My Fiancé Said I Was the Homewrecker Between Him and My BFF? Screw Them Both! Chapter 07

My Fiancé Said I Was the Homewrecker Between Him and My BFF? Screw Them Both! Chapter 07

A week went by, and I started the job for real.

My department was racing against a cross-border project with a tight deadline and a heavy workload.

I stayed at the office until late every night, and the sandwiches and coffee my coworkers brought over piled up at the corner of my desk and went cold before I got to them.

The work was heavy enough that I didn’t have room to think about any of it.

I got back to the apartment after midnight, showered, and dropped straight into bed.

Sometimes I woke in the middle of the night with my face cold and wet, and I didn’t settle until I saw my

mother’s photo.

Six weeks later, the project wrapped up, and it went well.

My manager singled me out at the staff meeting, and the bonus hit my account as soon as the meeting

ended.

The first thing I did was go to the cemetery and lock in the plot.

That day, I crouched in front of the headstone with flowers in my arms and talked for a long time.

“Mom, I changed jobs. The pay is a lot better than before.”

“The weather here isn’t great and it rains all the time, but my apartment is warm and I can even keep

flowers on the windowsill…”

Somewhere in there, my voice started to break.

“I regret it, Mom. I really do. If I’d found out about the two of them sooner and left sooner, you’d never have gotten upset like that…”

“I was useless. I put you through all of it, and in the end I couldn’t even come up with the money for your

surgery…”

The wind moved through the trees, setting the leaves rustling.

When I’d cried long enough, I leaned against the stone the way I used to lean into her when I was small.

“I broke up with him, and it’s completely over. I’m going to work hard and save money and come see you

every year…”

“You take care of yourself over there, and don’t worry about me.”

Footsteps came up behind me. I assumed it was someone on staff, so I didn’t turn around.

Then the person behind me spoke, and his voice was shaking.

‘Serena.”

Everything in me locked up, and I turned around slowly.

Preston was standing there with his hair a mess.

A man who had always cared how he looked had dark stubble all over his jaw and shadows under his eyes.

His lips moved several times before anything came out.

“What you said a minute ago… is that true? Do you really regret being with me?”

I stood up and looked right at him.

“Yes. I regret it.”

He took a step forward and grabbed my shoulders, and his eyes were shot through with red.

“Serena, let me explain. I can explain all of it…”

I slapped him, and my palm stung from it.

His head turned with it, and five red lines came up on his cheek.

He turned back to me, and there was nothing in his eyes but begging.

“Please. Give me a chance to explain.”

“You don’t get to stand in front of my mother’s grave.”

I said it one word at a time.

“You spent the money on Phoebe while my mother could still have been saved, and now you’re here playing

the devoted man?”

He reached for me. “Serena, I was wrong. I know I was wrong…”

I shook him off and started for the cemetery gate.

“Please believe me. What happened with Phoebe was an accident, and everything after that was guilt.”

“I wanted to be good to her while she’s pregnant to make up for it. Because of this baby she’s going to have a hard time ever having a family of her own.”

“The dress and the wedding were the same thing. She’s pregnant, so nobody’s going to marry her now. I felt sorry for her and I gave her what she wanted.”

“I was good to her because she’s your best friend and I was looking after her for you. I never thought it would turn into this…”

I stopped and looked at him,

“You asked her out first for my sake. You dated me for her sake. You married me for her sake. And now you’re apologizing to me for her sake.”

“Preston, you were good to her and you did all of it under my name. Does that not disgust you?”

That shut him up.

“I already know. She was the one you went after first. She turned you down, and then you came to me.”

“Don’t bother denying it. Phoebe told me herself.”

“She said you picked me so you’d have a clean excuse to keep being good to her.”

I gave him a thin smile.

The color dropped out of his face.

“No, Serena! That’s not how it was.”

“At first, I liked how easy she was to be around, and that’s true. But the more time I spent with you, the more I actually fell for you.”

“The day I confessed, she thought it was meant for her. I only said I’d look after her so she wouldn’t be embarrassed.”

“She got it wrong. I’ve only ever loved you.”

The whole thing was ridiculous.

“Loving me looks like saying my name while you’re in bed with her?”

“Like letting her take my place at my own wedding? Like standing back while a room full of people coddles her and takes shots at me, over and over?”

My chest was tight.

“It doesn’t matter how many reasons you have or how much of you meant it. For six years, every time you had to choose, you chose her.”

“The anniversary, the surgery, the wedding. Name one time she didn’t come before me.”

“You kept saying you were sparing me and thinking of me, and I ended up carrying more than anyone.”

He opened his mouth, and his eyes went completely red.

“Serena… Treally do only love you…”

“Your way of loving me was letting a whole room laugh at me on my wedding day, and spending my mother’s surgery money on a maternity suite for Phoebe?”

For some reason, I laughed

“Stop. I don’t love you anymore.”

“I stopped when the two of you played that game at my wedding.”

“I stopped when I found out she was pregnant. And when my mother died, it was gone for good.”

He stood there frozen, and every bit of color drained out of his face.

I turned and walked, and this time I didn’t look back.