Congrats, ‘Daddy’! Just Kidding—My BFF Stole You, I Got the Abortion Chapter 05

Congrats, ‘Daddy’! Just Kidding—My BFF Stole You, I Got the Abortion Chapter 05

The face on the screen looked older. Eyes like he hadn’t slept in five years.

Helden felt something cold creep up his back.

Who the hell are you?”

Im you. Five years out.”

Guy on screen held up his right hand. Same ring. Same everything.

Why do you look like shit? What happened?”

Holden’s voice cracked. “Sloane jumped… They still haven’t found her.”

Future Holden squeezed his phone. Then just… let out this long breath.

He knew her. She wouldn’t kill herself.

Present Holden was losing it. “Why would she jump? What the fuck did I do?”

Future him just stared back. Eyes dead. “Because she found out everything you’re gonna put her through. I told her myself.”

What… what did I do…”

Future Holden cut him off. Started listing it.

The affair. The studio takeover. Her dad’s surgery. The baby.

oked at present him like he was looking at trash.

et her go. Stop destroying her.”

en he ended the call.

search went on for twelve hours.

Final report: No body recovered. Survival probability under 3%.

joiden didn’t believe what future him said. Started checking everything himself.

Went to the jeweler who made the ring, pulled the order records.

riginal engraving: S&H, forever.

Amendment record showed: Three days before the proposal, a woman came in with his membership card and changed it to J&H

Her signature was on file.

julie changed it.

The ring was always meant for Sloane.

Future him saying he was gonna propose to Joelle first that was a lie.

Unless… future him was deliberately painting himself worse than he was.

Deliberately making her hate him. Deliberately pushing her away.

He didn’t have time to process that.

Followed the jeweler. More shit came out.

Joelle had been sneaking into his business stuff way before he even proposed. Setting up fake companies in his name.

Those design files she grabbed off Sloane’s computer? Check the dates–way before he gave her a dime.

she’d been setting this up the whole time.

Wasn’t like she saw an opportunity and took it. She’d been stealing from the start. just used his money to cover her tracks.

He took everything. Went to her place.

She was throwing clothes in bags. Getting ready to bail. Saw him walk in–instant switch to the victim thing.

“Holden, I heard about Sloane, I’m so-”

“You switched the engraving.”

Holden just said it. No feeling in his voice.

Joelle’s face froze. Tried to deny it.

But he threw the amendment record on the table in front of her.

The mask dropped. She laughed, cold and bitter.

“You think you’re so innocent? You never cut me off! You kept me on the hook with her still in your heart. Why should I be the backup forever?”

She stopped, Voice went weirdly calm.

“So yeah, I switched the engraving. Wanted her to see it herself. You wouldn’t pick, so I picked for you.”

Holden didn’t say anything for a while.

“You’re right. Should’ve told you no the first time you

said you liked me.”

“But I didn’t. I was being greedy. Liked having two people need me. My shit fed into your shit.”

“But that doesn’t mean you get to steal her work, mess with her ring, or kill her dad.”

When Holden was six, his family moved next door to Sloane’s. Two k

Stuck together.

When they were eight, Joelle showed up at their school.

Her stepdad beat the crap out of her. Sloane brought her home, got her mom to patch her up.

After that, the three of them were always together.

Holden knew from the start he liked Sloane.

But Joelle liked him.

Middle school, one night during study hall, Joelle slipped a letter into his backpack.

He opened it. His heart skipped.

He didn’t say yes. But didn’t say no either.

High school, first time she cried asking “do you just see me as a sister,” he should’ve said yes.

But seeing her cry like that, thinking about her drunk asshole stepdad, thinking about how she had nobody but him and Sloane–he couldn’t say it.

He held her hand instead.

College, Sloane went to art school out of state. Joelle and Holden stayed in the same city.

It just kept going like that.

He liked having both of them need him.

Sloane’s love? Like sunlight. Warm. Safe.

Joelle needing him? Like a drug. Dangerous. Exciting.

He wanted both. Told himself as long as he didn’t actually sleep with Joelle, it wasn’t cheating.

Until Sloane graduated and came back, and he officially got together with her.

But he never really cut Joelle off either.

Thinking about all this, Holden still called the cops.

He knew why she was packing to run.

She’d already canceled the specialist team for Sloane’s dad. That’s intentional harm.

Stealing the design files was commercial crime.

When they took Joelle away, she looked back at him with this bitter smile.

After he got home, he sat there holding

at J&H ring.

Then grabbed a utility knife and started scraping the “J” off the metal surface bit by bit.

Metal shavings and blood fell into his palm together.

Just left a lonely “H.”

Should’ve been S&H.

But S was gone.

Three days later the search team sent another update: No

body found below the cliff.

But a nearby car rental place said a woman named Sloane had been there.

Holden felt a rush of relief.

She might still be alive.

Did she disappear because of those lies?

He had to find her. Had to tell her: that ring was

always meant for her from the start.

He was about to leave when his lawyer called.

“Joelle wants to see you. Says there’s something about Sloane’s baby you need to know.”

His hand stopped dead on the wheel.

“What baby?”