After returning from a three-month business trip, I rushed to meet my fiancé and resolve our dispute over my best friend, Elena.

Elena’s ex-husband left her penniless and broken. I offered her my apartment, helped her "find herself" and accompanied her through nights of tequila-soaked sobbing.

My fiance, Julian, hated it. Or so he said.

"She’s a leech, Clara," he’d snap, watching her try on my designer coats. "She doesn't even know how to make toast without calling for help. Are you her best friend or her maid? People like her don't want to heal; they just want a free ride."

She's lost everything, Julian," I argued."Without her, I wouldn't have survived my mother’s death. Please, just be patient for me."

I let myself in quietly. The house was still, the air smelling of expensive candles and something else—something sweet and floral that wasn't mine.

I walked toward the master suite, expecting to find Julian asleep. Instead, the door was ajar.

The wine bottle I had brought to surprise Julian slipped from my hand, leaving me paralyzed for a moment.

Elena was draped across my silk sheets. Julian was hovering over her, expertly shucking oysters—my favorite—and feeding them to her with a look of doting, soft-eyed tenderness he hadn't shown me in months.

"You're so much better at this than she is," Julian purred.

"Because she’s cold, Julian," Elena whispered, brushing a stray hair from his forehead. "She’s all business. She doesn't know how to satisfy men in bed."

I stood in the doorway, my whole self trembling, not in cold but in pure rage and disgust.

"I hope the oysters are fresh," I said, my voice cutting through the room like a blade.

They both froze. Elena didn't reach for a blanket to cover herself. She reached for Julian’s arm, shrinking back as if I were the predator in my own bedroom.

"Clara..." Julian stood up, his face hardening almost instantly into a mask of cold defense.

"It’s not what it looks like. I had a panic attack. I was afraid to be alone." Elena defended, still hiding behind Julian.

"A panic attack that required you to be in my bed, eating my food, with my fiancé’s hands on you?" I asked, my heart hammering against my ribs so hard it hurt.

"Don't start with the drama," Julian spat, his guilt turning into a familiar, icy aggression.

"You’ve been gone for three months, obsessed with your career. You left me alone with Elena in the house. What do you expect?”

He stepped in front of her, shielding her from my gaze. "Stop blaming her for anything. She didn't do anything.”

He turned to look at Elena, his eyes softened quickly. “I like her. It’s my fault, not hers.”

‘I like her,’

These words kept echoing in my head like a harsh reminder of how unreliable a man’s heart could be.

Three years ago, when media people were after me, trying to figure out what connection I had with the city’s most eligible bachelor, he held my hands and announced to the world, “I like her. Now, stop disturbing our peace.”

At that time, I was overwhelmed by his protectiveness. He was like my shield against the world.

Now, the same person had been shielding another woman against me.

“So, you aren't even pretending to hide your affair with…” I choked, looking back at Elena, I added, “I thought we were like sisters!”

“I said it's not her fault.” He snapped back, “If you’re going to be mean to her, let's go somewhere else to talk."

I looked at the woman I called my sister and the man I called my soulmate. The betrayal was a physical weight, crushing the air from my lungs.

"This is my house, Julian," I said quietly, my voice trembling despite my effort to remain calm. It was the first gift from Julian after our relationship became official. He had told me that as long as he was alive, no one could ask me to move out of the house.

But today, he was asking me to leave.

For Elena, the woman he claimed to hate just three months ago.

He didn't say anything. His eyes turned dark, showing the cold and demeaning side of him that he used to deal with his business rivals.

He simply grabbed my hands and dragged me out of the house. After ten minutes, his car stopped in front of a rental building.

He then pushed a card before me and said, “Take whatever price suits you. Elena loves that house. I can't see her sad.”

“You can live here. I have paid the rent for the next ten years.”

“Three years of my love and devotion for you, Julian, and you are repaying me like this?” I asked, my voice trembling.

My heart was bleeding inside. Not because of what he offered for what he took from me, but how casually he was explaining everything, like it was just a business deal for him.

