Looking at those two faces, I remembered sophomore year.

I'd been so excited to introduce my new boyfriend to my best friend.

At a four-person table in the school cafeteria.

I was holding Simon's hand, and Rachel sat across from us.

I'd been too happy to notice the undercurrent moving between them.

Rachel picked up her glass of water, and the water spilled onto Simon's white shirt.

Simon was obsessively clean. Normally, if someone so much as brushed against him, he'd go change.

But that day, he just looked at Rachel, steady and quiet, and didn't lose his temper.

He even took a tissue and wiped the table in front of her first.

Back then I thought Simon was only being so patient with my best friend for my sake.

Looking back now, the cracks were everywhere.

The little boy pushed his phone closer to the camera.

“Look, ma'am, my mom and dad even have a couple account! It's full of videos they made together!”

The camera moved in close, and I saw the name of the account clearly.

——“Her Majesty Queen Rach.”

I picked up my other phone, the backup one.

My fingers trembled as I typed the words into the search bar.

It actually came up.

I opened the account.

The earliest post really did date back to high school.

The video quality from back then was still a little blurry.

It was Simon and Rachel in their school uniforms.

Running across the field, holding hands in the back row of the classroom.

Scrolling toward the middle, the posts suddenly stopped.

The gap matched, down to the day, the exact three years I was with Simon.

And in the second month after Simon's "death,"

the account started posting again.

The first video back was Simon on a yacht, down on one knee, sliding a diamond ring onto Rachel's finger.

The caption read: ：“After everything, it was still you.”

I scrolled down mechanically.

One post after another.

In the comments there were congratulations, and there were people who knew the truth, cursing them out.

One comment was hard to look at: ：“Wasn't Simon with Felicia Henson? How did he end up with her best friend? Scumbag and a snake!”

Right beneath it was a reply from Simon himself, and he'd pinned it.

“Rach is the only one in this life for me. Everyone else was just a mistake I made before I understood my own heart. The one who isn't loved is the real other woman.”

The one who isn't loved is the real other woman.

I bit down hard on my lip and tasted the sweet metal of blood.

So for three years, all I'd been was a test run, something he used to figure out what he wanted.

I kept scrolling.

They went skiing, they went diving, they went skydiving.

In the videos Rachel laughed without holding anything back, and the doting in Simon's eyes was thick enough to drown in.

And me?

For those three years, to keep Simon's startup afloat, I juggled three part-time jobs.

To save enough to buy him one decent suit, I ate plain buttered noodles for a solid month.

At the top of the page, pinned, there was a link to a long piece of writing.

It was called Confession Journal.

The cover claimed it was a novel.

But I had a feeling it was about me.

I clicked the link.

What it told was the second half of a woman's life, a woman named "Lia."

It was what happened in the future of the current timeline.

A few months from now I'd catch the first hints that Simon had faked his death, and I'd go confront them.

In their eyes, I was the one who lost her mind first.

So they struck back, and that was how my career was destroyed.

My mom, trying to get justice for me, went and knelt outside Simon's company.

And was run over by the car of one of those rich kids they ran with, both her legs crushed.

The journal said: "Her mother didn't make it. She lost her mind."

And then, on a night of pounding rain, she jumped from the twenty-eighth floor.

The journal ended with this: "She's dead. We're finally free. And yet, somehow, we feel she didn't deserve to die that way."

I stared at the screen, tears dropping onto the back of my hand.

"Auntie, why are you crying again? Are you okay?"

The little boy watched me, worried.

I wiped at my eyes with the back of my hand and forced a smile.

"It's nothing. Auntie just got some dust in her eyes."

I drew a slow breath and asked him, "When are your mom and dad coming home?"

He answered sweetly, "Daddy went to pick up the custom necklace he's giving Mommy. He'll be back soon. Mommy's having a baby sister, and the doctor said she can't move around much, so she's been resting in her room."

Pregnant.

A family of four. Happy. Whole.

Living their fairy-tale life on the bones of mine.

I held myself still against the shaking that went through every part of me.

"Sweetie, when your dad gets back, could you use this phone to call Auntie? I want to surprise him."

The boy agreed at once. "Okay!"

I smiled at him and ended the call.

The instant the screen went dark, the door opened.

My mother came in carrying a thermos, her eyes still red.

My mother, alive, with both legs, both arms whole.

I lunged at her and held on with everything I had, and the sobs broke out of me.

