Chapter 4The Missing Sixth

That night, they were drinking on the terrace again.

I went back to the room alone and started packing.

The trip was supposed to last seven days. Only three had passed, but I was already done playing along with them.

I booked the earliest flight home the next morning.

It wasn't until I'd finished that I realized my charger was missing. Then I remembered Anders had borrowed it earlier that day, so I went to his room to get it.

The door wasn't locked. No one was inside.

The tablet beside the bed was still lit up. A new message popped onto the screen.

The group chat was called: [Forever Five]

Duncan had posted a video. It was the clip from yesterday of Brielle and Anders kissing. The replies underneath were full of laughing and cheering emojis.

[Finally got them to kiss.]

[Told you this would work.]

[Clark's face went completely ashen, and he still put up with it.]

[He's really good at pretending nothing bothers him.]

I stood beside the bed as my fingers slowly went cold.

It was a group chat without me.

I opened the message history. The earliest conversation was from three months ago.

Anders had posted a screenshot of the "Couples Swap" game. [Doesn't Clark always say he can fit in with us? Let's see how many rounds he can take.]

Preston replied almost immediately: [Make all his cards blank.]

Duncan added: [Make Brielle's and Anders's cards match. Start with holding hands and hugging, then work our way up to kissing. That'll be fun.]

I kept scrolling.

At first, Brielle hadn't replied. A long time later, she'd finally sent: [Come on, don't take it too far.]

I stared at those words, and some pathetic little spark of hope rose inside me. At least she'd tried to stop them.

Then I saw her next messages.

[Clark takes things too seriously. We still need him to handle the wedding. Don't actually make him mad enough to leave.]

Duncan sent a laughing emoji. [Relax. He can't leave you.]

Brielle replied: [True.]

That single word hit like a slap. So she hadn't been oblivious to the setup. She'd known from the beginning.

She knew every card in my box was blank. She knew everyone was waiting to watch me make a fool of myself.

And she knew I'd keep swallowing it, again and again.

Her only concern was that they might push me too far and interfere with my work planning her wedding.

I kept scrolling. Further down were the plans for this trip.

I'd sent them the itinerary I'd spent hours putting together. No one had replied in our group chat, but in this one, the five of them had been talking nonstop.

[The diving Clark planned sounds boring.]

[Anders hates the water. Let's switch it to a yacht party.]

Brielle wrote: [Don't tell him. We'll change it when we get there. He won't say no.]

They'd even discussed the room arrangements.

[Put Brielle and Anders in the family suite.]

[What about Clark?]

[The couch.]

[What if he refuses?]

Brielle replied: [I'll say a few things, and he'll agree.]

Standing in Anders's room, I suddenly found it hard to breathe.

All this time, I'd thought I was simply slow to warm up to people. That maybe I was the reason I'd never truly managed to become part of their circle.

So I'd tried harder. I remembered what they liked. I tolerated their jokes. I volunteered to handle every tedious problem.

Only now did I finally understand. It had never been that I couldn't find my way in. They had always been standing together on the other side of the door, hand in hand, watching me struggle outside and laughing because I couldn't get in.

A new message suddenly appeared in the group.

Preston asked: [Where's Clark?]

Duncan replied: [Probably sulking in his room. Should we go another round?]

A voice message from Anders appeared almost immediately. "Maybe we should stop. Clark actually seems pissed this time."

Brielle replied with a voice message of her own, "If he's mad, let him cool off. He's a grown man. Why is he being so dramatic?"

As I listened to her voice, the last trace of warmth in my chest disappeared.

I was about to turn off the tablet when another video suddenly appeared in the chat.

Duncan had secretly recorded it. In the video, only Brielle and Anders were left on the terrace.

Anders was drunk. He looked at her with an intensity I had never seen before. "Brielle, if I hadn't turned you down back then, would you still have ended up with Clark?"

My finger froze against the screen.

The wind was loud in the video. Brielle stayed silent for a long time.

Then she answered softly, "No."

Anders smiled. "Do you regret it now?"

Brielle didn't answer. Instead, she reached out and wiped the tears from his face. The gesture was so gentle that it answered the question for her.

The video ended abruptly.

The chat stayed silent for a few seconds.

Then Duncan sent: [Told you two were the ones who belonged together.]

Preston immediately joined in. [Clark was the one who came along later. He's been taking Anders's place all these years. It's about time he gave it back.]

A buzzing filled my ears. So that was how they saw me.

I had been with Brielle for seven years. I was the man she was about to marry, and somehow, in their eyes, I was the third person who had come between them.

I turned off the tablet and put the charger back where it had been.

I didn't confront anyone or storm out onto the terrace. There was no point. The answer was already clear enough.

I went back to my room and changed my ticket to the last flight out that night.

Two hours. That was more than enough time for me to leave.

If there had never been room for me on a trip meant for six people, then there was no reason to save a place for any of them in the rest of my life.