While filling out my handwritten wedding invites, I mindlessly browsed a popular forum on my phone. A trending thread grabbed my eye. [What is the wildest thing you’ve ever done for a best friend?] The top reply held over twenty thousand upvotes. [The craziest thing I ever did was giving the guy I loved deeply to her.] [Back in high school, my best friend and I liked the same boy. The twist? He didn’t love her—he loved me.] [I wanted her happy. So I secretly took his love letter meant for me, passed it to her, and pulled away entirely to let them date.] [Ten years have passed, and they’ll marry next month. Truth is, I never stopped loving him. Yet I have no regrets. We spent one night together after heavy drinking, and that single memory carries me through every year.] The comment section turned brutal. Half mourned her sad love story, while the rest slammed her as fake for sleeping with her closest friend’s fiancé yet playing the martyr. A response to that top post sent chills down my spine, filled with ten years of stifled regret. [So that night wasn’t just a drunk dream. It really happened.] [Sophie, I only dated her because I thought you never cared for me. If you loved me all along, why did we throw away ten years?] My hand lurched sharply. The gold ink pen scratched a thick, ugly mark across the pricey wedding invitation cardstock. My one closest friend in the whole world was Sophie. No. That was impossible. The world is a massive place. There has to be more than one Sophie out there. This was just a sick coincidence. My fingers were trembling so badly I could barely tap on the girl's profile. The page was entirely blank. No posts. No photos. But my eyes instantly locked onto the short bio written right under her username. "I just want a steady kind of happiness." The phone slipped from my sweaty palm and clattered against the hardwood floor. Ever since we were kids, Sophie had used that exact same quote on every single social media platform she owned. My name is Gwen. It means steady. So all these years, Sophie wasn't praying for her own happiness. She was praying for mine. I leaned over to pick up my phone, my vision completely blurring as tears spilled down my cheeks without my permission. Sophie had not replied to his comment. But the man, my fiancé David, was still flooding the thread, begging her in front of thousands of strangers. [You have let her have her way since we were kids. But I am not a toy you can just pass around. I am a living, breathing person. What gave you the right to hand me over to her?] [I hate that you always put her first. I hate that you always martyr yourself. I hate that you loved me but spent ten straight years pretending you didn't.] [Sophie, when are you going to finally live for yourself?] Even David knew it. I was always the most important thing in Sophie's universe. We met when we were seven. Growing up, she let me have the best of everything. It started with the biggest, juiciest strawberry in the fruit bowl. Then it was the lead princess role in the middle school play. Later, it was the Ivy League. Everything she could possibly give me, she gave me. In high school, Sophie and I were the top two students in our graduating class. There was only one early admission recommendation letter for Columbia University. To make sure I got it, she purposely left an entire page of her final AP Calculus exam completely blank. I cried my eyes out and called her an idiot. She just laughed, flicked my forehead, and told me she could get into any college she wanted without a fancy letter. She told me to just wait for her in New York. In the light of day, Sophie had sacrificed so much for me. I never imagined that in the shadows, she was still playing the puppet master of my happiness. She even gave up the man we both loved, quietly slipping him into my hands. But Sophie, did you ever stop to ask if I wanted him like this? I collapsed over my desk, sobbing until I couldn't pull air into my lungs. I looked up and saw our gorgeous engagement photos framed on the wall. I looked down and saw the ruined wedding invitations scattered across the desk. In the corner of the room sat the pristine boxes of wedding favors David and I had spent hours picking out together. Silk ribbons, fairy lights, custom wooden gift boxes. There was so much stuff. It practically suffocated the room. Every memory I had of David began flashing behind my eyes like a relentless movie trailer. At seventeen, he stood in the freezing rain just to buy me my favorite hot latte before first period. At twenty, he drove three hours to a remote monastery and hiked up a mountain to get me a protective charm before my semester abroad. At twenty-two, my mom suffered a massive stroke. The medical bills were a bottomless black