The Betrayal That Broke Us

Chapter 2

I shook off his hand. "You've crossed too many lines, Jason. How many 'last time' things do you and Robin have left to do?"

He frowned, genuinely confused.

"I went alone to choose our wedding venue because you needed your final game-watching date with her. Our wedding health check got postponed because you two scheduled a final mountain sunrise trip. You were late to our engagement because your final movie date with her still had thirty minutes left. Now that you've checked off all your solo activities, you've invented a group bachelor party, because Robin absolutely must be included, right?"

I stared at him, searching for remorse in his eyes, but found none.

Suddenly understanding, he threw up his hands. "We grew up together, like siblings. Are you jealous of her? Besides, we're doing this for you. You're the one who said no hanging out alone with other girls after marriage. So we're cramming in a last taste of youth before the wedding."

"Alina!" Robin's boisterous voice called from behind.

"I heard everything. Good friends should know boundaries when one's getting married."

She enunciated each word deliberately while staring at me. "Jason, you jerk—this is our last time meeting alone."

Her eyes gleamed with spite. Robin flung the jacket back at Jason, hailed a cab, and took off.

Jason's panic was palpable. He nearly sprinted after her before remembering my presence and freezing.

His friends poured out of the restaurant, too, and turned their anger on me.

"Jason, even Robin, the most easygoing person, got driven away. Maybe we should listen to the future Mrs. Walker and disband this brotherhood."

"Yeah, with your radar-level jealousy, I'd better wear pasties, too, next time I visit."

Jason cut them off sharply. "What the hell? We said whoever ditches his friends for a girl dies first. Are you trying to get me killed?"

He put on a serious expression. "Alina, can we just get past this?"

I glanced at the group of brothers behind him and nodded. "We break up. Then it's past."

The next second, as I hailed a taxi, Jason shoved his way in after me. He quickly rolled down the window and shouted to his friends, "Go check if Robin made it home safely! She drank a lot today!"

I stayed silent, gazing out the window, remembering that Robin was the first friend Jason introduced me to.

Robin had looked at me with amused interest back then. "Jason, your taste is getting more and more plain, huh? So this is your type now?"

But I'd already seen her before. Her mother was Tracy Wright, a nanny who worked for my parents. Robin was in a family photo on her nightstand.

Tracy had always bragged about her, saying she was obedient, sensible, and innocent.

When I first saw her, I was shocked at how different she was from Tracy's description.

Then a friend of mine who was a cop did a raid at a nightclub. She saw Robin wearing a wig and a skimpy outfit, sitting on someone's lap, feeding them alcohol mouth-to-mouth. And she took a photo and sent it to me.

Even then, I still thought she might have her reasons.

I didn't want to badmouth her behind her back, so I just sighed softly.