past, I probably would have eaten it anyway.

After all, Anders would always say, "We're best friends. What's mine is yours."

Brielle would praise me too, "Clark isn't fussy like other people. He's a real man."

But this time, I called the server over. "Could you please take this away?"

Anders's expression stiffened. "I barely touched it. Are you seriously that disgusted by me?"

"I don't eat other people's leftovers."

Brielle's face immediately darkened. "Clark, he feels awful, and he still thought to save the rest for you. Do you really have to embarrass him right now?"

I looked at the five people sitting across from me, and for a moment, everything felt strangely unreal.

All these years, they gave me whatever food they couldn't finish.

If there weren't enough seats at the table, I was the one told to move somewhere else.

If there wasn't enough room in the car, I was the one expected to get a ride on my own.

Whenever they needed someone to take pictures on a trip, that was when they remembered me.

But the moment I stopped going along with them, I was suddenly the problem—too sensitive, too petty, someone who couldn't take a joke.

I lowered my head. "Sorry."

Sure enough, everyone's expressions relaxed.

Duncan smiled. "That's more like it. We're on vacation. Just have fun."

I smiled too, but this time, I wasn't apologizing because I thought I'd done anything wrong. I just couldn't be bothered arguing with them anymore.

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  • The Missing Sixth   Chapter 10

    In the past, I'd waited so long to hear those words.If she'd said them sooner—when they left me behind for the first time, when I first watched the five of them pose for a group photo without me, when I first realized my birthday mattered less to her than Anders's tears—I probably would have gone back.But now, I simply said, "I don't need you to change anymore. Who you love, who you choose, who you stand beside from now on… None of it has anything to do with me."Brielle clenched the ring so tightly that the band dug into her palm, just as it had once dug into mine. "You really don't love me at all anymore?"I was silent for a moment. "I did."Her eyes brightened slightly.But then I added, "Those seven blank cards wore it away, little by little."Brielle didn't leave right away. She stayed in the small town for two weeks.Every day, she showed up at our filming locations. She brought water and checked the vehicles. She quietly took care of all the little things no one notice

  • The Missing Sixth   Chapter 9

    Three months later, Brielle finally heard where I was.I'd moved to a small coastal town up north and joined a documentary crew, photographing artisans in remote communities.She traveled through the night and found me beside an old pier.I was wearing a windbreaker, my hair tousled by the ocean breeze, holding up my camera as I photographed an elderly man weaving a fishing net.Brielle stood in the distance and watched me for a long time. It was the first time she'd ever seen me behind a camera that wasn't pointed at the five of them.I was smiling. Not to humor anyone and not because someone had told me to stop ruining the mood. She hadn't seen me smile that freely in years.When the shoot ended, I turned around and saw her. The smile slowly faded from my face."What are you doing here?"Everything Brielle had rehearsed on the way there suddenly deserted her. It took her a long time to speak."Clark, come home."I shook my head. "This is my job.""You can quit." The answer

  • The Missing Sixth   Chapter 8

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  • The Missing Sixth   Chapter 7

    After her flight landed, Brielle didn't go home. She went straight to my apartment.The door code no longer worked. She knocked for a long time before the landlord finally came upstairs."Looking for Mr. Ortega? He moved out yesterday."Brielle stiffened. "Where did he move to?""I don't know." The landlord handed her a cardboard box. "He said if you came by, I should give you this."Brielle immediately took it. The box was surprisingly light. Inside were all the things she'd given me over the years: a watch that had since been discontinued, a few books, an old sweater, and the camera she'd bought me. She'd given it to me during our second year together."You take great pictures. From now on, you can be in charge of taking all our photos."Back then, I hadn't noticed anything strange about what she'd said.There were six of us. But when she talked about "us," she had meant the five of them.Later, I'd asked her, "What about me?"She'd paused, then grabbed my arm with a laugh.

  • The Missing Sixth   Chapter 6

    The next morning, I didn't come back.When Brielle saw that the digital wedding invitations had been deleted, she finally called the wedding planner. "Send the digital invitations to Clark again."There were a few seconds of silence on the other end."Miss Rice, Mr. Ortega officially canceled the wedding last night. All the guests have already been notified."Brielle's brows immediately drew together. "Who gave you permission to cancel it?""Mr. Ortega is the one who signed the contract, and he personally paid all the wedding expenses. He has the right to cancel."Only then did Brielle remember that I'd handled almost everything for the wedding, from the venue to the favors. She'd only glanced at the final budget and complained that I was making everything too complicated."It's just a wedding. We don't need to make such a big deal out of it."For that wedding she thought didn't need to be a big deal, I'd visited more than twenty hotels on my own. I'd sampled more than thirty d

  • The Missing Sixth   Chapter 5

    When I wheeled my suitcase out of the hotel, laughter was still drifting from the terrace.Brielle probably thought I was doing what I'd done countless times before—waiting for her to come around and smooth things over.My phone buzzed with a message from her.[You're a grown man. Come back when you're done sulking.]A few minutes later, another message came through.[Anders is drunk. Where did you put the hangover medicine you bought?]I stared at those two messages for a long time before turning off my phone.So even after I'd left, her first thought wasn't to wonder where I'd gone. It was whether I'd remembered to prepare hangover medicine for Anders.By the time I reached the airport, there were forty minutes left before departure. I checked in and dropped off my last suitcase.For seven years, I'd imagined my wedding to Brielle more times than I could count.What her wedding dress would look like. What we'd write on the invitations. What color the centerpieces would be.

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