She thought I was still grieving over Simon's death.

She patted my back, soothing me over and over. "Lia, let it out. The dead don't come back. You have to look forward now."

I buried my face in her shoulder, my tears soaking into her clothes.

"Mom, I'm never going to love him again."

I swore it to myself.

This time, I would not let anyone hurt my family. Not anyone.

After she left, I dried my eyes and picked up my phone.

I dialed Rachel.

Three rings, then she answered.

Her lazy voice drifted down the line.

"Hello? Lia. What's the occasion, calling me?"

"Rach, Simon's gone. I'm a little scared, being on my own."

She gave a soft laugh.

"Oh, Lia, I might not be able to come back for a while. I forgot to tell you, I just married my first love. We literally just signed the papers."

She launched into it, showing off.

"He's so good to me. He'll do anything I ask."

When she'd finished gloating, she put on a comforting tone.

"Fel, don't be too sad either. Honestly, Simon wasn't that great. He was cold and selfish, that man. Better he died early, so he wouldn't drag your whole life down with him."

I listened to her spit poison over his name.

It was almost funny.

"Is that so?" I asked, cold.

"Who exactly is this first love of yours? Where are you two right now?"

Her voice locked up, as if she hadn't expected me to push.

She stumbled over it. "Just... someone you don't know."

That was when I caught something off on the other end of the line.

"What are you doing?" My grip tightened on the phone.

"Nothing... nothing." Her voice went suddenly soft.

Then a man's voice, one I knew far too well, came through the speaker.

"Rach, you're not paying attention. You need to be punished."

It was Simon.

The cold went straight through me, and my stomach turned over.

Rachel said quickly, "Lia, I'll come see you in a couple of days. I have to go!"

Just before the call cut off in a rush, I heard it clearly on her end. The sound of waves. And gulls crying over them.

I knew at once where they were.

It was the most famous clifftop stretch on the coast.

There was an oceanfront villa there.

Simon had once stood with the blueprints in his hand, pointing at that spot, promising me it was where he'd buy our marriage home.

But in my world, we'd only just signed the marriage certificate. There'd been no time for a wedding.

He had "died" on the way to come fetch his bride.

I gripped the phone so hard my knuckles went white.

So that was it.

I got out of bed at once, grabbed my car keys, and left.

By the time I reached the villa, the sky had gone dark.

The lawn blazed with light, and flowers lined the path the whole way.

A lavish little outdoor wedding was underway.

I stood in the shadows, watching the stage in the distance.

Simon wore a sharply tailored white suit, pouring his heart out to Rachel.

"Rach, I finally get to marry you."

His voice cracked. "I've waited so long for this day."

The big screen played their photos together, their history.

Every one of those photos, I remembered.

But on that screen, every place I'd stood had been crudely cropped out.

To them, I'd always been nothing more than a piece of background no one needed.

In their threesome, I was the joke left on the outside.

The crowd burst into warm applause.

Right at the peak, just as the officiant announced the exchange of rings.

I walked out of the shadows, one step at a time, onto the red carpet.

"Simon Weiss!"

Every eye in the place swung to me.

"How are you here?!" Shock and panic flooded Simon's face.

I walked up in front of them and let out a cold laugh.

Then I flung that glaring red booklet out of my bag.

"I came to my lawful husband's wedding."

The marriage certificate lay blood-red and stinging under the lights.

My name and Simon's, our photos, printed there plain for anyone to see.

The friends around them sucked in sharp breaths, and the whispering exploded all at once.

Rachel's face went red, the tears coming instantly.

She rushed forward to explain. "It's not what it looks like! Fel, listen to me, Simon loved me first, I was never the other woman! You were the one wedged between us this whole time—"

I raised my hand and slapped her across the face, hard.

She screamed and went down to the ground.

"That one's for all the years of your sickening, two-faced act!"

Simon snapped to.

He pulled Rachel into his arms, turned, and swung his hand up.

A crisp slap landed hard across my face.

"Have you lost your mind, Felicia!"

He jabbed a finger at me, his eyes vicious. "Security! Throw this crazy woman out!"

Several guards moved in at once to grab me.

That was when several officers strode through.

"Which one of you is Simon Weiss?"

"We received a report filed under a real name. Simon Weiss is suspected of forging a death certificate to commit large-scale insurance fraud, and of bigamy. You'll need to come with us right now."

At that same moment.

The phone in my pocket suddenly buzzed like mad.