My welcome home party turned into an absolute joke. After five years together, my girlfriend finally showed up, completely late, with a frat boy trailing behind her. The kid didn't even hesitate. He looked me up and down with a smug smirk. "Man, doing a Ph.D. overseas takes forever. You're getting pretty old, aren't you?" He let out a dry, mocking laugh. "At your age, not being married... doesn't your family get anxious?" Then came the venom. "Oh, wait. I forgot. Your parents are dead." My face turned stone cold. But Nina, the woman who had always been my gentle anchor, just chuckled and ruffled the kid's hair. She looked at me with zero remorse. "Noah is young. He doesn't know any better. Be the mature one, Oliver. Don't take it personally." Later that night, near the patio fire pit, I caught Noah pinning her against the brick wall, kissing her hard. He growled against her lips, "Baby, don't you dare walk down the aisle with him." Nina let out a breathless moan. "I'm not marrying that cursed loser. I only want to be yours." Eventually, I let her go. I walked away and married someone else, exactly like she wanted. I never expected her to fly across the Atlantic, stay awake for days, and drop to her knees in front of me, sobbing. "Please. Please marry me." 1 But that came later. The nightmare started at the party. Nina had texted the group chat saying she was running behind. The guys at the bar nudged my shoulder. "Nina is probably picking up some insane welcome back gift for you, man!" I just smiled, nursing my beer, imagining exactly how I was going to pull her into my arms. Three years of a long distance relationship while I was studying in Europe had almost driven me insane with missing her. Two hours later, as the bartender was calling last orders, Nina finally strolled in. Except she wasn't alone. She had a younger guy glued to her side. I took a step toward her, but my boots froze to the floor. The silver engagement ring that belonged to me was currently gleaming on Noah's index finger. The guys around me went wide eyed. Ben leaned in and whispered to Nina, "Are you out of your mind? Why did you bring him?" Nina waved it off like it was nothing. "What is the big deal? Noah wanted to come, so I brought him." She noticed my eyes locked on the ring. A flicker of panic crossed her face, but she quickly masked it with a casual shrug. "Your ring was just sitting in the drawer collecting dust. I let Noah wear it for fun. You do not mind, right, Oliver?" I stood there, paralyzed. That was the ring she used to guard with her life. If anyone even touched her jewelry box, she would throw a fit. Looking at the woman standing in front of me, I felt like I was staring at a stranger. The sweet, affectionate girl I left behind would never speak to me like this. Noah caught my gaze and threw the ring onto the floor like a piece of trash. "Sloppy seconds from an old guy. Keep it. I do not want it." The silver band bounced against the hardwood and rolled straight into the glowing embers of the fire pit. Nina did not even glance at the flames. She immediately grabbed Noah's hand, inspecting his fingers with frantic worry. "Are you okay? Did you hurt your hand?" My body moved on instinct. I hunched over, reaching toward the heat to save the ring. Her voice from the night I proposed echoed in my ears. Oliver, I love you. I swear I will love you until the stars burn out. Feeling the heavy stares of everyone in the room, I forced myself to stop. I pulled my hand back. I was not going to humiliate myself any further. 2 My face was completely drained of color. Ben saw my expression and shoved Noah's shoulder. "Watch your mouth, kid. Apologize to Oliver right now." Noah scoffed, rolling his eyes. "The guy literally got his own parents killed. I was doing him a favor. Wearing his ring is bad luck anyway." That was a line nobody crossed. That was the deepest, most agonizing wound in my soul. I could not fathom how Nina could take my darkest trauma and serve it up as gossip to her boy toy. The anger boiled over. I clenched my fist, pulling my arm back to wipe that smug look off his face. Nina instantly threw herself in front of him, shoving her hands against my chest. "What the hell are you doing!" Almost simultaneously, the rest of the guys stepped in, acting as a human shield for Noah. "Relax, Oliver! He just has no filter. Let it go!" "Yeah, man. Noah is a good kid. He did not mean anything by it!" I froze. What a sick, twisted joke. My closest friends and the love of my life were standing in a united front with a guy I barely knew. And I was standing entirely alone. Three years. It only took three years for my entire world to get hijacked. Nina glared at me, her voice sharp and unforgiving. "Are you done throwing a tantrum? Did he say anything wrong? You are the reason your parents died! Am I lying?" She sneered. "You went off to Europe, lived the high life, and forgot everything, did you?" My breath hitched. She always knew exactly where to slide the knife. She was right. If I had not thrown a fit as a kid begging for candy from the backseat, my dad would not have turned around. He would not have taken his eyes off the road. The truck running the red light would have missed us. But the part about the high life? During my three years abroad, I drowned in fear, isolation, helplessness, and crushing poverty. There was no high life. A cold drop slid down my cheek. I realized with a numb shock that I was actually crying. Seeing the tear, Nina's harsh expression