Five Years a Secret, Now I Deny We Ever Met Chapter 01

Five Years a Secret, Now I Deny We Ever Met Chapter 01

Sebastian, the heir to a fortune, and I had been in a secret five-year relationship.

He always said that after graduation, he would figure out how to bridge the gap between our families and finally go public.

But what I got was an engagement announcement on the alumni association website.

His engagement to my best friend.

“It’s a matter of responsibility,” he told the press, a practiced smile on his face. “And this is the best arrangement.”

What a responsibility.

What a best arrangement.

My roommate, Sarah, tiptoed around the subject. “So, are you going to celebrate with your mystery boyfriend after commencement?”

I snapped my laptop shut, a bitter laugh escaping my lips.

“The man I was waiting for? He’s dead.”

“He died yesterday, buried under the weight of his family’s legacy.”

…

Sarah’s shriek nearly pierced my eardrums.

“Dead? Chloe, what the hell are you talking about?”

I forced a smile that felt more like a grimace and wrenched my eyes from the computer screen. “It’s a metaphor, Sarah. We had a horrible fight. We broke up.” I grabbed a book on Renaissance manuscripts from my desk and pretended to flip through it. “You know how it is. Thesis syndrome. Everyone’s losing their minds.”

She gave me a skeptical look, but eventually, she let it go.

Only I knew that for the past five years, I had been living inside a carefully woven lie. Sebastian’s reasons had always sounded so plausible. “Darling, what we have is too precious. I don’t want my family, or the judgmental eyes of everyone at Auden University, to ruin something so pure. Once we graduate, once I have enough say in things, it’ll all be different.”

And so I became the secret he kept in the shadows. To protect my own pitiful pride, and the “pure” love he spoke of, I told everyone—including my best friend and my roommate—only that I had “a boyfriend focused on his career.”

Sebastian took the arrangement for granted. He enjoyed my compliance. He enjoyed how foolproof it all was.

And now, I’d been replaced.

My phone buzzed in my pocket. Sebastian was calling. I silenced it immediately, grabbed my backpack, and strode out of the dorm. I needed air. I needed to get away from that suffocating room.

But he was downstairs, leaning against a massive oak tree as if he’d known I would come down.

“Chloe, we need to talk.” He stepped forward, his hand closing around my wrist in a grip that allowed no refusal.

“Let go, Sebastian. What’s left to talk about? Go talk to your fiancée.” My voice was ice.

“Listen to me,” he said, his voice low. For the first time, I saw a flicker of anxiety on his handsome face. “It isn’t what you think. This has nothing to do with feelings. It’s about responsibility.”

Then the performance began. He spoke quickly, each word carrying the unquestionable authority he wore so well.

“Isabella’s family is in trouble. Her father misappropriated a large donation meant for Auden, and the board is investigating. Once it gets out, her family will be ruined. Their reputation will be destroyed, and they’ll be exiled from our entire social circle.”

I stared at him, my heart sinking.

“So?”

“So my family has to step in. A marriage alliance sends a signal to the board, and to every family watching, that the Landons are under our protection. This is a political sacrifice, Chloe. It’s about preserving the honor of a family that’s been allied with mine for a century. It’s about containing a scandal that could explode at any moment.”

He took a deep breath. His gaze turned earnest and grave, as though he were the victim, carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders.

“You have to understand. For the bigger picture. Nothing can go wrong right now. You can’t say a word about us. It would destroy everything everyone’s worked for.”

I almost laughed. Destroy everything? What about my five years?

He seemed to see the mockery on my face. His grip tightened. He looked into my eyes, and his voice softened, slipping back into that familiar tenderness I had drowned in for five years.

“The engagement party is this weekend. At my family’s estate.”

My blood ran cold.

“As Isabella’s best friend, you have to be there. And you have to look happy for us. That’s important.”

His eyes were confident, affectionate even, as if this were just some small, harmless test on the path of our love.

But in that moment, my mind flashed back to the winter of our junior year, in a corner of the library archives. Snow had been falling outside. We shared a pair of earbuds, our heads leaning together as we looked at a scan of a private manuscript from the Uffizi Gallery. His warm breath brushed against my ear as he murmured, “Chloe, it’s only when I’m with you that I feel like all this cold history is alive.”

The memory was a knife twisting in my chest.

“Sebastian,” a sweet voice called from nearby.

It was Isabella.

She was holding two Starbucks coffees, hurrying toward us like a happy butterfly, a brilliant smile on her face. She didn’t even glance at the hand locked around my wrist. She simply looped her arm through my other one.

“I’ve been looking everywhere for you! Come on, we have to pick out dresses for the party!”

Only then did Sebastian let go. He shot me a warning look before turning and walking away as if nothing had happened.

Isabella dragged me into the library, my steps unsteady. Between two towering rows of art history shelves, surrounded by the scent of old books and ink, I finally shook her hand off.

“Isabella,” I said. My voice was faint in the empty aisle, but it trembled with fury. “After all these years… how could you do this to me?”

The smile slowly vanished from her face. It was replaced by something I had never seen before: calm, unflinching honesty.

“I’ve always loved him, Chloe. And I’ve known for a long time that he was your mysterious boyfriend.”

My mind went blank.

She took a step closer. There wasn’t a trace of guilt in her pretty eyes, only the quiet satisfaction of victory.

“Do you remember sophomore year? I was in your dorm and saw all those research notes you had about your future in Florence. I even joked about how ambitious you were, telling you that if you became a great scholar, I’d be your biggest patron.”

She paused, a cruel smile touching her lips.

“What I didn’t tell you was that on the title page of those notes, I saw the initials you’d written in calligraphy. C & S.”

A hand seemed to squeeze my heart.

“Now he’s chosen me,” she said softly, each word a needle. “This isn’t just about love. It’s about saving my family. We don’t have a choice.”

She slipped her arm through mine again, as intimate as before.

“You’re my best friend. I trust you’ll understand that this is the best arrangement for all three of our futures, right?”