Thirty Days to Die: The Family That Faked Death to Break Me Chapter 11

Thirty Days to Die: The Family That Faked Death to Break Me Chapter 11

The next day, my best friend sent me a screenshot — a message request from an account she’d circled in red, followed by a wall of text that opened with an apology.

[Is this your ex?]

[Yep.]

[So he finally grew a conscience. I still don’t know how you put up with him for that long.]

I smiled and changed the subject. At the end of the month, I sat in on my first team lead meeting.

I scrapped the old slide deck and built a new format — no filler, just each project’s highlights and takeaways for the month. Five minutes flat. Team results, next month’s client pipeline, done.

Even the VP — the one who never had anything nice to say — smiled. “Audrey’s format is exactly what we need. Tight, clear, gets to the point. I want every team using this going forward.”

I exhaled and let myself smile. Valerie’s DM came through a second later — a “nailed it” GIF.

[Killed it! I always knew you had it in you!]

[Should’ve come to Sunhaven sooner. This is where you were meant to be.]

I looked out the window. Sunhaven was good to me. It was close enough to home that I could visit my mom on weekends.

The sun showed up every day here, nothing like Seacrest’s moody skies.

But there was a time when I loved the rain. Two people under one umbrella, pressed so close I could feel his warmth through my sleeve, my heartbeat louder than the drops hitting the fabric above us.

Until one umbrella became two. Until the walk home became mine alone.

If I hadn’t lived through Seacrest’s rain, I might never have found my way here.

[Did you hear? Julian and Chloe both got fired.]

I raised my eyebrows.

[That deal was basically locked in, but Chloe posted a selfie during the trip and caught the open confidential documents on the desk behind her.]

All those selfies she’d posted from Julian’s car — of course she couldn’t help herself.

[The company lost the client. Management traced the leak, and Julian went down with her.]

[Word’s gotten around the whole industry. Good luck to either of them finding work after this.]

I didn’t expect to see Chloe sitting across from me in an interview the very next day.

When she saw me, her face froze. I sat through her stumbling introduction and quietly messaged my team to find out how her

resume had made it past the industry blacklist.

Three days after the interview results went out, she was blocking the lobby entrance.

“Audrey! You rigged my interview — I’m reporting you!”

Coworkers slowed down to stare. The attention seemed to fuel her, and she got louder.

“I have a degree from a top school and direct industry experience — the HR recruiter said I was a perfect fit. I know you have a problem with me because of Julian, but I never came between you two. Please don’t take this out on my career.”

She lunged forward and grabbed my arm, causing a desperate scene. I crossed my arms and pulled away.

“Go ahead. Report it.”

“Just know that by the time your complaint goes through, the HR rep who pushed your resume past the blacklist will already be clearing out his desk.”

She looked up, stunned.

Julian wasn’t useful anymore, so Chloe had found someone new to lean on in Sunhaven. I only learned later that the boyfriend my coworker had been venting about at the celebration — the one with zero boundaries — had been the recruiter who brought her in.

I looked past her and turned to walk away.

Chloe’s face twisted with rage. She reached into her bag.

“Watch out!”

I spun around. Julian slammed into Chloe from out of nowhere, and they both hit the ground. Julian clutched his stomach, blood spreading across his shirt. A switchblade in Chloe’s hand clattered to the pavement. She tried to run — security caught her before she made it ten feet.

She was arrested for attempted murder. I heard the families tried to settle it privately and couldn’t. Whatever history they’d shared — a lifetime of it — was gone.

I visited Julian the day he was discharged. The wound had left complications that would never fully heal. He looked like he’d lost half his body weight.

He took the flowers from me. *Last time you gave me flowers was graduation day.”

I nodded. “Yeah. That was a good day.”

Something lit up in his eyes for a second, then faded. “I wish we could’ve stayed there.”

I didn’t pull on that thread. I said goodbye and left. He was the only one still standing in the past.

Me? I’d already walked out of the rain.