Chapter 1
It was late night when my best friend knocked on my front door again. She just had another intense argument with her boyfriend.
Gideon Vale let out a sigh and grabbed his pillow like a routine.
My best friend was much satisfied. She loved that he knew to get out of the way without being told.
"Nellie, you really know how to pick men. Your Gideon is so much better than the deadbeat I'm stuck with. My guy will never be even a tenth as thoughtful as Gideon."
I was frustrated as hell that she still couldn't see what a garbage deal she was getting.
"Babe, it's only the 12th, and you've already fought with him 10 times this month! Are you seriously still not thinking about breaking up with him?"
My best friend pouted and mumbled, "Nellie, are you getting sick of me showing up like this?"
I'd been badgering her to dump that loser for months and gotten nowhere. Even Gideon had told me to stop wasting my breath and let people live with the choices they made. In the end, I threw my hands up and dropped it.
I jolted awake sometime after midnight. My best friend, who was supposed to be curled up asleep beside me in my bed, was gone. All she'd left behind was her phone, its screen glowing faintly in the dark.
Boyfriend: Come over.
The text was from her boyfriend, timestamped two hours earlier.
The next second, dozens of photos and a video popped up in the chat.
Boyfriend: Babe, look at these when you wake up tomorrow. See what a little slut you were tonight.
My finger froze halfway to the power button, and my gaze locked onto a hand peeking into the corner of one of the photos.
That mole on the hand was an exact match for the one on Gideon's.
*****
I refused to believe what I was seeing. I tapped the photo, zoomed in, then zoomed in even further, flipping through each shot one by one and scrutinizing every detail.
The bedsheets in the background were the ones I'd changed that very morning, my favorite set, covered in little cartoon bears.
I swiped through the photos faster and faster until I reached the video. Auto-play was on, and before I could even tap the screen, a familiar and breathy voice hit me square in the chest.
I froze completely, as if someone had slammed a pause button on my entire body.
Fine, a mole could've been a coincidence.
But that voice? There was no lying to myself about that.
Just a few hours earlier, that exact voice had been whispering in my ear, calling me baby, calling me his wife.
"Honey, who's better? Me or Nellie?"
"You, obviously."
"Then when are you gonna break up with her? Sneaking around like this every day is so annoying. I'm sick of it."
That familiar teasing lilt in Gideon's voice. He sounded like he's kissing the woman beneath him right then.
"C'mon, isn't sneaking around half the fun?"
She clearly didn't like that answer. Her voice sharpened, dripping with irritation.
"Gideon, what the hell is that supposed to mean? You promised you'd break up with Nellie and marry me. Are you really going back on your word?"
"I'll do it. I'll break up with her tomorrow. There we go. Good girl. Let me in."
The conversation had clearly been recorded by accident.
There was no footage at all, just a pitch-black screen. They must've tossed the phone aside and forgotten to stop the recording.
The voices kept cutting in and out, tangled with ragged, breathless gasps.
Every sound felt like a dull, rusted knife grinding slowly into my heart.
Long after the video ended, I still couldn't snap out of my daze.
The wedding photo we'd just hung above the bed looked painfully out of place now.
A new group chat notification popped up, sent by Landon Reid, Gideon's closest friend.
He tagged both Gideon and my best friend, Rola Royce.
Landon: Gideon, Rola, make sure you show up on time for my birthday tomorrow! Don't bother bringing presents. Just get your asses here!
It was a small group chat consisting of 7 people, who made up entirely of Gideon's closest friends.
I knew every single one of them.
As it turned out, we also had an 8-person group chat.
The only difference between that group and this 7-person one was that I was in it.
The most recent message in the group that included me was also from Landon.
Landon: Something came up, so tomorrow's birthday party is canceled. I'll hit you guys up to hang another time.
Right after that message, I'd sent Landon a 1,000 birthday cash gift.
He'd accepted it instantly.
"Thanks, Nellie!"
