I came across a post on my way home after getting off work.

"Should you pursue someone you like if they already have a girlfriend?"

One reply said, "Of course!"

"Five years ago, I moved. My neighbor was a handsome, brilliant guy, and he already had a girlfriend then."

"I befriended them first, then framed his girlfriend for hurting me, playing weak so he'd pity me. They quickly grew distant."

"Later, they argued constantly. The worst moment was when he came to vent to me, and I kissed him. He instantly lost control."

"And that night, his girlfriend was still devastated about failing her university entrance exam."

"Now I know I made the right call. He's a partner at a listed company, and we're getting married soon. If I hadn’t acted back then, I wouldn’t have this life now."

Then the girl suddenly switched topics: "His ex-girlfriend is done for. She didn’t get into university; she’ll probably stay stuck forever."

I froze on the spot, realizing I was the ex-girlfriend she was talking about.

——

Seeing that comment so proudly describing how she stole someone’s boyfriend, my first instinct was to close the thread.

Because I had lived through the same thing.

But I stopped, because the profile photo was painfully familiar.

It was the first picture of Felicity Miller and William Shaw together, taken by me on William’s birthday.

I stared at that comment for a long time.

Most replies were condemning her, calling her shameless for being a homewrecker.

But a small group agreed with her, saying she simply chose what benefited her most.

"That’s what a true heroine does—securing someone promising early to move up in life; wanting a better future isn’t wrong."

"Even without that, they might not have lasted. I don’t think she did anything wrong."

Just then, I was standing by the roadside when the wind suddenly rose. I stumbled, and my dinner rolled into a muddy puddle.

I bent down and tossed the ruined sandwich into a trash bin.

Actually, I am the ex-girlfriend mentioned in that comment.

Later, William and I broke up. I failed the university exam, and even my beloved mother had an accident.

Back then, I thought of dying more than once. Only in recent years did my life slowly return to normal.

Only then did I realize five years had passed—the fifth year since William and I broke up, and the third year since I finally let go.

The pain and resentment had long faded as the scars on my hands healed, blown away by time.

Once home, I sorted the scattered sketches on my desk.

Just as Felicity had said, I never entered university, and I never had another chance to rise in life.

As I returned the sketches to the cabinet, I suddenly found an old letter.

The handwriting was bold and steady: "To Emily Carter."

At the end, he wrote that he would give me everything he had, yet in the end, I lost everything because of him.

My thoughts were pulled back to the past.

William and I were childhood sweethearts, growing up side by side.

We lived in the same neighborhood, and back then, he had a warm family.

Later, his father’s business expanded, and he came home less and less. He would always run to my house, saying it felt like home, unlike his own.

When he was six, William’s father cheated, and his mother smashed everything overnight, then stopped caring about him altogether.

During the divorce, his parents tossed him around like a burden, without wanting him.

The once warm family of three was now just an empty house.

In the end, my parents took pity on him and cared for him like their own son.

From then on, William and I were inseparable, never apart again.

He was always outstanding, with excellent grades and handsome looks.

And I was just an ordinary girl, not pretty, with average grades, my only notable quality being perhaps my talent for drawing.

But I never felt unworthy of William.

He once said that our family gave him the warmth of all families; we were his family.

He also said that I was a ray of light in his dark world.

One evening after self-study in my first year of high school, I walked home with William as usual.

In a secluded alley, we encountered William’s father.

He reeked of alcohol, his words and actions unsteady, and his behavior erratic.

It turned out he had gone bankrupt, his mistress had run away, and now he had turned to William.

William didn’t want to go with his father, who suddenly lunged at him, trying to drag him away.

I stood in front of him without hesitation, driving his father off.

Actually, I was so scared my legs could barely stand, but I was even more afraid of him getting hurt.

That night, William hugged me tightly and said he would only love me for the rest of his life.

After entering high school, William became increasingly outstanding, attracting countless girls to pursue him.

William was consistently the top student in the grade, while I was just an average art student.

I was afraid he would leave me, but William would only laugh and pinch my nose, saying, "Silly girl, how could I leave you? I can never repay the kindness you and your aunt and uncle have shown me."

I thought we would be happy like this forever, until Felicity appeared.

One hot summer day, I was doing my homework with William at his house when there was a knock at the door.

When I opened it, a bright and cheerful girl with braided pigtails stood there.

