My Boyfriend Gave Our Home Access Card To My Best Friend Chapter 12

My Boyfriend Gave Our Home Access Card To My Best Friend Chapter 12

That evening, Daniel’s mother spent ages showing me the family albums. She even found a photograph from when he’d wet the bed as a little boy.

He finally reached over and shut the album. “Mom. That’s enough.”

She glared at him. “I’m talking to Claire. Did anyone ask you?”

Daniel leaned back against the couch and sighed dramatically. “She’s been here half a day, and I’ve already

been replaced.”

I couldn’t help laughing. He turned to me, his eyes full of affection.

“Go ahead. If you’re happy, I can live with losing my spot.”

As we were leaving, his mother called me back. She brought out a velvet box. Inside lay a polished heirloom

bracelet.

“This belonged to Daniel’s grandmother. She wanted it passed down to the woman who joined our family.”

I instinctively tried to refuse. “Mrs. Hayes, it’s too valuable.”

“The bracelet isn’t what’s precious.” She slipped it gently over my wrist. “You are.”

Her voice was soft but firm. “Claire, we aren’t rushing you into marriage, and this isn’t meant to tie you down. We just want you to know that whenever you want it, you’ll always have a place in this family.”

I looked at the bracelet on my wrist, my eyes suddenly wet. When people truly valued me, I didn’t have to tiptoe around them or make myself smaller to earn their approval.

Daniel put an arm around my shoulders. “Believe me now? I told you they’d love you, too.”

On the day we flew back, we unexpectedly ran into Ethan and Vanessa at the airport.

A year had passed since I’d seen her. Vanessa looked worn down. She carried a stack of files and wore an ID badge from a partner company.

Ethan froze when he saw me. His eyes moved from my face to my hand in Daniel’s, then stopped on the bracelet at my wrist. His face went white.

“Claire.” He took an instinctive step toward me. “Vanessa and I aren’t what you think. Our companies are working together on a project. We’re just traveling for work. Nothing’s going on. We haven’t gotten back together!”

He spoke faster and faster, as if the right explanation could still give him a chance with me. Vanessa stood

beside him, humiliated, but didn’t argue.

She watched Daniel straighten my scarf, then looked at our joined hands and the bracelet on my wrist. The

light slowly faded from her eyes.

Once, she’d done everything she could to take Ethan from me. She’d thought other people treated me well

because I was lucky.

Now she finally understood that I hadn’t needed luck to start over. I’d needed the courage to trust what I had to offer. She hadn’t taken happiness from me.

She’d taken a relationship that was already rotten.

Ethan’s eyes reddened. “Don’t you have anything you want to ask me?”

I looked at him calmly. There had been a time when simply seeing him beside Vanessa would have hurt enough to keep me awake all night, imagining the worst.

Now I felt nothing.

“No need.”

That was all I said. He stood rooted to the spot as the last hope drained from his face.

Revenge wasn’t what hurt him most. It was realizing I no longer cared.

A boarding announcement sounded. Daniel squeezed my hand. “Come on. Let’s go home.”

“Okay.”

I walked with him toward security without looking back. Sunlight poured through the airport’s tall windows and fell across our joined hands.

Behind me was Ethan’s regret, years too late.

Ahead was my life with the man who’d never left me waiting alone.