HIS ONE TRUE LOVE

HARLAN 6

“It’s good to see you too Mrs Miller” I said.

I had been flashing the same fake smile at everyone who had bothered with me in the last forty-five minutes. But my heart beat was irregular, my throat was dry as I kept swallowing, trying to push the lump that was stuck in my throat down, my fingers clenched at my sides and my breath grew heavier. I was suffocating, feeling like life could be sucked out of me at any given moment. It felt like a joke, all of it, like a bloody cruel joke.

I kept shaking hands, smiling, nodding—doing all the things a good son, good brother, good Ford heir was supposed to do but inside, I was being skinned alive.

Every breath felt like it scraped something raw in my chest. Faces blurred. Voices folded into static. The only thing I could still see clearly was her.

Brooklyn.

Ma vie.

The woman who vanished from my bed, my life, my future with nothing but two f*****g words left behind like a joke.

One whole year searching everywhere I could for Hailey only to find her here, at my brother’s engagement party, not just as hailey but as Brooklyn Halo, his fiancee, his wife to be. She was never Hailey, she had given me a false name.

It felt like I was the butt of the joke, like everyone was in on it but me. The air felt hotter with each passing moment. She had lied to me, lied about everything that she was, everything was a lie… the morning kisses, the s*x, the way she looked at me like I meant the world to her, her laughter, her smile, her voice. Everything was a very big lie, some elaborate scheme to make me look like a fool.

Tears pricked the corners of my eyes and I could not— would not let myself be ridiculed any further, I downed my sixth glass of whiskey and the liquid burned my chest but could not douse the fire that she had lit inside me.

“Jesus, I’ve seen coma patients livelier than you.” Sophia slid in next to me, linking her arm through mine like she was rescuing a hostage.

I barely glanced at her. “Shouldn’t you be somewhere eating William’s face or something? We can’t let that hot dress go to waste now, can we?”

“Ah so you’re saying I’m hot” Her voice teased.

“You have never not been hot, you’re one of the hottest girls I know.” I shrugged.

Her gasp was as dramatic as the fireworks that had started somewhere outside the hall. “Harlan Gavinio Ford, was that a compliment? Do I have to pray for you to keep having existential crises every time so I can get a compliment from you?”

I laughed softly. “I will put you in time out Sophia Fernandez.. Keep pushing your luck.”

“I kinda like my odds.” she quipped with that teasing glint in her eyes.

I chuckled, shaking my head. For a beat there, the world had returned to normal and I had forgotten the ache in my chest.

“Seriously, talk to me.. How are you feeling?’’ She asked yet again.

I huffed and put on my best smile, masking my pain “The party is great, they put a lot of work into it. The food is nice, the drinks are wonderful and I’m having the time of my life. It’s uh— it’s great”

“Harl.. It's me. It’s Soph” Her watery eyes pierced into my armor.

“Uh” I swallowed, not sure where to start from, “I waited for her for a whole year, searching and hoping one day I would find her again and I did find her. Only she is not Hailey White, she is Brooklyn Halo Whitmore and uh she is my brother’s fiancee. There’s a ring on her finger and it’s not mine. I uh— uhm” I cleared my throat.

“Harry—” Sophie looked up at me.

I glared at her “Don’t you dare, do not call me that, you know I hate being called that”

“You should have seen your face, you looked miserable there for a second” she burst out laughing, tears pooling at the corner of her eyes.

This was Sophia, her way of dealing with problems was to turn them into a joke and she was trying to do the same for me but nothing was funny about this sick game fate was playing with me. It was ripping me apart to shreds.

“You’re an asshole, ginger” I pushed her head slightly.

She let out a breathless laugh, hiding the tears that were already falling down her cheeks. “Yeah that I am”

“Hey. Hey. Hey. What happened? Did William say something? Did anyone hurt you?” I asked as I held her shoulders and examined her.

She shook her head, swatting her hand at my arm. “I’m crying because of you, you fool. I know how much you loved her, she was everything to you. You finally felt chosen and now it’s just— I’m gonna kill her”

I pulled her back as she took two steps forward. “Hey! Hey.. It's okay, I’m fine I promise. It might not even be her, maybe a doppelganger? Someone who looks just like her. I mean it's entirely possible right?”

“This is exactly why she was able to hurt you, you are too trusting. If we had at least one picture, we would be sure it was her.” She scolded.

I smiled, amused by her overprotectiveness. “Well Soph, I’m a gentleman and she said she hated pictures and I never bothered her about taking any”

“Really? Not one picture in three months and that did not send every possible alarm going off in your head. That’s literally red flag 101 dude.” disbelief and disappointment etched on her face.

I knew it was stupid, it was my biggest mistake.. Never taking a picture, it killed me in the past year, longing.. aching to see her face, her smile and not having one single picture that could ease that pain. I should have suspected her or suspected she was hiding something but I did not. I was madly in love with her, blindly utterly in love.

“Soph I’m okay I swear, and you being here is enough for me to get through all of this. Stop crying, you look like a homeless kitten” I said wiping her tears.

“You are not okay. You look like you’re about to collapse,” she sniffed. “You shouldn’t be here. This is torture and it’s unfair.”

I didn’t deny it. “It feels like I’m suffocating.”

She wiped her nose aggressively. “I hate her.”

“You’ve never met her.”

“I hate her on principle.” She glared.

I almost smiled. “You don’t even know what happened—”

“No, but I know you,” she shot back. “And look at you. You’re unraveling.”

“Come here Fernandez” I pulled her into a hug and kissed her head, “Thank you for being my best friend and I love you.”

“I love you too and you are paying for my therapist next month.. All of this trauma dumping is a lot” She said, holding me tighter between ragged breaths.

We bickered for a beat– her insisting I tell her everything, me refusing and claiming that I’d already said too much. But it was Sophia, so of course she wouldn’t let me off the hook. She never did.

Then— footsteps interrupted us.

“Excuse me,” Brooklyn’s voice cut in, soft but steady. I froze. My entire body went still, like prey that had just spotted the predator. She was standing there, looking between Sophia and me, her chin tilted high but her eyes betraying something painful, something I knew too well. “I’d like to talk to Harlan.”

Sophia turned so slowly it could have been a horror movie. The stare down she gave Brooklyn could’ve set silk on fire. My best friend’s whole posture screamed, don't even think about it.

Brooklyn didn’t flinch, but I saw her throat work when she swallowed.

“It’s okay, I’m okay” I said before Sophia could start a war. I touched the side of her head gently and pressed a kiss there. “I’ll find you later, yeah?”

She gave Brooklyn one last murderous glare and stalked off, wiping the corner of her eye like she was reloading emotional ammo, muttering under her breath.

A soft breath escaped Brooklyn. Then—of all things—she gave a tiny laugh.

“Your girlfriend is… feisty.”

I turned my gaze back on her, everything in me twisting. “Ah… To what, do I owe this honor, Miss Hailey White.”

She froze.

That name landed like a bullet.

I hadn’t said it in a year. Hadn’t allowed myself to. But the second it touched my tongue, I remembered the first time she’d told it to me—late night, bare skin, bottle of Côte-Rôtie, her fingers tracing circles on my chest.

The fake name she’d given me while stealing the realest part of my life.

She opened her mouth, eyes glassy. “I was hoping we could talk outside.”

I didn’t hesitate. “But of course.”

Not because I wasn’t angry. Not because I wasn’t wrecked. But because I’d waited 365 days for a chance to ask her one question:

Why?

And tonight, I was done drowning in silence.