Everyone Knew But Me The Day My Boyfriend Married His Other Girlfriend Chapter 01

Everyone Knew But Me The Day My Boyfriend Married His Other Girlfriend Chapter 01

On Valentine’s Day, my boyfriend—the one I was supposed to get married to that day—went completely MIA.

I didn’t hear from him all day. Not a single text.

Then, late that night, I accidentally scrolled past a post on his ins.

He’d forgotten to block me.

“From twenty to twenty-eight, our youth has finally reached its final chapter.”

The post included a photo of two marriage certificates.

In the wedding picture, a girl I’d never seen before leaned against his shoulder, smiling sweetly.

Furious, I opened the comments, ready to confront him.

Then I saw a message from my best friend.

“Let’s all congratulate these two longtime lovers for finally overcoming every obstacle and getting their happily ever after!”

My heart clenched.

With trembling fingers, I called Claire Sullivan.

After a long silence, she finally confessed.

“Yeah. They’ve been together for eight years. Everybody knew.”

“We weren’t trying to hide it from you on purpose. We just thought you’d make a scene. You know how you get.”

“Vanessa and Julian are a better match anyway. They’ve been through so much to get here. Why make things harder for another woman? Just let it go, okay?”

Tears hit my cheeks, landing on my chest with a dull thud.

Only then did I realize the truth.

During the twelve years I’d been with Julian Carter, he’d been in love with someone else for eight of those years.

Everyone knew.

And everyone had chosen to hide it from me.

—

I kept scrolling through the comments like I was punishing myself.

Claire wasn’t the only one congratulating them.

There were plenty of mutual friends celebrating too.

“Vanessa’s a great girl. If you ever hurt her, man, I’ll be the first one to kick your ass.”

That was Julian’s best friend.

Just last week, he had asked when Julian and I would get the marriage license.

“So happy for you, Julian! You finally married the woman you love. Drinks are on you tonight!”

That was my former college roommate.

“Celebrate all you want, but make sure nobody tells a certain someone. We can’t ruin this for the newlyweds.”

That was Julian’s sister.

Years ago, she’d borrowed eighty thousand dollars from me for her business and swore I’d be her only sister-in-law.

“Don’t worry. For the prince and princess to live happily ever after, we’ll make sure the wicked witch never finds out.”

That was the new assistant at Julian’s company. The clumsy one who almost got fired twice.

I’d vouched for her, trained her, helped her pass her probation.

I tilted my head back. Forced the tears back in.

Everyone knew Julian had been with another woman for eight years.

And every single one of them had helped keep me in the dark.

I was the “certain someone” in their secret conversations.

The wicked witch standing in the way of a prince and princess.

A joke.

My screen refreshed. Julian’s post vanished.

Then my phone started ringing. It was Julian.

The man who’d been MIA all day.

“Baby, I’m sorry. There was a huge system failure at work today. I’ve been dealing with it nonstop and barely touched my phone.”

“Work’s been crazy lately. Maybe we should… put the marriage license on hold for now.”

He paused.

Then casually added,

“By the way… did you happen to see anything interesting on social media today?”

His voice was tight. Nervous. He was testing me.

I forced the words out.

“I spent all day at the hospital with my mom. I couldn’t even reach you. How would I have time to scroll through social media?”

“You do what you need to do. As for the marriage license… we’ll figure it out later.”

Last year, my mom was diagnosed with terminal stomach cancer.

The doctors said that even under the best circumstances, she had maybe three years left.

Her only wish was to see me married before I turned thirty.

Today was Valentine’s Day.

And it was also my thirtieth birthday.

Right now, my mom was still in her hospital room, waiting to see my marriage certificate.

But I would never be able to grant her final wish.

Because Julian Carter was already someone else’s husband.

I crouched in the corner of my apartment, curling into myself as tight as I could.

Tears splashed onto my phone screen, blurring the black text into halos of light.

After wiping it clean, I quietly memorized the location of their celebration dinner.

The Gilded Pearl, Private Room 302.