They Pretended I Didn’t Exist for Twenty Years… So I Disappeared Chapter 03

They Pretended I Didn’t Exist for Twenty Years… So I Disappeared Chapter 03

“Did you know you were pregnant?”

When I woke up, the officer hurried over with a glass of water.

She hesitated for a long time before telling me the rest.

“But… you lost the baby. I’m so sorry. Try to get some rest.”

Then she added gently, “And don’t worry about the men who attacked you. We’ll do everything we can to find them.”

A loud ringing filled my head.

I didn’t know how long I lay there before I slowly placed a hand over my lower abdomen.

I laughed and cried at the same time.

There had been a tiny life inside me.

Ethan had lost his parents young too.

Even though we weren’t married yet, during our quiet moments together, he would often talk about what life might be like once we had children.

But now my phone remained silent.

Ethan hadn’t contacted me once.

I closed my eyes and let the tears slide down my cheeks.

After a while, I sent someone a message.

“I don’t want to be invisible to them anymore. Can you come get me?”

His reply came back: [Yes.]

I breathed a little easier.

Then I dragged myself back to the hotel to pack my things and leave.

The moment I opened the door, I found Ethan standing there.

When he saw me, relief flickered across his face.

“Why do you look so pale? Did you really go to the police and then the hospital? Don’t tell me you actually…”

I looked at him.

He immediately fell silent, then seemed to reassure himself.

“No. That’s impossible. Mason picked this hotel because it was supposed to be safe. Nothing could’ve happened here.”

I stepped around him and started packing.

For the first time, I treated Ethan as if he were invisible.

He apologized over and over, but I didn’t respond.

Eventually, he lost patience and put a hand on my suitcase to stop me.

“Claire Bennett, how long are you going to keep this up? I already apologized.”

“I rejected Lily right in front of you. Even the kiss happened in front of you. I didn’t hide anything. Why are you still being so dramatic?”

Dramatic.

So that was how it worked.

They could do anything they wanted, and somehow, I would still be the one at fault.

That one word brought twenty years of hurt rushing back.

“You call me dramatic for not being able to handle a few minutes of being ignored? Then what do you call the last twenty years of my life?”

“If the four of you are such great friends and I’m in the way, you could’ve just told me. Why did you have to keep using some twisted game to shut me out?”

Ethan stared at me, clearly not expecting me to react like that.

Lily rushed in to smooth things over.

“Okay, Claire, there’s a limit to how long you can stay mad. We didn’t even have much fun these past couple of days without you.”

She shoved her phone in front of my face.

“Look at these pictures Ryan and Mason took of Ethan and me while you were gone. They’re awful.”

“If you hate it that much, I won’t borrow Ethan as my boyfriend anymore. Okay? We’ll call this round of the Invisible Game off.”

I stared at the photos.

A bone-deep chill crept over me.

This had happened before too.

Once, on another trip, they started the Invisible Game and changed destinations at the last minute without telling me.

I waited for them for hours under the blazing sun until I collapsed from heat exhaustion and ended up in the hospital.

When I finally exploded at them, all they said was, “You should’ve given in. We were pretending you were invisible, so obviously we couldn’t tell you where we were going.”

Now I looked at Ethan and Lily leaning against each other in the photos.

My heart had already gone numb.

I’d been sexually assaulted.

I’d lost my baby.

And the people closest to me had spent the entire time sightseeing and taking pictures together.

Ryan scolded me too.

“She’s already backed down. Let it go. If you’re this impossible now, what are you going to be like after you marry Ethan?”

Mason, who had appeared at some point, chimed in too.

“Lily is being incredibly generous. Unlike some people.”

Then he lowered his voice and threatened me.

“She’s giving you an out. Everyone at the hotel is talking about a rape that happened nearby. Keep this up, and don’t expect us to look out for you.”

I bit down hard on my tongue.

Then I stared straight at Mason.

He had been my rival since we were kids, always finding some reason to argue with me.

After Lily came into our lives and his feelings for her grew, he started targeting me even more viciously.

But he didn’t know that something already had happened to me.

I looked at all four of them and spoke slowly, one word at a time.

“I already told you. I’m done with all of you. What part of that don’t you understand?”

“I’m done being your friend. And Ethan, I’m breaking up with you.”

They were blocking the doorway.

So I took a deep breath and laid the truth bare.

“I was sexually assaulted. I lost my baby. And it happened because of your stupid game.”