Five Years of Secret Love, He Married My Best Friend Chapter 04

Five Years of Secret Love, He Married My Best Friend Chapter 04

My mom stared at my hollowed-out face.

She sighed heavy.

“Harper, remember this. A man who won’t give you a clear promise. Not worth it. A man with no sense of responsibility. Runs from problems. Even worse. When you’re dating in Chicago, keep your eyes open. Don’t fall for some Wall Street hypocrite.”

I snapped back. Nodded stiff. “I know.”

From that day on.

Connor and Maddie were visibly swamped.

Country club lawn arrangements. Champagne for the wedding favors.

I helped my mom plan her backyard birthday barbecue.

What I didn’t expect.

They actually had the nerve to come to me.

“Harper, we pinky-swore it as kids. We’d be each other’s maids of honor. I’m getting married now. Please. Stand beside me. As my maid of honor. Please?”

Maddie stood on my porch. That careful, pitiful look. Like she was the one who’d been wronged.

Connor didn’t even give me room to refuse.

“Your dress is already on the way from the bridal shop. Arrives this afternoon. My mom saw it. Said that dusty rose shade will look incredible on you.”

I wasn’t listening.

My eyes were nailed to their left hands.

Matching simple wedding bands. Platinum.

Inside the rings, I knew what was there. Their initials. Connected by a Möbius strip.

I designed it.

Twenty years old. A sketch from design class.

I’d leaned on Maddie’s shoulder. Eyes full of hope. Told her.

Someday, I wanted the person I loved to wear a ring I designed.

Stand before a pastor. Say our vows.

“Harper, your silence means yes. Thank you!”

Maddie grabbed my hands. Gripped tight.

She smiled. “Next week. Our wedding day. All our friends and family. Both sets of parents. They’ll all want this wedding to go beautifully. Gracefully. Harper, you want that too. Right?”

Her smile.

No more purity left in it.

Just a hidden, surgical threat.

She knew this white middle-class community too well. Any scandal gets magnified.

She was certain I wouldn’t risk it. Wouldn’t let a little invisible heartbreak turn my family into the town’s joke for the next decade.

I pulled my hands back. Slow.

Fixed an immaculate social smile on my face.

“Of course. I’ll be happy to wish you both well.”

Connor wasn’t tracking the undercurrent between us.

He was scanning my living room.

His eyes stopped.

The fireplace mantel. That center-spot photo. The three of us.

Replaced. My family portrait now.

His gaze caught. Held.

Before he left, he looked at me. Sighed with that self-assured tolerance he always wore.

“Maddie was blunt back there. But she’s thinking about all of us. Don’t spiral. Once things settle, she’ll be your maid of honor too. Just treat this wedding like a dress rehearsal for ours.”

That twisted, absurd logic.

I nearly laughed in his face.

What made him think I’d still be waiting like an idiot?

What made him think Harper would pick up someone else’s castoffs?

Time blurred in the busy hum of small-town life.

The wedding day arrived. Country club.

Connor and Maddie stood under the flower arch. Their eyes kept flicking toward me.

Like they were terrified I’d stand up during the priest’s objection call. Wreck everything.

They were disappointed.

I wore that ridiculous bridesmaid dress the whole time. Held my pleasant smile just right.

Lifted Maddie’s train. Handled their drunk distant relatives with grace.

When they saw my performance, Connor and Maddie exhaled. Relief.

The MC announced the climax. The newlyweds, hand in hand, to the dance floor.

Then a roar exploded from the ballroom entrance.

“Connor! You goddamn bastard! Back in the frat house, you swore Harper was your woman! Told me to back the hell off!”

“Now you turn around and marry someone else? Make her stand there like a fool as your maid of honor? Are you out of your damn mind? You trying to humiliate her?!”