Chapter 1

The moment the call ended, an announcement suddenly echoed through the airport. All flights had been canceled due to the hurricane.

Lydia Bennett, Heath Zeller, and my parents emerged from the VIP lounge just as the announcement finished. Their flight to Isla Verde had been canceled too.

As soon as Heath spotted the garment bag hanging from my hand, he doubled over laughing.

"You really brought your wedding suit all the way to the airport? Julian, how are you still this easy to trick?"

Mom and Dad laughed along with him. To them, the fact that I'd gotten up at 4:00 am and rushed between the hotel and the airport with my wedding suit was nothing more than a harmless joke.

Then Heath casually draped an arm around Lydia's shoulders and leaned toward me with a mischievous grin.

"Actually, there's another reason we have to postpone the wedding for a week," he said. "Lydia's pregnant with my kid."

The color drained from my face. A deafening roar filled my head, drowning out everything around me.

Heath beamed and continued, "She's almost three months along."

I looked at Lydia. She didn't deny it. She simply stood there, calm and composed.

Mom even let out a sigh. "What's done is done. Don't blame Heath. The baby's innocent, after all."

My ears were ringing.

"So that's why you canceled the wedding?" I asked, curling my trembling hands into fists. "You're planning to have the two of them get married instead?"

For a moment, no one said anything.

Then Heath suddenly burst out laughing. Lydia couldn't help but smile as well, shaking her head as though she couldn't believe what I'd just said. Even Mom and Dad burst out laughing.

"How did you fall for it again?"

Heath clapped me on the shoulder, laughing so hard he could barely stand.

"I found the ultrasound online. I've never even held Lydia's hand, let alone slept with her. Why would we even have a baby together? Julian, you should've seen your face. You looked like you were about to pass out."

Lydia reached over and lightly smacked Heath's shoulder. "Stop teasing him with things like that."

For a brief moment, something almost like hope stirred in my chest.

But in the next second, she turned to me with a frown.

"And you," she said, her tone reprimanding. "You know how much Heath loves joking around. Why do you fall for it every single time?"

Mom waved her hand impatiently. "Why are you making that face? You always can't take a joke. Everyone's having a good time, but you have to make it look like we've done something terrible to you."

So they knew exactly how much these jokes hurt me. That was why they never bothered to explain and would rather watch me squirm—just as they had done for the past ten years.

The year I took the SAT, Heath lied and told me the exam center had been changed at the last minute.

I rushed across the city through a heavy downpour, only to discover that the exam was still being held at my original school.

In the end, a traffic officer had to escort me back with his siren blaring. I ran into the examination hall with barely a minute to spare.

When the exam was over, everyone gathered around me, laughing at what had happened.

Even Mom tried to smooth things over. "Heath only wanted to help you relax. Don't ruin everyone's fun."

Lydia had done the same thing once, helping Heath trick me with a misleading photo that made it look as though the two of them were kissing. By the time I rushed over in the middle of the night, they'd already set up a phone to record my reaction.

Every single time, I swallowed my humiliation and forced myself to smile, just to prove that I wasn't angry.

Little by little, everyone came to love Heath for being funny and entertaining, while I became the boring one—the party pooper who couldn't take a joke.

I used to think that if I learned to laugh along, I could find a place for myself in all that laughter and noise.

But today, I finally understood. All their happiness had been built on my pain.