hole. David took the fifty grand he had scraped together from years of grueling side hustles and shoved it into my hands, leaving himself with barely enough cash for groceries. That money was his sacred startup fund. He had dreamed about his own tech company for years. But when he gave it to me, he didn't even blink. He just called me silly for crying. He said my mom was his mom, and saving her was the only thing that mattered. His warm smile. His soft kisses. The way all my anxiety melted the second he pulled me into his chest. It was all so beautiful. So unforgettable. But none of it was meant for me. I swiped past the final photo in my camera roll and harshly wiped my eyes. Some delusions need to be shattered. I walked like a mindless zombie toward Sophie's apartment building. Just as I turned the corner, I froze. David and Sophie were standing near the alleyway, locked in a heated argument. My chest tightened painfully. I quickly shrank back into the shadows of a nearby building. David was supposed to be on a business trip in Seattle. A flight from Seattle takes hours. That meant the absolute second he saw that Reddit post, he dropped everything and rushed back like a madman. Was he really that desperate to claim her? David had a vice grip on Sophie's wrist. She was struggling wildly to pull away. "David, let me go!" "You are marrying Gwen in literally three weeks. What is the point of bringing this up now?" David stared at her, his eyes dark and frantic, his voice completely wrecked. "The point is everything!" "Gwen and I haven't signed the marriage license yet. We can cancel the catering, the venue, everything. I will go to her right now and confess. She can put all the blame on me and hate me for the rest of her life." "Sophie, I have missed out on you for a decade. I am not going to miss out on you for a lifetime. Please, just stop pushing me away." Before she could speak, he yanked her against his chest and crashed his lips down onto hers, completely losing control. Sophie pushed against his chest for a second. Then her hands curled into his shirt, and she gave in. They kissed with a raw, violent desperation. It was as if they were trying to suck ten years of stolen time out of each other's lungs. I opened my mouth to scream, to stop them, but my throat was sealed shut. Not a single sound came out. My stomach violently turned inside out. I slumped against the cold brick wall and began to dry heave. David, when you were swallowing her sighs, did you ever once think about the woman who has loved you for the last ten years? My entire twenties had been nothing but a pathetic joke. Smack. A sharp slap echoed in the alley, breaking the kiss. Sophie shoved David away with all her strength. Her eyes were bloodshot as she screamed at him. "Do you have any idea how long Gwen has been dreaming about this wedding?" "You don't, but I do! She has been planning this for ten years. She has wanted to be your wife since we were seventeen!" "She literally starved herself for six months just to fit into that dress. We designed that gown together, David! She sat there hand-writing every single invitation until her fingers cramped..." "You are going to give her this wedding. I swear to God, if you do anything to break Gwen's heart, I will kill you myself!" "What happened today never happened. We are never seeing each other alone again." David grabbed her by the shoulders, shaking her slightly. "Do you honestly think I want to hurt her? Seeing Gwen cry is the worst thing in the world to me." "But the only thing worse than breaking her heart is losing you again." "That night in my apartment, are you going to pretend that never happened too? If you hadn't posted that online, I would have gone to my grave thinking it was just a booze-fueled hallucination. But I had you. You were mine. How do you expect me to just walk away from that?" He dove in and kissed her again. This time, Sophie didn't fight back at all. Tears streamed down her face as she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back with equal fire. David suddenly scooped her up in his arms and carried her inside the building. The dried tears on my face felt tight and itchy. It was the middle of summer, but I was shivering so violently my teeth chattered. I stumbled out of the shadows and followed them inside. I stood in front of Sophie's door for what felt like hours. Finally, I pulled out the spare key Sophie had given me for emergencies. I took a deep breath and twisted the lock. The heavy, sickening scent of sweat and sex hit me the second the door cracked open. I clutched my stomach and gagged. Hearing the noise, the two naked bodies tangled in the sheets jerked up in pure terror. Both sets of eyes locked onto me. David moved with lightning