My Missing Boyfriend Was Alive, So I Chose His Best Friend Chapter 13

My Missing Boyfriend Was Alive, So I Chose His Best Friend Chapter 13

After Lila left, I crossed my arms and looked at Gavin. “Well, well. Even I was completely in the

dark.”

“If I hadn’t kept it from you, how would I ever have gotten my shot?”

“What do you mean?”

He looked almost rueful. “Everyone saw me as Tyler’s buddy. If I’d laid my cards on the table early, you would never have even considered me.”

“So I made a choice-I’d be the bad guy. I’d seduce you, make you fall for me, and shoulder all the

blame.”

He’d stepped into my life wearing the mask of a repentant friend. He took care of me obsessively. He “accidentally” showed off his body. While everyone else stayed oblivious, he put on a one-man

show of pure competition.

“What if your plan had failed?” I asked.

you

“Then that would’ve been fine too.” Gavin’s smile softened. “At least I got to be there for when you were hurting. That alone was enough.”

Lila was cornered, with zero allies left. She fled Ashford City in disgrace. Her family’s business cratered. The money shriveled. She’d never play the pampered princess again.

But I wasn’t fully satisfied. The mess took two people to make. Why should Tyler walk away clean? I had no dirt on him myself, but I believed someone did. The people who were once closest to him

definitely knew something.

So I tracked down Lila’s Twitter account and sent her an anonymous DM.

[Aww, I feel so bad for you. It’s clearly the cheating jerk’s fault. Why should you take all the heat alone? Don’t let him off the hook, girl! I’m rooting for you.]

What? I can play the innocent act too.

Just as I expected-isolated and desperate-the smallest crumb of support sent Lila into a targeted frenzy.

She started posting evidence of Tyler’s old bullying on Twitter. High school stuff. He’d broken another kid’s arm. The Vances had thrown a few thousand dollars at the family and made it vanish.

That same year, Tyler was named an honor student.

Normally, this kind of exposé might not have gained huge traction. But Vance Apparel had just finished a brutal corporate rivalry. The competitor saw a gift fall straight into their lap and immediately threw money behind the tweets to get them trending. Just like that, Tyler’s golden-boy image shattered.