He Chose My Best Friend, Now He Wants Me Back Chapter 15

He Chose My Best Friend, Now He Wants Me Back Chapter 15

“I’m not trying to rehash the past,” I said, my tone as matter-of-fact as if I were discussing the weather. “I just want you to understand that the problem was always you. Not Sloane.”

He stood there like a defendant awaiting his sentence.

“You never chose me. Not really. For someone else’s health insurance, you married my best friend. At the exact moment I wanted a home more than anything, you were building one with someone else.”

“You thought a joint account could tie me to you, that our shared future could fund your present. But Ben, it was never about the money.”

My voice had grown a little hoarse, but it didn’t tremble.

“All my life, I’ve been chosen and then abandoned. I just wanted you, for once, to truly and unreservedly choose me.”

I looked at his ashen face and said, word by word, “Once would have been enough. Just once, so I could know that in your heart, I wasn’t the one who could be sacrificed.”

I was finished.

There were no tears, no breakdown. I just took a deep breath of the salty night air and turned to walk toward my apartment above the bookstore.

The wind was cold on my arms.

Behind me, I heard the rustle of a jacket. Ben was taking his off, instinctively moving to drape it over my shoulders.

But his hand stopped in midair.

Because I had already taken a small, natural step to the side, avoiding his touch.

The movement was tiny, instinctive. My body had learned to recoil from him before my mind even registered the thought.

In that instant, all the pain and regret on his face seemed to solidify.

He finally understood. It was over.

My body already knew to keep its distance.