He Chose My Best Friend, Now He Wants Me Back Chapter 02

He Chose My Best Friend, Now He Wants Me Back Chapter 02

The loading bar crept across the screen, delaying a judgment that was years overdue. When the familiar banking portal finally appeared, my heart sank.

The balance was six figures less than I remembered.

I scrolled down. A history of transfers appeared, a barrage of bullets tearing through the last three years.

Every month, a large, fixed sum was wired out. The recipient was listed as “Suburban Residential Leasing.” Another regular payment went to “Bright Start Private Preschool.”

In total, it was more than one hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

That was our down payment. Every cent I had earned by giving up my graduate degree and working overtime while he built his company. Every hope and dream I had invested in the idea of home.

Now, I saw it had paid the rent on Sloane’s comfortable suburban house. It had covered Ruby’s expensive tuition.

The printer whirred, spitting out bank statements, the paper still warm. I clutched the pages, my knuckles white, my body shaking with a rage so deep it felt like grief. I wanted to shove them in Ben’s face and demand to know what gave him the right.

The lock clicked. Ben let himself in with his key.

He saw the statements scattered at my feet, and his expression shifted. He lunged forward, snatching the papers from my hand. “You’re investigating me?” he demanded, his voice laced with outrage. “Mara, is that how little you trust me?”

Trust him?

A memory flashed through my mind. I’d just gotten a large bonus and was thinking about opening a separate account. Ben had hugged me from behind, his chin on my shoulder, his voice a soft murmur.

“We’re family,” he’d said. “Why would we separate our money? Isn’t it better to watch it grow together? To see it become our house, our future?”

Back then, I thought we were all each other had. I thought my world began and ended with him, so I gave him everything.

I finally understood. It was true that I had nothing else.

But he had another family to support all along.

“That’s my money,” I said. My voice was ice.

Ben’s anger evaporated, replaced by frantic panic. He stepped forward to embrace me, but I turned away.

His arms froze in midair. He knelt, taking my cold hands in his. His palms were warm and dry, his touch as gentle as ever. It was the same way he used to place his hands on my stomach to soothe my cramps.

The familiar tenderness made my skin crawl.

“Sloane doesn’t have a job. Ruby has to go to school. They needed the money.” He framed his theft as an act of charity. “I was just borrowing it. I swear, I’ll pay it all back.”

He looked up at me, his eyes—the eyes I once loved—full of pleading. “Just wait for me a little longer, Mara. As soon as I handle the divorce with Sloane, we’ll get married. The wedding is still on. I promise.”

I heard the meaning behind his words.

Not now.

For now, he still had to go back to Sloane, still had to play father to Ruby. All he could offer me was another empty promise, another request to just “wait a little longer.”

In that moment, my life felt like a joke.

Growing up in foster care, all I’d ever wanted was to be chosen, to be loved, to belong to a family. For that, I had mistaken Ben for my savior and Sloane for my family, casting myself as the humble supporting character in my own life.

I looked at the man before me, the man I had loved for eight years, the man I thought would be my home.

He wasn’t my salvation. He was my ruin.

Slowly, one finger at a time, I pulled my hand from his.

I didn’t look at him again. I turned back to my laptop and created a new document.

The cursor blinked on the blank page, a steady, calm heartbeat.

I began to type a list.

1. Contact a lawyer to file for division of assets.
2. Freeze the joint account and back up all transfer records.
3. Cancel all wedding vendors: venue, dress, photographer.
4. Submit a unilateral lease termination for the apartment.
5. Book a one-way flight.

Behind me, Ben’s voice droned on—promises of love, of the future, of everything he owed me—a meaningless buzz in the background.

I didn’t hear any of it.

This time, I wouldn’t leave my life in someone else’s hands.

I would take back everything that belonged to me.

And then I would disappear from his world.