The Triple Betrayal: He Cheated With My Best Friend So I Left Chapter 04
A wave of sickening, absurd laughter bubbled up in my chest.
Pain, pushed far enough, turned into something grotesquely funny.
My mouth curved into a mocking sneer. “So what, Ivy?”
“Am I supposed to thank you? For killing my boyfriend’s child?”
Ivy’s lips parted. Her hand reached for my wrist.
That was when I saw it. A silver ring on her ring finger.
That particular silver—matte, gray-white, and unmistakable.
My whole body went rigid.
I knew that ring.
After my mother died, I’d taken a small portion of her ashes and had them forged into the silver myself.
I’d shaped that plain band with my own hands.
The first night I gave myself to Julian, I’d slid it onto his finger.
Julian had promised me, his voice a gentle murmur back then. “Nora, I’ll wear it always. “
“On our wedding day, I’ll move it onto your finger, so your mother can watch you finally have a place where you belong.”
And now, it was on Ivy’s hand.
My whole body started to shake violently.
“Where did you get this ring?”
Ivy’s eyes slid away from mine. Not one word came out of her.
That was the moment something in me snapped.
I lunged for her like something unhinged, clawing for the ring on her hand.
Ivy toppled over under my weight. A scream tore out of her.
Julian shoved the door open. He saw Ivy tipped sideways off the bed, the IV needle already ripped out of her vein.
He rushed over and caught her. When he turned to me, his eyes were like shards of ice.
“Nora, have you lost your mind?”
I didn’t look at him. I stayed crouched on the floor, the ring clenched in my fist, shaking all over.
“You can humiliate me, Julian. But you don’t get to touch my mother.”
Julian stood up and looked down at me.
Then, his hand shot out and slapped the ring out of my palm.
The band hit the tile and skittered—a sharp, clean metallic sound.
“Nora! I’ve had enough! ” He roarred.
“Your mother died the way she did because she asked for it! Yeah. You’ve had a hard life. “
“But the whole world doesn’t owe you a damn thing! I don’t. Ivy doesn’t. “
“Now, apologize.”
Something cold shot through me. I stared at him, frozen, words dead in my mouth.
Then, I finally said something.
“No.”
Julian’s lip curled. He pulled out his phone and made a call.
A few minutes later, an orderly wheeled in a small medical incinerator.
My eyelid twitched. Something ugly settled in my stomach.
Julian bent down, picked the ring up off the floor, and walked it over to the furnace door.
“Fine. You don’t have to apologize. Just hope you can live with the consequences.”
As I realized what he meant to do, I threw myself forward.
Too late.
The orderly caught me, pinned my arms, and slammed me against the wall.
The door opened.
Julian dropped the ring inside.
The door swung shut.
“No! No! Julian, I’m sorry! I’m sorry! Please!”
Nothing I screamed made any difference.
Through the small glass window, I watched the ring start to soften.
Then it slid.
Then it liquefied into nothing at all.
My eyes fixed ahead. Empty. I couldn’t even tell what they were looking at.
The orderly had long since disappeared. Julian was gone too, guiding Ivy away, without a single backward glance.
Time blurred. At some point, my body rose.
My hand found the wall. One step, then another—out of the hospital.
With each step, the weight in the chest lifted, just a fraction.
I didn’t go home. Nothing in that apartment had ever belonged to me.
I flagged a cab, telling the driver where to go.
The airport.
Streetlights blurred past the window. That was when there were no tears left.
Julian. From here on, there’s an ocean between us.
We will never see each other again.
Not ever.