cracked. She took a half step toward me, instinct taking over. But Noah grabbed her wrist, pulling her back. A dozen eyes stared at my pathetic breakdown. The familiar sensation of absolute helplessness washed over me. I turned and practically jogged to the bathroom to splash cold water on my face. I should have seen the signs. Over the last year, our texts had dried up. Our phone calls turned into hurried excuses. We barely exchanged three sentences a week. I could not even remember the last time we FaceTimed. After I got my breathing under control, I walked back out. That was when I found them in the shadows of the hallway. Noah had her backed against the wall, kissing her with bruised intensity. Noah pulled back just enough to speak. "Baby, don't you dare walk down the aisle with him." Nina let out a soft, breathy sound. "I'm not marrying that cursed loser. I only want to be yours." 3 The party died down. People slowly filtered out. My phone buzzed in my pocket. I stared at the screen and answered on autopilot. "Oliver! Why did you fly back to the States? Are you not coming back here?" When I did not answer, the voice on the other end grew frantic. "Talk to me!" My throat felt like it was lined with glass. "I am coming back." My girl, my crew, they all belonged to Noah now. There was nothing left for me in this city. Harper let out a massive sigh of relief on the phone before her tone shifted. "Are you crying? Where are you? I am booking a flight right now. Wait for me." The moment I hung up, Nina's voice sliced through the silence behind me. Her face was dark with suspicion. "Who the hell are you talking to? Is it a woman? Do I know her?" I ignored her and kept walking toward the exit. She lunged forward, grabbing my wrist with a painful grip. She was not going to let it go. I gave her a deadpan answer just to get her off my back. "A colleague from the lab. She needed the passcode for a data file." That seemed to satisfy her. She loosened her grip and tugged me toward the parking lot. "Let's go. My parents are waiting for us at home." It was only then I realized Noah had slipped away unnoticed. My dad and Nina's dad had served in the military together. They were brothers in arms. After my parents passed, Nina's family took me in. I grew up in their house. Out of basic respect, I had to go see them. I walked up to her car and opened the passenger door. Sitting right on the seat was a custom cushion embroidered with Noah's initials. A tacky little crown sticker was slapped on the dashboard. The neck pillow literally said Prince Noah's Throne. He did this on purpose. He was marking his territory. I stood there for a long moment, debating if I should just sit in the back. Nina looked over at me, her tone defensive. "Don't sit there. Noah gets super weird about people touching his stuff. Be the bigger person." She remembered that Noah was possessive over a seat. But she completely forgot that I get violently car sick and can only ever ride in the front. I did not argue. I shut the door and pulled open the back door. The first thing I saw was a crumpled set of crimson lace lingerie kicked under the floor mat. During those two hours she was late to my party... those two hours where I sat checking the door every five minutes with a stupid, hopeful smile on my face... they were sweating all over the back seat of this car. What an absolute joke my life was. 4 When we walked through the front door, Nina's parents practically tackled me with hugs. "You are home... look at you, finally home." After the initial warmth and catching up, Nina's mom grabbed my arm and pulled out a stack of elegant cardstock. "Look, Oliver. Tell me which invitation design you like. I have been obsessing over your wedding details for months!" Wedding? I immediately took a step back. "Mrs. Davis, we are not..." Nina cut me off instantly. She flopped down onto the expensive leather sofa. "Mom, you guys handle the small details. Oliver is jet lagged and exhausted." I stared at her, baffled. She was talking like the wedding was actually happening. Then what was the plan with Noah? Her parents exchanged a knowing look and laughed. "Girls always side with their men! You used to fly out to Europe to visit Oliver all the time, but now that he is back, you two can finally be together every day!" Nina looked genuinely panicked for a split second and frantically changed the subject. Every alarm bell in my head went off. I pulled out my phone and texted Ben. Hey, can you check Nina's social media for the last three years for me? In those three years, Nina had never visited me once. Not a single time. Ben replied instantly. Nothing out of the ordinary. Why? I did not buy it. I texted a few other guys from the crew. They all gave me the exact same story. I almost convinced myself I was paranoid. Then I remembered a burner account I made years ago to check a local restaurant's hidden menu. I logged in and searched for Nina's profile. An endless wall of photos loaded onto the screen. It was suffocating. Every single post was a selfie of her and Noah. They had been touring the globe. Paris, Rome, Tokyo, Bali. The room started spinning. I felt like I was going to throw up. Over the last three years, I had begged her to come see me. I scraped together pennies hoping we could meet halfway. She always said she was slammed with corporate projects. I waited three years. She had time to travel the entire world with a frat boy. But she could not spare a weekend to jump on a two hour budget flight to see me in a neighboring country. 