I Died In The Fire While He Married My Best Friend Chapter 02

I Died In The Fire While He Married My Best Friend Chapter 02

I didn’t disappear completely. When I opened my eyes again, I was standing inside an outrageously luxurious banquet hall.

The crystal chandeliers shone so brightly they hurt to look at.

On the stage, a huge screen read, The Wedding Ceremony of Mr. Zachary Sterling and Ms. Olivia Grant.

Somehow, I had arrived seven years in the future.

I drifted toward the head table, where Zachary was sitting.

The boyish innocence he once had was gone. He wore a custom-tailored designer suit, his expression cold and sharply defined, with a straight, prominent nose.

He held a glass of red wine, and on his ring finger was a diamond band so bright it stung my eyes.

Olivia sat beside him in her wedding dress, wearing a soft, graceful smile.

“Zachary, go easy on the wine,” Olivia said, pressing down on his glass.

Zachary took her hand naturally and rubbed her fingertips. “Whatever you say.”

I stood in front of him and stared at the indulgence in his eyes.

The place where my chest should have been felt hollow, yet waves of pain still pulsed through it.

When he was eighteen, he used to look at me that way too.

“Serena, keep me in line. If you do, I’ll behave.”

“Zachary,” I said, reaching out to grab his sleeve.

My fingers passed straight through his arm.

Again and again, I tried to catch hold of him. Again and again, I came up empty.

He didn’t notice me at all.

He turned to pick up a napkin from the table and gently wiped away a drop of wine that had accidentally stained the corner of Olivia’s lips.

I didn’t understand.

Seven years ago, that boy had told me he would never marry anyone but me.

So why did the way he looked at another woman now feel so deeply loving that he seemed like a stranger?

The big screen began playing a slideshow of the newlyweds’ years together.

The seven-year timeline felt like one blade after another, cutting open the blank stretch of my memory.

During his freshman year of college, Zachary’s eyes were bloodshot in the photo. That year, he searched everywhere for me.

During his sophomore year, Zachary took a leave from college to build his start-up. In the photo, he had drunk until he threw up at a business dinner, and Olivia was patting his back while drinking in his place.

During his junior year, Zachary was hospitalized with a bleeding ulcer. Olivia had fallen asleep beside his hospital bed, the shadows under her eyes dark with exhaustion.

Zachary looked at her, and something in his eyes changed.

During senior year, they held hands.

In those photos, Zachary smiled more and more.

And the way Olivia looked at him grew brighter and brighter.

The last photo showed Olivia winning an international award, with Zachary proposing to her at the ceremony.

No one cared where eighteen-year-old Serena had gone.

Everyone thought I had fled the city overnight.

Even Zachary believed it.

“Serena was a liar through and through.”

While everyone was toasting, one of Zachary’s friends brought me up, and Zachary scoffed in contempt.

“Zachary, you looked awful after that call earlier. What, did Serena really have the nerve to contact you again?”

Zachary’s eyes turned cold. He set his glass down hard on the table.

“Why bring up someone that disgusting?”

“Exactly. Back then, she took your money and ran off with some older man. Now that you’ve made it big, she probably wants to come back and cash in,” the best man sneered.

I shook my head desperately.

I hadn’t run off with an older man.

I hadn’t taken anyone’s money.

“What did she say on the phone just now?” the best man asked, eager for gossip.

Zachary tugged at his tie and said, “She played some fire sound effects and claimed she was about to burn to death, then told me to save her.”

Everyone at the table burst into laughter.

“That woman is seriously desperate for attention. Does she still think she’s the Serena from high school, the girl you used to cherish like she was everything?”

Olivia lowered her head, looking as if she couldn’t bear to hear it. “Don’t talk about Serena like that. Maybe she really is in trouble. Zachary, why don’t you send someone to look for her?”

“Why would I look for her? To collect her body?” Zachary let out a cold laugh.

“If she wants to die, she’d better do it far away from me. I don’t want her anywhere near my sight.”

I stood where I was and watched him say those words, and my heart went numb all over again.

I blinked, but no tears came.

Ghosts don’t have tears to shed.

The boy who once panicked until his eyes went red because I had a fever, then carried me on his back for blocks to the hospital, had changed after all.

When the reception ended, Zachary took Olivia back to the house they had bought for their marriage.

I was forced to follow them. My soul seemed bound to Zachary, unable to move more than thirty feet away from him.

Olivia went to take a shower.

Zachary loosened his tie and went out to the balcony to smoke.

He took out his phone, and the screen lit up.

I drifted over and saw him open his call history.

At the very top was an unsaved number.