His Friends, Her Friends, His Mother, All Lied To Her Face Chapter 06

His Friends, Her Friends, His Mother, All Lied To Her Face Chapter 06

Tessa froze when she heard the call.

“She actually… meant it?”

“No way. Her mother has been waiting to see her get married. She’d never really call it off.”

Ryan finally snapped out of it and rushed home.

When he got there, every trace of Claire was gone.

The succulents she had kept on the balcony, the strange refrigerator magnets she had collected—anything Claire had bought was gone.

Ryan opened the closet and found a box inside.

It belonged to Claire.

His hands trembled as he lifted the lid.

A notebook lay on top. Beneath it was a collection of small gifts he had given her.

Ryan took them out one by one.

There was a photograph from the morning he had gone to watch the sunrise with Maya. When he came home, he had promised Claire he would take her next time.

There was the Disney plush with Maya’s lipstick mark still on it.

There was also a cheap keychain he had picked up on the side of the road after going camping with Maya.

—

Every item had supposedly been a gift for Claire, yet every one of them was tied to Maya.

Ryan had never thought there was anything wrong with that before. Maya’s condition had worsened because of him, so he couldn’t simply abandon her. He had told himself that neglecting Claire a little was a small price to pay.

Looking at the gifts now, even he felt disgusted.

He opened the notebook.

It was Claire’s handwritten recipe book. She had recorded every treat she had made for his mother, each recipe complicated and time-consuming, with every step written out in meticulous detail.

The recipes filled more than half the notebook.

When Ryan reached the final page, there was no recipe.

There was only one line.

[So I was the only fool in this whole charade.]

It was dated the day he had taken Maya to the amusement park.

A tear fell from Ryan’s eye and struck the page.

Panic crashed over him all at once. He called Claire over and over in a frenzy.

She had blocked him.

By the time Tessa arrived, Ryan was sitting on the floor with the notebook still clutched in his hands.

—

“Claire really left?”

Ryan looked up, his eyes bloodshot.

“I’m going to find her.”

He started to rise, but Tessa grabbed his arm.

“Calm down. It’s the middle of the night. Where are you even going to look?”

“Have you called her mother?”

The question jolted him into action.

Ryan immediately called Claire’s mother. She answered quickly.

“What do you want?”

Ryan deliberately softened his voice.

“Mrs. Ashton, this is Ryan.”

“Claire and I had a misunderstanding, and I can’t reach her. Did she come to stay with you?”

“A misunderstanding?” Claire’s mother shot back. “Every one of you lied to her and made a fool of her, and you’re calling that a misunderstanding?”

Ryan had no response.

Claire had always hidden her pain from her mother and shared only the good things in her life. If she had finally told her what happened, what did that mean?

—

Ryan couldn’t bring himself to follow the thought any further.

He forced himself to continue.

“Mrs. Ashton, I know I was wrong. Our wedding is coming up soon. Could you please talk to her for me?”

He hesitated.

“Have I not always wanted to see her settle down?”

Claire’s mother gave a humorless laugh.

“I wanted her to build a life with someone who loved her. I didn’t want her to marry someone who would lie to her.”

She hung up without another word.

Despair settled over Ryan.

Just then, his phone began lighting up with messages from Tyler.

Tyler: [Ryan, get to Maya’s place right now. Some guy won’t leave her alone.]

Ryan’s chest tightened.

He forced down everything he was feeling and hurried over with Tessa.

Tyler was pacing outside the building when they arrived.

“Finally. I’ve been watching the place because I was afraid something might happen to Maya.”

But when they went upstairs, Maya’s expression darkened the

—

moment she saw them.

“Ryan? What are all of you doing here?”

The man with her turned and looked Ryan over.

“So this is the idiot you’ve been playing all this time?”

Ryan frowned at the harsh remark.

“Who are you, and what do you want with her?”

The man laughed openly.

“Who am I? I’m her ex-husband.”

“When I had money, she came after me and burned through plenty of it. The second I went bankrupt, she dropped me and latched on to a rich Mercer boy like you.”

The room fell dead silent.

Maya screamed, “He’s lying! Shut up!”

“I’m lying?” The man gave her a mocking look. “What about the dog you told me to run over? Am I lying about that too?”