Five Years a Secret, Now I Deny We Ever Met Chapter 16

Five Years a Secret, Now I Deny We Ever Met Chapter 16

Sebastian was escorted out by Professor Albright as if he were something contagious.

The campus officer and dorm administrator also withdrew politely, closing the door behind them.

At last, the world was silent. I stood alone amid the wreckage of torn notes and overturned chairs. I didn’t cry. I just felt an exhaustion that sank deep into my bones.

Just then, my phone began vibrating wildly on the desk. Isabella’s name flashed on the screen.

I stared at it, letting it ring again and again until it stopped, only for her to stubbornly call back.

Finally, I answered.

Isabella’s heart-wrenching sobs came through the speaker.

“Chloe, I lost to you again. Are you satisfied now?”

I listened to her familiar, pitiful weeping, but my stomach just churned with disgust.

She began to accuse me frantically. “Ever since we were little, you were the genius. The scholarship to Auden, the professors’ praise, Sebastian’s heart… everything I wanted, you got so easily. Every time I stood beside you, I felt like a meaningless backdrop.”

“Every time you shared some new discovery about the Renaissance with me, do you know what I was thinking? I was thinking, *I love him too*. I love Sebastian, too. But I know you, Chloe. Even if I confessed, you would never give him up out of sympathy.”

“I waited so long for the perfect excuse when my family got into trouble. I worked so hard to get him to agree to the marriage. There are so many men in New York. Why did you have to come back and fight me for him?”

“The moment you appeared at the party, I thought, for once, I would finally beat you. But as soon as you showed up, he was gone. Do you know how desperate I felt, sitting alone in that empty estate in my expensive dress?”

She cried until her voice was raw, every word a release of her jealousy and resentment.

But was any of this really my fault?

“Isabella,” I said, my voice so calm it surprised even me, “everyone has the right to pursue what they want. I never stopped you from going after Sebastian. Who he chooses is his decision.”

“Freshman year, when we were curled up in our dorm, you asked me what I would choose if we ever fell for the same person. Him, or you. I gave you my answer then.”

What I’d said was that I would choose her. Because men could come and go, but a friendship between women was priceless.

But I had forgotten that friendship required sincerity. And she had taken my trust, forged it into a poisoned blade, and driven it straight into my heart.

“Isabella, the day you handed me that invitation, I was still naive enough to imagine that I would be the one applauding the loudest at your graduation design show, just like we always planned.”

“I imagined I would be moved to tears in the audience while you explained your design concept.”

I had truly looked forward to all of that.

The one thing I had never imagined was that I would stand at your engagement party with Sebastian and watch the two of you betray five years of my life.

As she listened, the sobbing on the other end slowly became desperate whimpers.

“Isabella, whatever was between us ends here. If we run into each other at alumni events in the future, let’s just pretend we don’t know each other.”

Without hesitation, I hung up. My finger slid across the screen and dragged her number into my block list forever.