The Triple Betrayal: He Cheated With My Best Friend So I Left Chapter 08
A year and a half passed in what felt like no time at all.
One day, I got an email from the psychology department of a well-known university back home.
They were inviting me to give a lecture. The topic: Self-Reconstruction Within Intimate Relationships.
I sat with that email for a full week, torn.
I couldn’t decide if I was ready to set foot back in that city—the one still marked by every scar.
Aunt Rachel saw the conflict written on my face. She sat beside me and put her hand gently over mine.
“Go back. Finally close the chapter on every regret you’re still carrying.”
I thought it over one more night, then replied to the university and accepted.
At a dinner back home, Julian ran into an old high school classmate he hadn’t seen in years.
The classmate mentioned it in passing. “Remember Nora? She’s coming back to give a psychology lecture soon.”
The glass in Julian’s hand slipped straight out of his fingers, wine soaking into his trousers.
He didn’t even bother to wipe at it, just asked, urgent. “When’s the lecture? Which university?”
The classmate blinked at how fast he’d reacted. “Why do you still care? Didn’t everyone say you ended up with her best friend?”
Julian went still.
That was the moment it hit him.
Whatever had happened between him and Ivy had evidently been common knowledge for a long time.
He cut the dinner short, went home, and spent the night online buying a ticket to the lecture.
When Ivy found out Julian had bought a ticket, she gave a cold laugh and bought a seat right next to his.
The night before the lecture, Julian dug through his closet and pulled out the coat I’d given him years ago.
The fabric had faded from years of washing. He put it on and stood in front of the full-length mirror, staring at his reflection, expressionless.
His phone rang. Ivy.
“You’ve been leaving early and coming home late for days. What’s more important than us right now?”
His voice came out flat, distant. “None of your business.”
Ivy’s control snapped instantly, her voice breaking into a sob.
“She’s been gone two years and you still can’t let her go! What does that make me?”
Julian said nothing to soften it. He just hung up on her.