speed, throwing the heavy duvet over Sophie to cover her nakedness and protect her dignity. This man, who cared about his image and reputation more than anything else in the world, threw away every ounce of his pride. He stepped out of bed, completely exposed, and stood between me and the bed. "Gwen, please don't be mad at Sophie. This is entirely on me." "You know she values your life more than her own. She never wanted to betray you. I lost my mind. I forced myself on her. You can hate me, but please don't hate her!" I stared dead into David's panicked eyes and let out a hollow, broken laugh. To protect his precious Sophie, David was willing to look like a monster. He was ready to take every drop of the blame just to keep her hands clean. So this is the power of a high school sweetheart. With me, he was always so rational, so gentle, so painfully composed. But for Sophie, he was willing to bow down. He was willing to lose his damn mind. I glared at him, pure venom dripping from my voice. "Forgive her? My absolute best friend in the world just spread her legs for the man I am supposed to marry. How exactly do I forgive that?" "Sophie, David, you both make me sick. I never want to see either of you again." Hearing the absolute fury in my voice, Sophie scrambled out from under the covers. She crawled across the cold floor, her eyes swollen and red, and grabbed tightly onto the hem of my jeans. "Gwen, please! Today was a mistake. It is all my fault. I seduced him. I practically threw myself at him." "He only has you in his heart. You are the only woman he actually loves. I know how much you love him, Gwen. I know how badly you want this wedding. Please, don't throw your entire future away because of a stupid, impulsive mistake. Please!" David grabbed a knit blanket from the armchair and gently wrapped it around Sophie's bare shoulders, handling her like she was made of fragile spun glass. His eyes briefly flicked to my shaking shoulders, and a tiny frown creased his forehead. He opened his mouth, wanting to say something to comfort me, but closed it a second later. Instead, he simply reached for the remote on the nightstand and turned the air conditioning up. He still remembered. Today was the first day of my period. I was always prone to agonizing cramps when I got cold. Sophie yanked aggressively on David's arm, screaming at him in total panic. "David, tell her! Tell her I manipulated you into this! Tell her it was just a moment of weakness, and that you have only ever loved her! Tell her she is the only woman you want to marry!" David wanted to refuse, but the second he looked into Sophie's desperate, begging eyes, he faltered. He knew her better than anyone. If he didn't do exactly what she said right now, she would never speak to him again. He swallowed hard, the words clawing their way out of his throat. "Gwen, please forgive me." "You are the one I love. You are the only one I want to marry." "Can you just give me one more chance?" He was speaking to me, but his eyes never once left Sophie's tear-stained face. I looked down at the floor, laughing so hard new tears sprang to my eyes. They were literally fighting to take the bullet for each other. They looked like star-crossed lovers pushed to the brink by a cruel world, while I felt like the evil wicked witch trying to tear true love apart. It was poetic, really. They had always loved each other this fiercely. From the day we met until this exact second, they had been carrying this tragic, earth-shattering romance in secret. I was the third wheel. I had always been the third wheel. I didn't waste another breath on them. I turned around and walked out the door, feeling completely numb. Why was it that I wanted to hate them so badly, but my heart just felt painfully empty? When I got back to my apartment, I opened my laptop and pulled up the email from the tech firm in Silicon Valley. "I will take the project manager position. I accept your offer." My eyes drifted to the stack of wedding invitations sitting on the dining table. My fingers twitched. David, Sophie. You two have done so much for me behind my back. Let me do one last thing for you. I picked up my pen and methodically crossed out my name on every single invitation, writing Sophie's name in its place. Consider this my final parting gift. The next morning, I dragged my exhausted body downstairs to throw away the trash. When I looked up, I saw David and Sophie standing near the entrance of my complex, wrapped in a tight embrace. Sophie was holding a paper bag of fresh croissants, and David had a tray of iced coffees. My exact breakfast order. Even though I had already decided to leave the country and let them be together, a vicious sting still hit the back of my eyes. Suddenly, I heard heavy