“I have also paid a huge amount to secure your mother’s trust from your father. Our separation will not hurt your mother’s trust. In return, I only want you to be good to Elena. She doesn't want to lose you as a friend.”

“A friend?” I laughed; the word felt like a joke to me. “After breaking my home, she dares to call me her friend?”

“It was not her fault, Clara. You and I were never meant to be. Within three years, I had already started feeling bored with you. But Elena is different.”

“She is lively and vivid. It's natural for any man to court her over you.”

Julian’s words cut deep through my heart like a blade. A year ago, when I took Elena in, he had degraded her for the very same reason.

“She wears revealing clothes, giggles at every man, and behaves like a slut. I don't blame her husband for divorcing her.”

I hadn't talked to him for weeks after his harsh remarks about my friend. Even three months ago, when I was leaving for my business trip, he was very displeased with living with her.

“You want me to share the roof with her. I have a reputation to maintain in public, Clara. Do you have any idea what people will talk about me if they see me with a woman like her?”

I wondered how quickly people’s hearts change. In just three months, suddenly Elena was the woman every man wanted, and I…

I was the woman who could easily be discarded?

The next morning, the city air felt like smog in my lungs. I hadn't slept. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Julian’s protective stance over Elena.

I adjusted my blazer, the professional armor I had worn for years, and stepped out toward my office building. I needed to work. Work was the only thing that hadn't betrayed me.

I was crossing the plaza when a figure darted out from behind a marble pillar.

"Clara! Please, wait!"

It was Elena. She wasn't wearing my designer clothes today. Instead, she was in a simple, pale linen dress that made her look washed out and fragile—the ultimate uniform of a victim.

Her eyes were puffy, her nose pink from crying.

"I have nothing to say to you, Elena," I said, my voice as cold as the glass skyscrapers surrounding us.

I tried to walk past, but she grabbed my sleeve, her fingers trembling.

"Clara, please! I haven't slept. I feel like a monster," she sobbed, the sound drawing the attention of passing commuters. "I never meant for this to happen. The loneliness, the panic... Julian was just there, and I was so weak. I hate myself for hurting you!"

"If you hated yourself, you wouldn't be wearing the diamond necklace Julian bought for our anniversary under that collar," I remarked, catching the glint of gold against her skin.

She flinched as if I’d struck her. "I’ll give it back! I’ll give everything back! Just don't look at me with so much hate. You were my only light when Mark left me. I can’t lose you, Clara. I’ll do anything—I’ll repay you my whole life, I’ll disappear, tell me you forgive me!"

She was begging now, making a scene in the middle of the financial district. I looked at her, feeling pure exhaustion.

.

"You want me to return everything?” I raised my eyebrows; her words felt like a joke. “Then start with my fiancée, Elena. Can you do that?”

She froze. Her lips, as if sealed, could not utter a single word.

“What?” I smirked, “Can't muster up the courage of losing something you had for just three months? Just think about how I felt when you took something that belonged to me for three years, Elena.”

Tears welled up in her eyes as she approached me with her hands. Hesitantly holding my hands, she said, “You are still young, Clara, unmarried with a clean reputation, while I… I’m a divorced woman no man wants.”

“Julian loves me. He appreciates my skills. I give him what you couldn't. He hadn't married you yet. He could have left you for some other woman, some other day. Just let me have him instead, okay?”

I watched as she shifted her tone from apologetic to arrogant, under the mask of guilt she claimed was stressing her out.

I reached down to pry her fingers off my arm. I looked into her eyes, my voice sharp and cold as I said, “If he could leave me for some other woman, what assurance do you have that he would not leave you for

Someone else, like your ex-husband?”

Suddenly, she knelt before me. Hitting her head on a stone, she sobbed, “I already know how sorry I am, Clara. Please don't curse me anymore. I have already gone through a lot. If you curse me to be divorced again, I would rather die than apologize to you.”

