Chapter Two

Chapter Two

After the slap, Lucas froze. So did I.

He looked a little panicked and reached for my hand.

"Claire, listen to me..."

But he never got the chance to finish.

Serena caught his arm, meek and long-suffering, her eyes rimmed with red.

"Lucas, apologize to Claire!"

She was still dripping wet, and that was enough to make him forget everything else.

Lucas gave me one long look. Then he took Serena's hand and walked out without looking back.

"Like I owe her anything!"

Before she left, Serena turned back to me, her voice as gentle as ever.

"Claire, don't be mad. Just let Lucas cool off."

"I'll send him back to make it up to you, okay?"

The door slammed shut.

I was running a high fever, and I couldn't stay on my feet anymore.

I crouched in the wreckage on the floor, shaking like a leaf, waves of dizziness rolling over me.

I fumbled for my phone and made call after call in a haze. Not one went through.

Finally I dialed 911. When the ambulance came, I used the last of my strength to open the door. Then everything went black and I hit the floor hard.

Somewhere in the fog, I heard the paramedics calling my emergency contact.

Lucas's voice was flat, but it pierced my ears like a needle.

"Quit the act, Claire. Is this life-or-death drama really the only trick you've got?"

When I came to again, it was the middle of the night.

There wasn't a single message from Lucas on my phone. My call log showed nothing but the countless unanswered calls I'd made to him before I passed out.

On the screen, the contact name Future Husband ❤ looked mocking and humiliating.

The ER infusion area was empty. I curled up in a cold plastic chair, the back of my hand icy and aching around the IV.

Just then, there was a commotion outside the door.

Through the glass, I saw them.

Serena's face was streaked with tears. She was crying and shaking her head.

"We can't keep this baby, Luke. We can't."

"I can't hurt Claire again."

Lucas pulled her tight into his arms, his eyes full of churning emotion.

Reluctance. Pain. Indecision.

In the end, it all came out as one deep, choked sob.

"But I can't let it go."

Serena tipped her head back to look at him, her eyes full of desperate hope.

"Then what about Claire?"

Lucas said nothing.

For a long time. Then he sank to his knees in front of her, defeated.

A little while later,

a message from her popped up on my phone.

It was a photo of Lucas kneeling before her, devoted and intent.

Claire, I tried to talk him out of it.

He always listens to me, but this time he said no.

Love doesn't care who came first. Step aside and let us be together, okay?

I stared at those words, and suddenly it all seemed absurd.

Twenty years I'd known her, and it felt like I was meeting Serena for the very first time.

I was the one who dragged her out of the mess of her divorce, brought her close, and found her a job.

I worried she'd have nowhere to go, alone in a big strange city, so I let her move into the apartment I shared with Lucas.

I even had Lucas, a therapist, help her talk through her feelings and heal.

She'd held me once, sobbing so hard she shook.

"Claire, I swear, I will never betray you as long as I live."

And now she was carrying my fiancé's baby.

Telling me love doesn't care who came first. Begging me to step aside for them.

So who was going to step aside for me, after the ten years I'd poured into this relationship?

My phone screen blurred.

I ripped the IV out of the back of my hand, shoved the door open, and ran out.