My Best Friend Saved Me, Then Stole My Fiancé And My Wedding Chapter 07

My Best Friend Saved Me, Then Stole My Fiancé And My Wedding Chapter 07

They went back to the apartment.

The moving crew moved in and out, hauling boxes.

They hadn’t even cleared half of Sloane’s things.

Reid stood in the corner with Clarissa’s phone and called Maren. Nine times.

She declined every one.

On the tenth try, the line went dead. Blocked again.

Reid let the phone drop to his side and looked at Graham.

Graham shook his head.

“Nothing. She won’t pick up. She blocked me too.”

Clarissa’s eyes were already red.

“She’s done with us. For real this time.”

“I was supposed to look out for her. She’s my sister. How am I supposed to stand at Mom and Dad’s graves and explain this?”

She sank to the floor and pressed her hands over her face. The sobs came hard.

Graham’s voice cracked.

“I messed up too. All those jokes I kept making. I… I’m the one who pushed her out.”

Reid leaned against the wall and said nothing.

His eyes burned.

If he were honest with himself, he couldn’t say Sloane had meant nothing to him.

She was soft. Uncomplicated.

She didn’t fight him the way Maren did.

And somewhere along the way, she’d gotten under his skin.

There were nights he’d caught himself thinking it.

What if it had always been Sloane?

Would things have been easier?

But Maren was gone now.

And the place where she used to be felt like something ripped out of him.

Even breathing hurt.

The truth landed like a fist.

Maren had always been his.

When she walked out, she took every part of him that mattered.

Across the room, a worker fumbled a box.

A ring clattered to the floor and rolled to Reid’s feet.

He stared at it. Then he bent down and picked it up.

His wedding ring.

Sloane had insisted on matching bands for the ceremony.

So Reid had slipped the matching one onto Sloane’s finger.

He’d told Maren the ring was too flashy for her taste.

That it didn’t suit her. That it was better off as a display piece.

Then he’d given her a cheap placeholder ring.

Maren had been so happy about the wedding that she never noticed. Her diamond was half the size of Sloane’s.

The memory made him sick to his stomach.

He was the worst of all of them.

His selfishness had made Maren shrink, over and over, to make room for Sloane.

He was the one who had driven her away.

Graham’s hand landed on his shoulder.

“The movers want to know. The ring in your hand, the jewelry you had made. You keeping any of it?”

Reid looked down at the ring in his palm,

“Trash it. All of it.”

“Everything she’d ever touched made me sick.”

“When Maren comes back, I’ll buy her everything new.”

Graham opened his mouth, closed it, and exhaled.

He leaned in.

“Reid, we screwed up. All of us.

“But you know how she is Once she makes up her mind, that’s it.”

“She’d bend over backward for the people she loves. Give up everything and never complain.”

“But once she’s done? You could hand her the world and she wouldn’t look at it. So, Reid, you…”

He didn’t finish.

Reid understood.

It didn’t matter what he did to Sloane. It didn’t matter what he threw away.

Maren was done with him.

She wasn’t coming back.

But he kept seeing her face.

The summer of their first date came back to him all at once.

The five of them on the beach, talking and laughing.

Maren turning to him out of nowhere.

“Reid, would you ever break my heart?”

Everyone went quiet.

Reid laughed and pointed at the water.

“Never.”

Maren laughed with everyone else.

She pointed at a seagull, dimples showing.

“If you ever do, I’ll turn into a bird and fly so far away you’ll never find me.

Reid had tucked her hair behind her ear.

“Doesn’t matter where you go. I’ll find you.”

Something cracked open inside his chest.

Graham started to say something.

Reid snapped.

“Shut up!”

His fists were shaking.

“I know Maren better than any of you. She loves me That’s why she put up with all of it.”

“If I go to her and I mean it, she’ll forgive me. She always has

“I don’t care where she runs. I’ll find her.”

He shoved past Graham and headed for the door.

Graham caught himself against the wall.

By the time he straightened up, Reid was already at the door.

Graham lunged after him.

Clarissa caught Graham’s arm.

Her eyes were swollen.

“Don’t. Let him go.”

“He owes her this. And so do we.”