Their Joke Ended With One Word: Ex Chapter 08

Their Joke Ended With One Word: Ex Chapter 08

The guys looked at each other.

Then somebody muttered under his breath.

“Wait. When did she leave the group chat? No wonder it’s been dead in there for days.”

That got everyone scrolling back through the history.

“Seriously? Seven days ago?”

“You think it was really over that little game?”

“Every one of us has been roasted in there. Is it that big a deal?”

Ian looked down at his phone.

She’d been out of the group for seven days, and not one person had noticed.

Him included.

It was the same way nobody had noticed the day she joined.

And in that moment, it all landed on him at once.

She hadn’t left over a game.

Things stayed noisy outside the hotel for a while.

A white car stopped at the bottom of the steps, the door opened, and Chloe got out.

She came up the steps fast and stopped in front of Ian, her voice light and soft.

“I heard something went wrong over here. Are you okay?”

Ian kept his eyes down and didn’t answer.

Chloe reached for his arm, and he shifted half a step away, barely enough to see.

She froze for a second, and her voice caught a little.

“Ian, don’t be like this.”

“I promised you I wouldn’t come today, so Faye wouldn’t be upset.”

“But something went wrong, so I came. We’ll figure it out together.”

She stood there with her eyes going red, and the faces around her changed.

Jake spoke first, keeping his voice low.

“Man, Chloe means well. You can’t blame her for this too.”

Right, she didn’t fight anybody or make a scene, and she’s offering to help you find Faye,”

Once one of them started, the rest picked it up, line after line.

Chloe stood in the middle with her head down and didn’t say a word.

Ian didn’t say anything either.

Sunlight fell on the steps and stretched everyone’s shadows out long.

He watched her stand in the middle of all of them, comforted, defended, worried over.

Without any effort at all, she’d made every one of them see her as the one who’d been wronged.

And the woman beside him, who’d actually taken all of it, nobody had even noticed when she left

the group chat.

He gripped his phone, went down the steps, and left one line behind him. “I’ll find her myself.”

Jake called after him. “Man, don’t go. We can ask that Doyle guy first.”

Right as he said it, the ballroom doors opened.

Marty Doyle came out in a brand–new suit.

He saw Ian, then saw Chloe standing next to him, clicked his tongue, and shook his head.

Then he turned and went back to greeting his guests.

Ian walked over and lowered his voice. “Doyle, where is she? Don’t tell me you don’t know.”