Chapter 4Forever Goodbye

As soon as the words left her mouth, the room fell into deathly silence.

My heart died right along with it in that sick, twisted joke of a reality.

So on the day my dad passed away, when Charlotte said she was away on a business trip and Josh said he was bedridden with a fever… they were actually together.

My desperate, helpless crying on the phone back then had been nothing more than background noise to fuel their thrill.

Charlotte hadn't even shown up to his funeral.

In the weeks after, when I was drowning in grief day and night, Charlotte held me tight, endlessly whispering sweet comfort into my ear.

"It's okay, baby. Your dad is a star up in heaven watching over you now. And I'll stay right here to take care of you for him."

And to think the truth was this disgusting. It hit me so suddenly, raw and painful.

When Charlotte realized what she had just blurted out, panic flashed across her face. She reached her hand out toward me, her voice shaking.

"Dean, I'm sorry... I was just angry. I said the wrong thing."

I bit the inside of my cheek until it bled, struggling to keep control.

Suddenly, I snapped and smashed everything in sight, including our freshly printed wedding photos.

"Get the hell out!"

The glass frame shattered on the floor, the broken shards carving a sharp, literal line on the ground between us.

Josh took a step forward toward me, but a stray object I threw caught him straight in the face.

"Ah!"

He clutched his head, trembling in pain.

Whatever tiny sliver of guilt Charlotte had just felt completely evaporated. She grabbed my wrist, slapping away whatever else was in my hand.

Our photo album hit the floor, spilling a cascade of frozen moments across the rug.

The day Charlotte confessed her feelings, the afternoon I proudly introduced her to Josh, and my birthday, when they both laughed as I blew out my candles.

"Dean, what did you wish for?"

"I wish the three of us would stay together forever."

Charlotte's grip on my wrist loosened. Her eyes fixed on those scattered photos.

She opened her mouth to say something, but Josh cut in first, whining.

"Charlotte, my head… It hurts so bad… It's bleeding!"

She snapped her head around instantly. Stepping right over the photos, she rushed to Josh's side.

The heavy Bluetooth speaker had caught him on the temple, leaving a nasty, bleeding gash.

Charlotte quickly helped him up and guided him out, never once looking back. When she reached the front door, she paused, though she still didn't turn around.

"No matter what, he's your best friend. You shouldn't have laid a hand on him. He's already suffered enough."

With that, she disappeared from my sight.

Suffered? We grew up together.

Knowing his family struggled financially, I always gave him the absolute best of everything I had—the bigger piece of chicken at dinner, the brand-new toys my mom bought for me.

And now, even the woman I'd loved for eight years had to be handed over to him, too.

I slid down against the wall onto the cold floor, my heart torn to shreds, as I stared blankly ahead.

Later that night, Josh called me, his voice slurred with alcohol.

"Dean, I swear I didn't mean for any of this to happen. Please forgive me. I don't want us to end like this...

"We've been best friends since childhood. I don't want a girl to ruin years of our brotherhood..."

His tone cracked with heavy emotion, thick with what sounded like deep remorse.

Then, a bartender took over the line. "Sir, we're closing up the bar. If you don't come pick up your friend, I'll have to leave him on the sidewalk."

I sat in silence for a long time. Eventually, I grabbed my jacket and walked out the door.

Before his parents passed away years ago, I had promised them I'd always look out for him.

I told myself this would be the absolute last time.

When I arrived at the bar, I found Charlotte pinning him against the wall outside, standing on her toes as she kissed him frantically.

Her eyes were red, like she was punishing him for hesitating.

"Josh, how many times are you going to push me away?! You know damn well I love you! Why do you keep rejecting me?!"

Josh forced himself to shove her back, his voice raw and husky. "Because he's my best friend! I can't steal his happiness!"

"What about your happiness?!" Charlotte grabbed his hands, shouting with raw desperation.

In that split second, all the love they had suppressed for years completely erupted. Josh yanked her into his arms, holding her tightly.

"I love you too… But what about him?"

Through their sobbing, I watched as Charlotte made her choice.

"If he won't accept it, we'll just leave."

I stood hidden behind a concrete pillar, and a smile broke across my face.

Through my blurred vision, ghost-like memories of the past flickered before my eyes.

I remembered Josh saving up three months of his paycheck just to buy me that high-end gaming PC. I recalled Charlotte sitting beside me, cutting up fresh fruit and feeding it to me.

Back then, they had competed over who could treat me better, squabbling like kids.

However, in the next second, those memories popped like fragile soap bubbles, dissolving into nothing.

The love and the people in those memories belonged strictly to the past.

So I pulled out my phone and opened my email, scrolling down to the job offer sitting buried at the bottom of my inbox.

Years ago, I chose to stay in this city for Charlotte.

Now, I was finally leaving.