All Chapters of Forever Goodbye: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

10 Chapters

Chapter 1

The crowd was dead silent.Everyone was waiting for that picture-perfect moment, including my mom. She held her hands over her mouth, desperately holding back tears of joy.I just stood there frozen, like all the life had been drained out of me."Why… why did it have to be today?"My hands and feet went ice-cold. That ring felt like it weighed a ton, suffocating me.Charlotte looked at me, completely unbothered by how pathetic I was, almost as if she were relieved."Don't blame Josh. He actually told me never to tell you."But I'm tired of sneaking around, Dean. I'm sick of having to make up fake excuses and check in with you every single time I want to see him. "And I hate that Josh always looks so guilty whenever we sleep together."When she talked about Josh, her eyes softened with sympathy for him. It was as if marrying me were just some tragic, unavoidable sacrifice on her part, which was crazy because just yesterday she was so thrilled that she couldn't sleep a wink.

Chapter 2

Josh froze in place and stared over at Charlotte, a short distance away, in absolute shock. His voice trembled as he spoke. "You told him? Today of all days? It's your wedding day! Why couldn't you just wait?!"Dean, listen to me, please! It was an accident!"An accident?Was it an accident that every time Charlotte stormed out after an argument, his phone magically went straight to voicemail? Was it an accident that she knew the layout of his apartment better than I did?Even the dog Josh raised was closer to her than anyone else.Maybe I should have seen it sooner. I just chose to blind myself because I was dealing with the two people I loved most in this world."Josh, you piece of sh*t!"Rage completely eclipsed my logic. Before I even realized what I was doing, my palm landed flat across his face with a crack.Charlotte lunged forward instantly and shoved me back."Dean! Are you crazy?!" She stood right in front of Josh, shielding him while glaring at me with utter disgu

Chapter 3

After getting Mom checked into the hospital and settled, I drove back home to pack an overnight bag to stay with her.The wedding decorations were still plastered all over the walls, looking sickeningly bright. Charlotte hadn't been tall enough to reach the top, so I had lifted her in my arms to tape them. The sheets on the bed were something we had picked out together, too.The life we had built together, piece by piece, had completely shattered today.I had barely zipped my suitcase when the front door opened. It was Charlotte. She walked straight into the bedroom, clearly assuming I was just throwing another tantrum."The house is in your name, so you don't need to pack up and leave. I'm the one moving out."And the money I gave you before? You don't have to give it back. Think of it as compensation."Just stop giving Josh a hard time. He hasn't had it easy."That last sentence blew open the rage I'd been trying so hard to suppress."He hasn't had it easy?! Then what about

Chapter 4

As soon as the words left her mouth, the room fell into deathly silence.My heart died right along with it in that sick, twisted joke of a reality.So on the day my dad passed away, when Charlotte said she was away on a business trip and Josh said he was bedridden with a fever… they were actually together.My desperate, helpless crying on the phone back then had been nothing more than background noise to fuel their thrill.Charlotte hadn't even shown up to his funeral.In the weeks after, when I was drowning in grief day and night, Charlotte held me tight, endlessly whispering sweet comfort into my ear."It's okay, baby. Your dad is a star up in heaven watching over you now. And I'll stay right here to take care of you for him."And to think the truth was this disgusting. It hit me so suddenly, raw and painful.When Charlotte realized what she had just blurted out, panic flashed across her face. She reached her hand out toward me, her voice shaking."Dean, I'm sorry... I was j

Chapter 5

On the day Mom was discharged from the hospital, I stepped downstairs for just a moment, only to hear frantic screaming echoing from the ward.When I rushed back into the room, Josh was standing by Mom's bed, begging for forgiveness."I'm sorry, Mrs. Campbell! I'm the one who hurt Dean and ruined their relationship! I was shameless! I seduced Charlotte! You can hit me or curse at me all you want!"Don't worry, I'll walk away on my own and give Dean his happiness back!"Mom, whose health had barely begun to recover, was pushed over the edge again. She stood up abruptly and screamed, "Shut up! I will never let Dean stay with that b*tch!"However, the moment her foot hit the ground, she collapsed straight to the floor, clutching her chest tightly as if she couldn't breathe."Mrs. Campbell! What's wrong?!"Josh reached out to help her, but I threw him off and screamed in pure rage."What the hell are you doing?!"He flinched in terror, stammering out his words. "Dean... I... I jus