She said she had just moved in and was William’s new neighbor. Her light voice seemed to dispel the summer heat, but I felt uneasy.

Perhaps it was because she was so beautiful, or perhaps it was because I noticed the sparkle in her eyes when she looked at William.

Later I realized that this unease wasn’t just a feeling, but a shadow over the rest of my high school life.

The next day, I learned that Felicity had not only become William’s new neighbor, but had also transferred to our school.

The monthly exams had just finished, and the teacher was reviewing the results. I, whose grades were average, had managed to get first place in the class for Chinese, but just as the teacher finished praising me, Felicity appeared at the classroom door.

The whole class erupted in excitement. No one cared about my grades anymore; everyone was looking at Felicity outside the door.

"Wow, our school is such a beauty!"

"Are you crazy? She’s obviously a transfer student; otherwise, how come I haven’t seen her before?"

That’s when I realized that Felicity had not only become William’s neighbor, but was also about to become our classmate.

What I didn’t expect was that when choosing a deskmate, Felicity chose me.

"Emily, you’re the only girl I know in this class. You’ll have to help me out in the future."

"I know you and William are close. Can you take me with you next time?"

Her smile was radiant, like the warm sun in winter.

And I, it seemed, couldn’t find any reason to refuse.

From then on, a third person entered between William and me.

I didn’t have many friends in class, and ever since Felicity arrived, my classmates all thought that she and William were perfect for each other, even though William liked me.

"The class beauty and the class heartthrob are together; why does Emily keep getting in the way?"

"Who knows, a toad trying to eat swan meat."

Back then, I sincerely considered Felicity a friend and even asked her if I really didn’t deserve William.

But Felicity simply smiled and said, "How could that be, Emily? Even if you’re not pretty, William doesn’t care about that."

"By the way, William wants to take you to the amusement park this weekend. He was too shy to tell you himself, so he asked me to pass the message. Don’t forget!"

Although William and I already had an unspoken understanding, this was the first time we had ever gone on a date like that.

That day after class, I left early on purpose. It was pouring hard, but I still went to a faraway mall to buy William a gift.

I chose a tie, and the salesperson asked if it was for my boyfriend. I nodded shyly.

On the day of the amusement park trip, I wore a pale yellow dress, letting my hair down from its usual ponytail. While waiting at the entrance, I kept wondering if I looked too dressed up.

But I waited until it turned dark, and William never appeared. My messages went unanswered.

I completely lost hope; I worried something had happened to William.

It was already dark, and on the way there, I slipped and fell in a muddy puddle. My pale yellow dress was covered in mud, and the tie flew away.

When I arrived, the moment I pushed open the door, I saw Felicity lying on William’s bed, while William was preparing her cold medicine.

"Why are you only coming now? Where have you been? I couldn’t find you all day."

"You don’t know, Felicity got caught in the rain yesterday. She fainted with a fever early this morning. If I didn’t live next door, I don’t know how dangerous it would’ve been."

He gave me no explanation for standing me up—only anger and blame. In all the years we’d known each other, this was the first time he’d ever been this angry with me.

Felicity, eyes brimming with tears, said, "Emily, I know you had something urgent yesterday, but in such heavy rain, you shouldn’t have taken my umbrella."

"I didn’t have any cold medicine, and my parents were away on a business trip. I kept messaging you, but you blocked me. Luckily, I collapsed when I came to find William, or I don’t know what would have happened."

At that, Felicity choked up, "Emily, I came here just to study, and I’ve always treated you as my best friend. Why did you do this…" William reached out and wiped her tears, cutting her off, "That’s enough, you don’t need to say more."

I froze. So Felicity had given him a completely different story.

My eyes filled with tears, and it took a long time before I could speak. I tried to hand the tie to William, saying, "I didn’t, I just…" but William didn’t even look at me. Instead, he handed his cup to Felicity.

I felt like an outsider. After a long moment, I chose not to stay and walked out of William’s house.

Because of this, William and I had our first cold war.

After school resumed, I quietly changed seats, no longer sitting beside Felicity.

And the looks from the other students grew increasingly strange. Felicity told everyone I was pretending to be a victim because William favored her.

Wherever I went, the classroom buzzed with gossip about me.

"See? I told you she wasn’t worthy of the class heartthrob; she just had to interfere."