Chapter 2

Brady pushed Josephine's hand away and stepped toward me.

"Gideon Hurley, let me explain."

"Explain what?" I let out a bitter laugh, even as my eyes began to burn.

"Explain how she's not your wife of three years? Or explain how that child isn't yours?"

The moment he couldn't answer, I understood everything.

Why he had never introduced us.

Why there was always something strange in his eyes whenever he talked about his wife.

"It's my fault. If you're angry, take it out on me!" Josephine pulled him behind her and stepped in front of him protectively.

The coldness in her eyes felt painfully unfamiliar. "He didn't do anything wrong. Don't hurt him."

We had been together for eight years. This was the first time she had ever stood in front of me to protect someone else.

No matter what happened before, she had always stood firmly at my side.

The moment I frowned, she would cup my face in both hands, worry written all over her expression.

"What's wrong? Who upset you? Tell me. I'll go deal with them right now."

Yet in the end, the person who hurt me most... was the one I loved the most.

I took a deep breath and forced myself to stay calm.

But my fingers dug so hard into my palms that they left angry red marks behind.

"When did it start?"

Was it when she stopped coming home at night and hid her social media from me?

Or when her attention drifted further and further away, no matter how much I tried to talk to her?

Josephine shook her head.

It was neither.

It started during that trip the three of us took together. I'd gone to bed early with a cold. The two of them went out for drinks.

One spark was all it took.

After that, for a long time, she used visiting me as an excuse to see Brady.

They exchanged glances filled with unspoken affection, burying their feelings deep inside their hearts.

Until the day Josephine found out she was pregnant. Brady panicked and wanted her to terminate the pregnancy.

Josephine refused, so she married him behind my back. The two of them built a family together.

Josephine gave the future I had imagined countless times and dreamed of building with her to someone else, even after the eight years I had spent by her side.

I had abandoned everything familiar and followed her to a strange city to help her build her business.

We had struggled together, living in apartments with leaking ceilings and splitting a single loaf between the two of us when money was tight.

Only after enduring all of that did we finally achieve the success we had today.

And still, she abandoned me without hesitation.

The truth made the ache in my chest grow sharper and sharper.

I closed my eyes as helplessness unlike anything I had ever known swallowed me whole.

"Okay."

Just one simple word, yet it carried more emotions than I could ever put into words.

I turned to leave, but Brady suddenly dropped to his knees in front of me.

"Gideon, I'm sorry. This is all my fault. I was shameless. I was the one who pursued her.

"You can hit me. You can curse me. Do whatever you want. I'm begging you... please don't be this calm."

His eyes were frantic, and his voice shook with emotion.

During the years I struggled with depression, he had been the only one who stayed beside me.

Countless times, I calmly told him to go home, only to hurt myself the moment he left. Even after he hid every sharp object he could find, I still found new ways to hurt myself.

He would pound his fist against me in fear, crying as he begged me to stay alive.

Nevertheless, all of that pain paled in comparison to what he had done to me today.

Josephine frowned as she watched and tried to pull him to his feet.

He refused to move. Still kneeling on the ground, he reached out and grabbed my hand.

"Gideon, I don't want our friendship to end like this after all these years. You're my best friend.

"I'll divorce her immediately. I'll take Owen and leave. I'll give everything back to you. Please?"

The sincerity in his eyes reminded me of the day he had told me I deserved to be happy, but some things could never simply be undone.

Slowly, I pulled my hand free.

"From this day forward, we're no longer friends.

"And as for Josephine, I have nothing to do with her anymore."