Chapter 2

Dean came to pick me up from the hospital.

I handed him my check-up report. He didn't reach for it, just glanced at it casually, then gestured for me to hold it up.

"Where's Chloe? Wasn't she with you?"

"Oh, she said she wasn't feeling well and went home."

Dean's hand on the steering wheel paused, then he immediately turned the car around.

"Let's go check on her. I booked a healthy food place; I was just about to take you two. I told Chloe already, it was just a routine check-up, she didn't need to go through all that trouble."

I stared at his profile. The concern on his face was utterly genuine.

It was like he was a completely different person from just moments ago, when he'd coldly swept his gaze over my prenatal report.

Things, once they start to show cracks, tend to fall apart completely.

Like now. I saw everything through a different lens.

I refused to believe he felt nothing for me, and I couldn't accept even a shred of deceit from him.

"Why the sudden healthy food place? I thought you hated bland food."

Dean's face clouded with annoyance.

"You really don't care about Chloe at all, do you? She's not feeling well, how can she eat spicy food?"

"Oh, my mistake. I thought it was because *I* liked it."

Dean froze for a second, then quickly tried to recover. "Well, of course, it's because you like it too!"

Chloe, of course, didn't come to the healthy food place. She didn't even answer her phone.

Dean drove me to her house, knocking on her door for half an hour, but no one answered.

I stood in the parking lot, watching him call Chloe, then Mr. Peterson, then Mrs. Peterson.

Eventually, he confirmed she was just unwell and sleeping at home.

Dean finally breathed a sigh of relief. He turned to me.

"That scared me to death. I thought something had happened to her."

There was a time I didn't answer his calls either.

It was our first anniversary.

He had completely forgotten about it because he was in his hometown, waiting for Chloe to go back to college with him.

By the time he remembered, it was the next day. He called me twice, but I didn't pick up.

Chloe, however, kept calling me.

When I finally answered, I even heard Dean in the background impatiently asking her, "What could possibly be wrong with her? She's probably just sleeping in her dorm."

Thinking about it now, it was obvious then who he loved and who he didn't.

I had just been blinded by their shared history, their "childhood friends" narrative.

It was my fault for silently allowing a relationship to exist that overshadowed ours.

All my fault.

I'm an adult. I have to take responsibility for my choices.

Elara Harrison, I had made my bet, and I would pay the price.

There was one thing I still couldn't figure out.

If they liked each other so much, why didn't they just get together? Why drag an irrelevant person like me into it?

What did I ever do wrong?

Looking back on these past few years, the biggest mistake I made was probably letting my delight show on my face the first time Dean appeared.

After that, Dean pursued me effortlessly.

Yes, he was calm and confident, because he knew he would win me over.

My affection for him was obvious, and Chloe was helping us.

To pursue me, he traveled over a thousand miles, two or three times a month.

I always thought that was love.

About six months later, I accepted his pursuit.

Now, looking back, there was love, but I just don't know who it was for.

Most of our dates, it wasn't just us two. It was *three*.