All Chapters of He Fumbled a Lifetime: Chapter 11 - Chapter 13

Next second, Luke's fist slammed into his face."Get lost. If you're this delusional, go get help. Stop harassing my girlfriend."Philip hit the ground. Blood dripped from his nose into the snow, bright red against white.I steadied Luke, told him to wait a little ways off.Then I walked over and looked down at Philip. "You said you want us to go back to how we were?"He looked up at me, eyes lighting up. "Yes, yes... will you forgive me?""You want 'before'? Me scraping every dollar to put you through school? Working three jobs till I dropped? Or 'before' when you killed my child for Winnie?"My voice stayed low, just for him. Every word landed.The color drained from his face.He opened his mouth. Nothing came out.I kept going. "Your regret, your pain, your desperation—that's on you. Your mom died because of your stupidity, your arrogance, your incompetence. You ended up like this because of your own choices. Your own consequences. Don't act like I don't know why you came

Once Luke and I got together, I realized he outworked even me.He got into a grad program overseas a year before I did. The next year, I went there too.That's when it hit me—with the right person, you level up together.With the wrong one, you get dragged straight down.After grad school, we moved back and got married.Post-wedding, we took over a branch of his family's company and pulled solid results.I saw Philip again on a freezing winter night.I'd just wrapped a big client meeting and stepped out of the hotel when nausea hit hard.I rushed to the side entrance by the trash bins and threw up.I straightened, took the water Ava handed me, and noticed a beggar nearby.His hair was matted and filthy. Frostbite and grime covered his face. His torn jacket showed black stuffing inside.He was shoveling down leftovers dumped from the hotel, not even reacting to the noise.Ava pinched her nose. "Ugh, boss, let's go. He smells awful..."The beggar looked up.The second our