He Said a Female Bestie Is Fine—So I Got a Male One Chapter 11

He Said a Female Bestie Is Fine—So I Got a Male One Chapter 11

Ethan survived.

But he was paralyzed fromthe waist down,

Chloe didn’t get the death penalty, but she was convicted of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

I heard later that something happened to her on the inside and her face got cut up pretty badly.

After Ethan’s accident, a lot of people came to find me.

His parents, his friends, even my own parents.

His mom and dad begged me not to abandon him now, not after everything we’d been through together as

husband and wife.

His friends hoped that his act of saving my life might be enough to convince me to stay by his side and help

him through his recovery.

My own parents just wanted me to come home to Maple Falls and stop dragging myself through this mess.

In the end, I went to see him one last time.

The man who used to be so full of pride and confidence was lying in a hospital bed, completely dependent on

others for even the most basic needs.

He didn’t say anything. He just looked at me, and his eyes were filled with nothing but regret.

I thanked him. He had, after all, taken that hit for me.

“I know,” he whispered, his voice a broken rasp. “I know I don’t deserve to ask you to stay.”

“This is all my fault,” he continued, the tears finally spilling over. “Everything I’m going through, I brought it on myself. I earned this.”

“The doctors didn’t say never.” I kept my voice gentle. “You do the work, you put in the time, you could walk again. They said it’s possible.”

A desperate, fragile hope lit up his face. He looked at me, trembling and afraid to believe it.

“So… does that mean you might…”

“I’m moving back to Oregon,” I said, my voice calm and even. “I’m an only child, Ethan. You know that. If it weren’t for you, I would’ve gone back right after graduation.”

His face fell. All the light and hope drained out of him, and he looked like a sunflower that had been left in

the dark for too long.

His eyes rimmed red and a bitter, self-mocking smile twisted his lips.

“I knew it,” he said quietly, “A useless piece of garbage like me deserves to just rot.

“Ethan,” I cut him off, my tone sharp. “We have our own lives now. I’m done letting you have any piece of mine. And you shouldn’t give me any piece of yours.”

Maybe it was the unflinching directness of my words, or the look in my eyes, but he fell silent.

The room was so quiet you could have heard a pin drop.

The afternoon sun streamed through the window and fell over me, covering me in a wash of warm, golden

light.

I went home. Back to Maple Falls.

Every now and then I’d hear news from Crestwood.

It took Ethan two years, but he learned to walk again with assistance. The time away from his company had

been too much, though, and he ended up having to close it down.

On another New Year’s Eve, I got a text from Lucas.

[Happy New Year!]

I was out with my parents, getting ready for the countdown. I saw the picture he’d sent-a selfie of him sitting alone on his balcony. I texted him back, teasing.

[Spending another year by yourself? You could always crash at my parents’ place for a few days, you know.]

His reply came back a moment later.

[Nah. My girl wouldn’t like that.]

He was talking about his first love, the one who’d been gone for years now.

I raised an eyebrow and typed back.

[Impressive. Still saving yourself for her after all these years.]

[Of course,] he replied. [Friends need boundaries too. ]

I smiled. I looked up and out the window.

It was snowing. It was beautiful.

The moment the SATs were over, I slept with Chase Walker for the first time.

In the heat of it all, Lgasped out loud only to hear him whisper a name that wasn’t mine.

“Maddie…”

But my name is Sierra. Maddie is my twin sister.

I blinked, stunned, and looked up at him. “Who did you just say?”

Chase kept moving, lowering his head to kiss my eyelids. “Sierra,” he murmured, fris voice thick, “don’t get distracted. You’re enjoying this, right?”

His rhythm quickened, driving away every ounce of doubt I had left

Chase was a jock-strong, tireless, and always creative. My body trembled uncontrollably beneath him. I tried to push him away. “Don’t…”

He leaned into my ear, voice hoarse with desire. “Baby, let’s try it on top this time.”

That night, he wore me down-again and again—until I was crying, begging, shaking, and still he didn’t

stop.

Not until sunrise did he finally stumble into the bathroom, satisfied.

I lay there, too sore to move, my limbs aching like they didn’t belong to me.

Then his phone on the nightstand started blowing up with notification pings.

Instinctively, I glanced at the screen-and froze.

[Congrats, Walker! You finally got some last night!]

My heart dropped. I couldn’t stop myself. I unlocked his phone and opened the group chat.

What I saw made my entire body go numb.

He’d sent a photo of the bloodstained hotel bedsheet. In the middle of the night.

The messages came in a flood:

[Holy crap, Chase you really did it with Sierra? I thought you were into Maddie?]

[C’mon, they’re twins. Same face, same body. He’s just warming up with Sierra before he goes all in with Maddie. Practice makes perfect, right?)

[Exactly. He’s in love with Maddie. Sierra’s just a stand in so he doesn’t screw it up with the real thing.]