footsteps. My mom was marching down the sidewalk, her arms loaded with massive bags of wedding decorations. She stopped dead in her tracks. The girl she had treated like a second daughter, and the man she proudly bragged about to all her friends, were standing right in front of her, shamelessly clinging to each other behind my back. Before I could even shout a warning, my mom hurled a heavy bag of decorations straight at Sophie's head. "Sophie! You are supposed to be Gwen's best friend! You are literally trying to steal your best friend's fiancé? Are you that desperate for a man?" "You disgusting piece of trash! I will kill you both!" David instantly pulled Sophie behind his back, shielding her with his own body as my mom slapped and clawed at him. Sophie peeked out from behind him, sobbing hysterically as she tried to grab my mom's hand. "Mrs. Harper, please, you have to listen to me! It isn't what it looks like..." My mom ripped her hand away and slapped Sophie square across the cheek. "Save your bullshit! I saw it with my own two eyes!" David shoved Sophie firmly behind him. Seeing the bright red handprint blooming on her pale skin, his shoulders began to shake with pure rage. My mom raised her hand to strike again, completely blinded by anger. David finally snapped. He shoved my mom backward with brutal force. "Stop acting like a crazy old bat!" "I liked Sophie from the very beginning! If she hadn't taken pity on your pathetic daughter and forced me to date her, Sophie and I would have been married years ago!" "Sophie is the greatest thing that ever happened to Gwen. She gave Gwen everything! Your daughter is the one who stole from her! Gwen is the one who owes her!" My mom's eyes went wide with sheer horror. She pointed a trembling finger at the two of them, her mouth opening and closing as she tried to pull in a breath. Then, her eyes rolled back, and she collapsed onto the concrete. "Mom!" I screamed, sprinting across the courtyard with tears flying from my eyes. The moment they saw me, all the color drained from David and Sophie's faces. Pure terror replaced their anger. They knew I had heard every single word. The ambulance arrived in minutes. The three of us loaded her in and sat in suffocating silence during the ride. It felt exactly like the day she had her stroke six years ago. Back then, David did everything in his power to save her. He gave his money, his time, his sanity. But this time, she was in a hospital bed because she caught him cheating and he pushed her to the ground. Thankfully, the ER doctors stabilized her quickly. They said she just suffered a severe panic-induced fainting spell and would wake up soon. I let out a shaky breath, feeling a massive weight lift off my chest. Standing in the sterile hospital corridor, David and Sophie took turns begging for my forgiveness, their voices cracking with guilt. I just nodded, my face entirely blank. "As long as my mom is okay, that is all that matters." Seeing how incredibly calm I was, the guilt in David's eyes only deepened. He reached out and grabbed both of my hands, squeezing them tight. "Gwen, I am so sorry. I swear I am going to marry you. I will take care of you and your mom for the rest of our lives. I will never make you cry again." Sophie wiped her eyes, offering me a fragile, watery smile. "You are going to be the most beautiful bride in the world, Gwen." I looked down at the linoleum floor and smiled softly. They had absolutely no idea. This wedding didn't belong to me anymore. On the day of the wedding, while the sun was barely coming up, I was already sitting in first class on a direct flight to San Francisco. I was officially a Silicon Valley corporate drone. David, Sophie. I really hope you enjoy my gift. ... Back at the venue, David stood at the end of the aisle, strangling a custom bouquet. His palms were sweating through his tailored suit. The massive mahogany doors swung open. David held his breath, a practiced smile on his face as he prepared to see Gwen. But he froze. The only person standing in the doorway was Sophie, wearing a gorgeous bridesmaid gown. Where was his bride? Sophie sprinted down the aisle, her face pale with panic. "David! Gwen is gone! I have ripped the entire hotel apart and she isn't here!" Right on cue, the confetti cannons exploded from the ceiling. The massive digital screen behind the altar flashed with elegant gold lettering. Groom: David. Bride: Sophie. The blood drained from David's face as reality finally crashed down on him. He ripped his phone from his pocket and frantically dialed Gwen's number. He was met with the cold, automated voice of the operator. "We're sorry, the number you have dialed is currently out of service." Gwen was gone.
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