"What are you doing?" I gasped, recoiling in horror.

"Clara! Forgive me, please!" she shrieked, her voice echoing off the buildings.

"What the hell is going on here?"

The roar came from behind me. I turned to see Julian sprinting toward us, his face a mask of pure, unadulterated fury. He didn't even look at me as he shoved past, nearly knocking me off my heels to get to the sobbing woman on the floor.

"Elena! My God, are you okay?" He gathered her into his arms, checking her forehead, which was now scraped and bleeding.

"I knew you were cold, Clara, but I didn't think you were pathetic enough to assault your friend in broad daylight," he hissed.

"I didn't ask her to do that. She threw herself down. I didn't ask her to do that pathetic act before me." I spat.

Just then, a couple of phone cameras shifted in our direction as a few passersby happened to be capturing the whole event.

“Isn't that the billionaire, Julian Morgan, and his loving fiancée, Clara, whom he proposed to in a live telecast?”

A voice echoed from them and followed the other, “Who is that girl crying and begging Julian's fiancé? Must have offended her anyway to end up like this.”

“She must have tried to seduce Mr. Morgan and ended up begging Miss Clara like that. What a slut!”

Elena shrieked, listening to the passersby’s judgment. Julian and I had long been public and people adored us watching together. In their eyes, Elena was still a third party, trying to steal my man.

However, just as the cameras flashed towards Elena and people began slandering her, Julian pulled her in his arms, his grip tight and affectionate as he declared, “Elena is my girlfriend. We are soon to be getting married. Whoever offends her is offending me. So, I demand everyone to mind their language.”

Julian's words fell like a bomb, stunning everyone, including me. We had been together for three years, and he didn't even care about my reputation before making his relationship with Elena official.

It was just as he had protected me three years ago against the media. His words still echo in my head ‘I like her. Please don't disturb our peace.’

The love, the adoration, the protectiveness was still the same in his eyes; only one person was replaced.

However, what hurt me the most was how quickly he declared his wedding to Elena. Even after being together with me for three years, he had always avoided the topic of the wedding. He said it was just a formality. Why bother?

But, within three months of being with Elena, he agreed to get married to her.

It seems like he didn't have a problem with getting married; he only had problems with getting married to me.

It was a hard slap on my face, who once thought that since Julian’s actions were so firm and confident, my place in his heart was irreplaceable.

Even Elena, who was earlier begging me, looked up at me and said, “See, Clara. He is ready to marry me. Perhaps you two were never meant to be together. You were just keeping him for me.”

She pointed at the blood stained on the stone and said, “Whatever I owed you, I have repaid you today. I don't care if you resent me or hate me. From now on, you and I are even.”

Elena and Julian were long gone while I continued staring at the blood Elena pointed at. She and I became friends just like that.

After my mother’s death, my father brought another woman to our home, who mistreated me to the point of leaving me scars and wounds.

Elena was the first girl in the school who noticed the abusive environment around me and alerted social services. That's how I escaped my father and stepmother’s cruelty.

After that day, we were inseparable. When I got a scholarship abroad, I worked part-time jobs and called her to live with me just to afford her daily expenses.

The first salary I received from my permanent job, I sent it to Elena's parents to clear the debt they were in because of Elena's extravagant living style.

I never disregarded her for spending too much. I, in fact, helped her financially to maintain her expenses.

Even when Julian proposed to me, I was hesitant. It was she who pushed me to accept his proposal, telling me how gentle a man he was.

When she was getting married, I declined my first vacation with Julian and chose her wedding over our quality time despite knowing how hard he manages time for us to spend some time.

Julian often got mad at me for giving importance to my friend over him and even joked that if he could murder one person, it would be Elena, just to get a competitor out.

His words hit differently when I realised how soon she turned to my competitor from his.

They were once the two most important people in my life, and now they were the two people who had hurt me the most.

But they forgot– to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

I grabbed my phone and dialed a number I hadn't dialed for years.