I Was the Fifth Friend, Until They Made Me Nothing Chapter 08

I Was the Fifth Friend, Until They Made Me Nothing Chapter 08

“Evie, I need to tell you something. Please don’t be mad.”

A month later, Sabrina’s message crossed the nine-hour time difference.

It was three in the morning in Zurich.

Noon in California.

I woke up and glanced at it.

“Ryan came to see me last week. He asked whether I knew your address and was keeping it from him. I told him I honestly didn’t know. He drank a lot and said some things.”

“What did he say?”

“He said… he regretted everything.”

“And?”

“He said he never thought you’d actually leave. He thought you were just throwing a fit.”

Throwing a fit.

Taking an eleven-hour flight was throwing a fit.

Getting a Swiss work permit was throwing a fit.

Leaving every safety net I had in California was throwing a fit.

“Tell him I wasn’t throwing a fit, and I don’t need his regret.”

“Evie, can’t you give him one more chance? He really knows he was wrong.”

“Sabrina, why do you care so much whether Ryan and I get back together?”

Her answer took a while.

“Because I don’t want to see you break up over a misunderstanding.”

“What misunderstanding?”

“He doesn’t have feelings for me. You misunderstood him.”

“Are you still wearing that bracelet?”

She didn’t answer.

A minute passed.

“It was only a graduation gift.”

“Ryan picked the sticker on your phone case, didn’t he? He took you to the dessert place you posted last week, didn’t he? And you changed your profile picture to the pothos in the corner of his studio. That’s his plant.”

“How do you know that?”

“I don’t have to investigate. You never bother hiding any of it.”

She stopped replying.

I put my phone on the nightstand and lay back with my eyes closed.

My heartbeat was steady.

Once, seeing things like that would have made my hands shake. I would have taken screenshots, enlarged every detail, and asked myself over and over whether I was imagining it.

Not anymore.

Distance was the best cure.

Not because I had stopped caring.

I had simply cared for so long that exhaustion had worn every feeling smooth.

When I arrived at the studio that morning, Helmut was standing beside my desk.

“Evelyn, the Old Town client specifically requested you for the second phase of the storefront project.”

“Me?”

“They were very pleased with your last presentation, especially your use of color.”

Kilian gave me a thumbs-up from the next desk.

I sat down and opened my computer. An email from California waited in my inbox.

It wasn’t from Ethan.

It was from Mom.

“Evie, Ethan says you’re ignoring him. What has gotten into you lately? Sabrina cried because she was so worried, and look at what you’re putting everyone through. You need to apologize to your brother. He’s your brother. He would never do anything to hurt you.”

Sabrina had cried from worry.

She had cried, so I was wrong.

Ethan couldn’t reach me, so I was being difficult.

It was always the same.

Sabrina’s tears were a weapon. My silence was evidence against me.

I replied to Mom.

“Mom, I’m doing well here. Work is going well too. I’m not fighting with anyone. I just don’t want to come back.”

She answered immediately.

“If you don’t come home, what about Ryan? He has been waiting for you for a month.”

“We broke up.”

“What do you mean, you broke up? You were together for three years. You can’t just end it like that!”

“Yes, I can.”

“What is happening to you? Did something happen over there? Sabrina said you’ve always had a problem with her. Are you jealous because she’s close to Ethan?”

Jealous.

Mom had used the word jealous.

“Did Sabrina tell you I was jealous of her?”

“She didn’t say that exactly. She said you’ve always thought everyone favored her, and that you’ve hurt her deeply.”

She was hurt.

She had told my mother all about her hurt.

I’d spent three years talking about my own hurt, and no one had ever treated it as real.

“Mom, I’m not jealous of anyone. I’m just tired.”

“Tired of what? You had a perfectly good life here, and you chose to run halfway around the world. Have you been listening to people online who think cutting off their family solves everything?”

I didn’t answer again.

I muted Mom’s messages too.

That afternoon, the client signed the contract for the second phase as soon as my presentation ended.

Helmut patted my shoulder.

“Evelyn, your talent should never be wasted in a corner.”

He was talking about work.

But I heard something else in the words.

It should never be wasted in a corner.

I had spent four years in that group of five.

For all four years, my place had always been in the corner.

When I returned to my apartment that night, I received a text from an unfamiliar number.

“Evelyn Parker, it’s Miles. Don’t hang up.”

I couldn’t hang up. It was a text.

“I heard what happened after Sabrina told everyone you were jealous of her. I need to tell you the truth.”

“Go ahead.”

“Sabrina cried in the group chat and said you had broken her heart. Ethan and Ryan both comforted her. No one thought she’d done anything wrong.”

“That’s what I expected.”

“But I think something is wrong.”

I stared at that line for several seconds.

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve been thinking about everything you said. The four coffees. Driving off without you after the escape room. Everyone forgetting your birthday. I used to think they were accidents. But when you put them together, they weren’t.”

For the first time in four years, someone had admitted they weren’t accidents.

“What good does it do to say that now?”

“None. But I wanted you to know that at least one person finally believes you.”

I didn’t answer.

After a while, he sent another message.

“Are you doing okay?”

“I’m doing well.”

“Good.”

He didn’t send anything else.

It was the only message I’d received since leaving that didn’t ask me to come back.