26
Hand in hand with Zoe Jackson, I eyed Ethan and Mason with guarded suspicion. Mason felt a pang of hurt.
“Lanie, we’re childhood friends. Why are you looking at me like that?”
I frowned, unwilling to engage in idle chatter.
Besides, hadn’t they been the ones to abandon our years of friendship?
I stared calmly at them.
“Don’t waste my time. I need to go home. Say what you need to quickly.”
Mason opened his mouth to reply, but Ethan interrupted.
His clear gaze was filled with determination.
‘Lanie, we were wrong. We never liked Qiana. We tried to make you jealous, to help you see who you really loved, but…”
He recounted Qiana’s fate and the reasons behind their actions towards me.
I’d felt a pang of resistance when I learned Qiana had come to LA to seek my help.
How could she, after hurting me, dare to ask for my forgiveness?
Qiana had been sent back to her family, her apartment in LA forfeited.
She’d learned her lesson.
I could imagine the difficult life that awaited her.
She’d always cried poor, and I’d helped where I could.
But knowing her background, I felt no pity.
I scoffed.
“Ethan, Mason, stop deceiving yourselves. There are countless ways to make someone confront their feelings. Why did you choose the most hurtful
one?”
“Do you dare say you felt nothing for Qiana after you met her?”
Ethan was stunned, a mixture of shock and confusion on his face.
Mason looked uncomfortable, a hint of guilt in his eyes.
“No… of course not!” he stammered.
Zoe Jackson cut through their pretense.
“Stop deluding yourselves. If you hadn’t repeatedly ignored Lanie, Qiana wouldn’t have had the chance to hurt her.”
“You probably don’t even know if you ever felt anything for Qiana.”
“It’s a childish lie. No man who truly loves a woman would use another to make her jealous.”
Ethan and Mason’s faces paled as Zoe’s words struck a nerve, hitting the truth they couldn’t deny.
After a moment, I spoke softly.
“Ethan, Mason, I realize now that I may have never loved either of you.”
There might have been attraction, but… it wasn’t love. Before it could bloom, you extinguished it.”
“If you want to attend my wedding, you can. But I don’t want you to disrupt it.”
I’m happy now.”
A searing pain stabbed at Ethan’s heart.
He shook his head, forcing a smile.
“Lanie, don’t… don’t be with someone else. We’re childhood friends, I know everything about you, we’re perfect for each other…”
He murmured, clinging to a fading hope, refusing to accept reality.
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