The Triple Betrayal: He Cheated With My Best Friend So I Left Chapter 05
I rolled the window down just a crack.
Autumn air cut across my cheek, stinging it.
The ring kept replaying behind my eyes. Silver, softening, sliding into nothing.
My chest wouldn’t loosen enough to let a full breath through.
The phone kept buzzing in my pocket. Ivy’s number, over and over.
I didn’t answer.
I opened a booking app instead and bought the earliest international flight to Aunt Rachel’s city.
My thumbs moved fast, typing the flight number to send to her.
Aunt Rachel, I’m boarding soon. Can you meet me at the airport？
Message sent, I opened my contacts.
Julian. Ivy.
Every number, every chat thread, every shared photo. I cleared all of it in one go.
The cab pulled up outside the terminal.
I walked into the departure hall gripping my bag, feeling small and hollow.
…
In the hospital, Julian sat beside Ivy’s bed.
Ivy kept trying my number, phone pressed to her ear, her face etched with worry.
“Do you think we went too far? She won’t even pick up.”
Julian’s expression darkened. He took the phone out of her hand and dropped it on the nightstand.
He reached over, tucking the thin blanket around her shoulders.
“Don’t waste your energy worrying. Nora’s just being dramatic. She’ll cool down and come back on her own.”
“Just focus on yourself right now.”
Ivy shook her head. “As soon as I’m out of here, move my things out.”
“I promised her I wouldn’t do this to her again.”
Julian’s fingers twitched once. He didn’t answer.
By the next morning, the doctor confirmed she was stable and cleared her for discharge.
Julian handled the paperwork, then took a cab back to the apartment we’d shared to pack up her things.
Her closet held rows of clothes, storage bins stacked across half the bedroom.
He carried the boxes down in trips, cab after cab, dropping them at Ivy’s new place.
Two hours of it. When he finally let himself back into the apartment alone, he stopped at the doorway.
The spot by the entrance where my pink rabbit slippers always sat was empty.
That was when it hit him.
I hadn’t come home last night. I hadn’t come home today either.
Something hollow opened up in his chest, a feeling he couldn’t quite name.
He changed his shoes and walked into the bedroom.
Everything sat exactly where I’d left it.
My dresses still hung in the closet, straight on their hangers.
My skincare bottles still lined up on the vanity, untouched.
Books stacked on the desk. Notebooks in their place. Nothing of mine was missing.
But there was no trace of me left in the room at all.
He picked up his phone from the nightstand, opened the pinned chat.
The last message sat there from two days earlier, the one I’d sent him.
Want tomato beef stew tonight? I’ll grab the groceries on my way home.
He stood frozen, staring at the words.
His thumb kept brushing back and forth across the screen. His throat closed up tight.
…
On the other side of the ocean, Aunt Rachel was already waiting near the exit gate.
She spotted me, thin and worn, and closed the distance fast.
She took one look at the dark circles under my eyes, and her own welled up with tears.
She didn’t ask a single question. She just took my arm, gently, and said, “You’re home now. Let’s get you out of here.”
I rode back with her to her apartment.
Hot water ran over me in the shower, washing off the exhaustion clinging to my skin.
Then I put on the clean cotton pajamas she’d already laid out and lay down in the fresh bed in the guest room.
The sheets were clean and crisp. No trace of anyone else’s scent on them.
Whatever I’d been holding in for days finally gave out completely.
I turned into the pillow and cried, silently, my shoulders shaking without stopping.
…
In the empty apartment, Julian stood alone in the living room, staring at nothing.
His phone lit up with a message from Ivy.
Did Nora make it home? I’ve had a knot in my stomach all day.
He typed back without much thought. No.
Two seconds later her reply came through, a crying emoji attached.
This is all my fault. I just tried calling her another dozen times, no answer.
If something happens to her, I’ll never forgive myself.
Julian stared at the screen a long moment before answering.
Stop spiraling. She’s just upset, that’s all. She can’t stay mad forever; she’ll reach out.
He sent it, then dropped the phone onto the couch cushion.
He stood alone in the empty room, something restless and unnamed churning in his chest.
A photo still hung on the wall. The three of us together.
Me in the middle, laughing, completely unguarded.
Ivy’s arm looped through mine. Julian’s hand resting on my shoulder.
Looking at it now, it was almost unbearable to see.