Chapter 6

Early the next morning, Charlotte awoke to blinding sunlight.She wanted to raise her hand to shield her eyes, only to find Josh resting his head peacefully against her arm, fast asleep.Charlotte stared down at him, but inside, she felt completely empty. Since yesterday, I haven't sent a single text message.Normally, I would have been blowing up her phone—demanding answers, asking where she was, telling her to come home. However, now, the absolute silence from her phone made panic crawl under her skin.She couldn't help but recall the last time she saw me.I had fallen to the floor in such agony, my back stained red with blood, crawling toward the doorway inch by inch as I screamed for a doctor.In that moment, her heart had seized with a sharp tug, and she had almost reached out to help me up.Seeing my hostility toward Josh, though, she decided to let me cool off and learn my place.Now, however, an inexplicable dread settled over her.She carefully slipped her arm out f

Chapter 7

Charlotte finally understood what had triggered Mrs. Campbell’s sudden heart attack. She remembered rushing into the ward to find the older woman lying weakly in bed, staring blankly at the ceiling.Back then, I was desperately grabbing Josh, screaming at him in a fit of despair.It turned out I hadn't been throwing a tantrum. Josh had worked my mother up into a fatal condition...Yet, she had stood against me and shoved me away. She had even ignored the wound on my back and left without looking back.Charlotte finally lost all her strength. She collapsed onto the cold floor, her hand holding the phone shaking violently."I'm sorry, Dean. It's my fault, it's all my fault. I'm begging you, please pick up the phone."She dialed my number over and over, praying each time, only for it to end in vain. After all, my phone was switched off.Her heart froze solid at that exact moment.She didn't even know how she had made it out of the hospital.By the time she came to her senses, her

Chapter 8

Charlotte spent the next few days scouring the city, checking registry after registry across every funeral home and cemetery.Finally, in a cemetery nestled among blooming flowers, she found my mom's name.The tombstone was brand new. On the porcelain portrait, Mom was smiling warmly, the same bright, kind smile she always gave Charlotte whenever they met.Back then, Mom would always hold Charlotte’s hands, her eyes sparkling as she said, "Charlotte, sweetie, I'm entrusting Dean to you. You make sure to treat him well, okay?"When Charlotte sank to her knees, they hit the cold stone with a loud thud. It must have hurt terribly, but she felt completely numb."Mrs. Campbell..."She opened her mouth, her voice so dry and raspy that it barely sounded like her own.She couldn't bring herself to say anything else.What could she possibly say? That while I was in the ER getting seventeen stitches lined down my back, she was icing a tiny bruise on Josh’s cheek? That while I stood alone

Chapter 9

It took Charlotte more than a month to track down my location.She reached out to countless friends and asked anyone who might know. Ultimately, it was a distant acquaintance who passed her the lead."I bumped into him in Hawkins."She booked a ticket that very same day.When her plane landed, she stood outside the airport terminal, staring out at the unfamiliar skyline, suddenly at a complete loss for where to even begin looking.Hawkins was vast, packed with hundreds of firms. She began working through them one by one, calling every number she could find. Some receptionists turned her away; others hung up immediately.She made calls from afternoon until night, until her phone battery completely died and her throat was hoarse.The next day, she switched tactics and began visiting companies in person, going from building to building. She held up my photo at every front desk, asking if anyone had seen me.Most people gave her strange looks. A few kind-hearted secretaries simpl

Chapter 10

I had already wasted eight whole years of my life on her. How many of those stretches does a person even get in a lifetime?Charlotte kept begging, as if her sobbing could somehow repay all the agony I had suffered.A crowd of onlookers began to form around us, stopping to stare and whisper, making endless wild guesses about what was going on.Charlotte, the woman who used to care more about public perception than anything else, acted completely blind to the crowd. She just kept numbly repeating her apologies."Get up," I said coldly.She refused, holding onto me even tighter."Charlotte, what is the point? Everything's already happened. My mother is already six feet under. What is any of this supposed to achieve?""Dean..." she whimpered, her voice trembling. "I know I shouldn't have come. I know you never wanted to see me again."I know I did so many unforgivable things to you, and no amount of apologies will ever make up for it. But I really... can't lose you..."Listening

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