He Left Me in the Rain for My Best Friend Chapter 04

He Left Me in the Rain for My Best Friend Chapter 04

She grabbed my hand in a rush.

“It’s my fault. I had no sense of boundaries. From now on, I won’t join your dates, and I won’t meet Caleb alone anymore.”

She looked deeply wronged, her eyes red.

“We’ve been friends since we were seven. You’re like family to me. I really don’t want to lose you.”

At that moment, I felt even more disgusted than I had in that cab.

There was a new, crudely made silver ring on her finger.

In an Instagram Close Friends Story only I could see, she was wearing that ring and holding Caleb Sterling’s hand, their fingers intertwined.

The caption read, “I asked him what he was thinking when he made the ring. He looked at me and said nothing, and I knew everything.”

I curved my lips into a mocking smile and shook off her hand.

“Stop acting.”

Her face turned ugly.

Caleb frowned too.

“Elena Brooks.”

Just then, his phone rang.

“Caleb, Elena sent me a long post and asked me to publish it on the school confession account as soon as possible. I don’t think it’s a good idea. I sent it to you through Instagram DM. Take a look.”

I froze.

After Caleb read it, he shoved the phone screen in front of my face in rage.

“Is your head full of nothing but filthy trash? First, you made up a story about being harassed by a driver. Now you’re spreading disgusting rumors about Ivy. Just because you’re jealous, you have no bottom line?”

The long post was written in my voice.

It accused Ivy Harper of being the other woman and seducing her best friend’s boyfriend.

It said they had slept together long ago, and that before the graduation trip, she went to a clinic to deal with a pregnancy.

Below it was a photo of her sitting in a hospital hallway.

Ivy Harper looked shocked and hurt.

Her voice trembled.

“Elena, do you really hate me that much?”

I bent over laughing.

“Ivy Harper, I should be the one asking you that. You should go study acting. Otherwise, all that talent is going to waste.”

Caleb looked at me like I was insane.

His eyes held anger, disappointment, disgust.

Then it turned into a vicious warning.

“Elena Brooks, three strikes. If you still want your mom’s food truck to stay open, stop pulling these filthy little stunts.”

It felt like someone had seized my throat.

My father died from illness when I was in middle school.

My mother used one small food truck to pay off the debt from his medical treatment and support our life.

Caleb Sterling’s father had power in city government.

Before, my mother’s food truck had been seized by the licensing office.

She had to pay a five-thousand-dollar fine to get it back.

He was threatening me with my mother.

I had no power to fight back.

Maybe he was satisfied with my reaction.

After saying that, he pulled Ivy Harper away.

“Elena, Caleb and I really don’t have anything…”

Ivy turned back to look at me.

She performed until the very last second.

Then the corner of her mouth lifted in a faint smile.

At noon, that long post was published on the school confession account of the neighboring private high school.

It was quickly decoded and spread back to our school.

People in the class group chat cursed Ivy Harper and pitied me.

The more I read, the more panic rose in my chest.

I couldn’t sit still.

My palm was scratched open from my nails digging into it.

Caleb and Ivy wouldn’t answer my calls.

I changed clothes and got ready to find Caleb.

I had to explain it to him.

It didn’t matter how he misunderstood me.

But he couldn’t hurt my mother.

On the way, my mother called.

My heart stopped for half a beat.

“Elena, listen to Mrs. Carter first. Don’t panic…”

It was the auntie who sold roast chicken next to my mother.

“A woman came looking for trouble. She said she found hair in your mom’s cold dishes and that the sausage had gone bad. She even brought a bunch of local reporters and food bloggers.”

“Your mom got shoved and fell. Her head hit the corner of the stainless steel counter…”

I rushed to the hospital like my life depended on it.

My heartbeat thundered so loudly it drowned out everything else.

When I heard the words, “We couldn’t save her,” the whole world went silent.

“Elena…”

Under the violent pain in my chest, everything went black.

In the haze, a familiar blurred figure was rushing toward me.

When I saw who it was, my heart clenched.