Prologue
5 years later.....
I'm engaged!!” Elle squealed over the phone.
I winced, holding the phone slightly away from my ear. “You’re going to blow my eardrums—wait, what? When did that happen?” A sharp pang of surprise (and okay, maybe a little disappointment) settled in my chest. Since when were we keeping life-altering news from each other?
“Well, Julian and I have been together for a while now, and… he proposed last night. And I said yes.” She let out a nervous laugh. “I don’t know how to tell you this, but knowing our crazy schedules, I thought it would be nice if you were the first to meet him—at our mini reunion this Saturday.” She hesitated. “Please don’t be mad.”
“Oh my gosh, Elle, that’s amazing news! I’m so happy for you!” I meant it—I really did. But a small part of me couldn’t ignore the tiny sting of being left out. “And why would you even think I’d be mad about you getting engaged? Am I really that bad of a friend?”
She let out a relieved sigh. “I know. I just… with us not catching up since high school, I feel like I’m hijacking our meetup. I hope you’re not upset. I promise I’ll make it up to you.”
“I’m not mad,” I assured her, then added with a dramatic sigh, “but you definitely owe me a serious girls’ night for keeping this Julian guy a secret. How did I not hear about him until now? I thought I was your best friend!”
“You are my best friend,” she laughed, but there was a sheepish note to it. “And I did try to tell you about him, but every time I was off my shifts, you were buried in research papers. It just… never lined up.”
I groaned. Okay, fair point.
“But here’s a little scoop,” she continued, her voice brightening. “Julian runs the Bentley Corporation with his brother here in St. Elysian. They’re four siblings in total—I’ve met two of them, but their oldest brother has been overseas for a while now.”
I sat up a little straighter. Bentley. The name sent a faint sense of unease curling in my stomach.
“We met at the hospital when his sister was in labor, and, well… things just kind of happened,” Elle added, a dreamy sigh slipping into her tone. “But I promise, I’ll fill you in once our schedules finally align.”
“Bentley?".
“Yeah, why?” Elle asked. “Do you know anyone from there?”
I hesitated. “No… it’s just… the name sounded familiar.”
There was a beat of silence before she gasped dramatically. “Oh my god. Do we have an old flame here that I didn’t know about?”
“What? No,” I blurted out a little too quickly.
She snickered. “Sounds like you do. Maybe it’s fate! Imagine us being in-laws—wouldn’t that be sensational?”
I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, no. And for the record, there’s nothing to tell. I’m just looking forward to catching up—that’s what Saturday is about.”
Elle hummed like she didn’t quite believe me. “Mmm-hmm. Sure. Anyway, don’t think you’re off the hook—I will be grilling you in person. I can’t wait to see you.”
“Same,” I said, smiling.
After a long conversation filled with wedding talk and catch-up stories, Elle finally hung up.
I stared at my phone for a long moment, the name Bentley lingering in my head like a whisper from the past.
I huffed, shaking it off. It didn’t matter.
I wasn’t going back there.
