The Ex-Best Friend's Cruelty

The Ex-Best Friend's Cruelty

Gavin

5.0
Comment(s)
73
View
11
Chapters

The old man hit the pavement hard. One moment I was walking to meet my best friend, Jessica, for coffee, the next my medical student instincts screamed. "Sarah, stop!" Jessica's grip on my arm was tight, her face a mask of alarm. "Don't get involved," she hissed, warning of scams and pickpockets. Her words, and a past trauma of kindness exploited, made me pause, just for a second. A fatal second. In that life, I listened. I stood by, fear warring with my training, as precious minutes ticked away. Mr. Henderson, the veteran, died before the ambulance arrived. The public fallout was immediate and brutal. Jessica, my best friend, painted me as a cold, heartless medical student in a viral interview, cleverly omitting her own role in dissuading me. "Heartless Med Student Lets Veteran Die." That headline destroyed my life. I was suspended from medical school. My boyfriend left me. My address was leaked, and I received death threats, trapped as a pariah in my own home. Jessica, meanwhile, thrived, becoming a celebrated symbol of civic virtue, funneling donations from a foundation in Mr. Henderson's name into her own pockets. The weight of the world's hatred, Jessica's betrayal, and crushing guilt became too much. I lost everything. My future. My will to live. The last thing I remembered was Jessica's triumphant smile on a talk show. Then, darkness. Until I was ripped from it. My eyes flew open. The scent of hotdogs, a taxi's screech, humid air. I was back. Standing on the same sidewalk, my bag in hand. Twenty feet away, Mr. Henderson was just beginning to crumple to the ground. This wasn't a memory. It was happening again. The thud of his body was the starting gun for my second chance. I didn't waste a second.

Introduction

The old man hit the pavement hard.

One moment I was walking to meet my best friend, Jessica, for coffee, the next my medical student instincts screamed.

"Sarah, stop!"

Jessica's grip on my arm was tight, her face a mask of alarm.

"Don't get involved," she hissed, warning of scams and pickpockets.

Her words, and a past trauma of kindness exploited, made me pause, just for a second.

A fatal second.

In that life, I listened.

I stood by, fear warring with my training, as precious minutes ticked away.

Mr. Henderson, the veteran, died before the ambulance arrived.

The public fallout was immediate and brutal.

Jessica, my best friend, painted me as a cold, heartless medical student in a viral interview, cleverly omitting her own role in dissuading me.

"Heartless Med Student Lets Veteran Die."

That headline destroyed my life.

I was suspended from medical school.

My boyfriend left me.

My address was leaked, and I received death threats, trapped as a pariah in my own home.

Jessica, meanwhile, thrived, becoming a celebrated symbol of civic virtue, funneling donations from a foundation in Mr. Henderson's name into her own pockets.

The weight of the world's hatred, Jessica's betrayal, and crushing guilt became too much.

I lost everything.

My future.

My will to live.

The last thing I remembered was Jessica's triumphant smile on a talk show.

Then, darkness.

Until I was ripped from it.

My eyes flew open.

The scent of hotdogs, a taxi's screech, humid air.

I was back.

Standing on the same sidewalk, my bag in hand.

Twenty feet away, Mr. Henderson was just beginning to crumple to the ground.

This wasn't a memory.

It was happening again.

The thud of his body was the starting gun for my second chance.

I didn't waste a second.

Continue Reading

Other books by Gavin

More
Contract With The Devil: Love In Shackles

Contract With The Devil: Love In Shackles

Mafia

4.5

I watched my husband sign the papers that would end our marriage while he was busy texting the woman he actually loved. He didn't even glance at the header. He just scribbled the sharp, jagged signature that had signed death warrants for half of New York, tossed the file onto the passenger seat, and tapped his screen again. "Done," he said, his voice devoid of emotion. That was Dante Moretti. The Underboss. A man who could smell a lie from a mile away but couldn't see that his wife had just handed him an annulment decree disguised beneath a stack of mundane logistics reports. For three years, I scrubbed his blood out of his shirts. I saved his family's alliance when his ex, Sofia, ran off with a civilian. In return, he treated me like furniture. He left me in the rain to save Sofia from a broken nail. He left me alone on my birthday to drink champagne on a yacht with her. He even handed me a glass of whiskey—her favorite drink—forgetting that I despised the taste. I was merely a placeholder. A ghost in my own home. So, I stopped waiting. I burned our wedding portrait in the fireplace, left my platinum ring in the ashes, and boarded a one-way flight to San Francisco. I thought I was finally free. I thought I had escaped the cage. But I underestimated Dante. When he finally opened that file weeks later and realized he had signed away his wife without looking, the Reaper didn't accept defeat. He burned down the world to find me, obsessed with reclaiming the woman he had already thrown away.

You'll also like

Chapters
Read Now
Download Book