5 When I first got my Ph.D. acceptance letter, I was going to turn it down. I had zero money. But Nina's parents were wealthy, and they insisted I go. They liked the prestige of having a doctor in the family. They promised to send my tuition and living expenses through Nina's bank account every semester. For the first few months, things were okay. Then the money completely stopped. Nina claimed there was a banking issue, then said her accounts were frozen, then just stopped replying. I had to take on three brutal part time jobs washing dishes, tutoring, and hauling boxes just to pay my university fees. Because I was broke, I had to rent a rotting apartment in a neighborhood crawling with junkies and gangs. My build was not exactly intimidating compared to the massive guys loitering on my corner. Every night was a survival game. I locked every deadbolt, wedged a chair under the handle, and pushed my heavy wardrobe against the front door. Even then, drunk men would pound on the thin wood, screaming threats. I used to call Nina in the middle of the night, shaking, just trying to hear a familiar voice to keep the panic attacks at bay. She would sigh into the receiver. "Babe, I am super stressed at the office. Just tough it out. The sun will be up soon." Then she would hang up. I would sit on the edge of my mattress until dawn, gripping a kitchen knife with white knuckles, too terrified to blink. I kept scrolling through her secret profile. I found the post from that exact night. Younger guys are such babies. My silly Noah is terrified of thunderstorms. Had to cuddle him all night to get him to sleep. Underneath the photo were comments from Ben and the rest of the crew. Hey, that is our boy! Give him some extra love! Protect Noah at all costs! P.S. Make sure you hide this from Oliver. Everyone knew. Every single one of them. And they all covered for her. While I was bleeding myself dry, working until my hands cracked, trying to finish my degree early so I could marry her... she had slowly infected my entire friend group. She turned my brothers into Noah's loyal soldiers. They boxed me out. I was the punchline to a joke I did not even know was being told. My skin was completely devoid of color. Nina's mom noticed and assumed it was the jet lag. She told Nina to drive me to our place. I walked like a zombie following Nina into the garage. The moment I saw her car, a violent shudder ran down my spine. The image of the red lace was burned into my retinas. I gritted my teeth and violently ripped my arm out of her grip. "Back off. Do not touch me." Nina took a deep breath, playing the patient girlfriend. "How else are you going to get home?" I did not say a word. I turned around and started walking down the driveway into the night. I walked step by dragging step. The sun vanished completely. The suburban streets went pitch black. Nina trailed slowly behind me in her car, the headlights casting a long, mocking shadow ahead of me. Years ago, she knew I hated city noise, so she insisted we buy a house deep in the suburbs. I walked for two straight hours. My dress shoes tore the skin off the back of my heels. When I finally unlocked the front door, Nina stormed in behind me, her face twisted with rage. "What the hell is your problem?" "You go overseas for a few years and come back acting like a dramatic, fragile princess!" Who made me fragile? I survived the absolute trenches for three years. I clawed my way out of the mud. I had zero right to be fragile. I ignored her shouting. I just stared at the interior of the house. My quiet study was gone. It was now an RGB lit gaming room packed with high end consoles. The bathroom vanity was cluttered with men's cologne and skincare brands I did not use. Even the toothbrush holder had a cute little label that read Noah's Property. This was supposed to be our sanctuary. The home we built. Now, every corner reeked of another man. I was too exhausted to fight. I walked down the hall and opened the guest room door, just wanting a bed. Sitting dead center on the mattress was Noah. He was wearing my father's wedding suit. I stopped breathing. That suit was the only physical item I had left of my dad in this entire world. My dad used to point at that suit and tell me, When you get married, wear this. And protect your wife the way I protected your mother. That is what makes a man. Now, that sacred fabric was draped over Noah's shoulders. He had taken scissors to the vintage lining, letting the yellowed fabric fall to the floor. The subtle embroidered details had been ripped out. My dad was heavily built. A soldier. Noah was lanky. So Noah had haphazardly pinned and stitched the fabric to make it tighter. Seeing me in the doorway, Noah gave me a sick, taunting smile and flexed his shoulders, intentionally stretching the fragile seams. A loud tearing sound echoed in the quiet room. The back seam split wide open. Outside, a massive crack of thunder rattled the windows. I flinched. The sound physically broke something inside me. I watched my dad die all over again. I lost my mind. I grabbed a heavy ceramic vase from the hallway table and hurled it at the floor, shattering it into pieces. I screamed until my vocal cords bled. "Who gave you the right to touch that!" "Take it off! Take it off right now!" Noah faked a look of absolute terror and scrambled behind Nina, though I could see the victorious smirk playing on his lips.
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