The big rig came barreling straight at my side of the car.

Then the crash of impact.

I squeezed my eyes shut in terror.

In my ear, Charles's frantic voice.

"Eugenia!"

The pain I braced for never came.

Slowly, I opened my eyes.

The truck had swerved and slammed into the guardrail along the roadside.

A hair's breadth from hitting us.

I stumbled out of the car.

Charles, finally coming back to himself, came running after me.

"Summer, are you all right?"

I opened my mouth to answer.

A hot stream came gushing out of my nose.

When I opened my eyes again, I was already lying in a hospital bed.

Charles was talking with the doctor.

"Can she skip the transfusion this time?"

"Eugenia's on her period. She's not well."

The doctor let out a long sigh.

"It's possible, but the patient would have to be managed with medication. She'd need to stay in the hospital for half a month."

Charles said that was fine.

I bit my lip and held back the tears.

They seemed to have forgotten.

Why we'd pretended to be a couple in the first place.

Charles walked over to the bed and took my hand.

"Summer, just stay here and take good care of yourself."

"Eugenia and I will be busy with the wedding for a while."

"The day you're discharged, I'll come pick you up."

His tone was so natural.

So natural that I was starting to feel unmoored.

As though he and Eugenia Vance were the real couple.

And I was just the outsider.

Before I could react.

Charles took a phone call and got up in a hurry to leave.

I saw the caller ID.

The contact name read "Sweetheart Eugenia."

My heart gave a sudden jolt, the sting of it almost real.

I watched his back as I asked.

"Can't you stay and keep me company?"

Charles's steps came to a halt.

He turned and looked at me.

"Summer, be good."

"I'll come see you once I'm done."

With that, he walked out without looking back.

I stared at the open door of the hospital room.

The tears I'd been holding back finally fell.

I couldn't hold on to him.

And I couldn't hold on to his heart.

Never mind.

The surgery required a long preoperative preparation.

This stretch of time was as good as any.

From that day on, Eugenia said it was to put my mind at ease, and so she reported the entire process of her and Charles's wedding prep to me.

I had just finished a blood draw and sat down when a message popped up on my phone.

"Summer, Charles looks so handsome in a suit. You have to see this."

In the photo, Charles was crouched down, slipping a high heel onto Eugenia's foot.

I was on my knees on the floor, vomiting from a drug reaction, when a message popped up on my phone.

"These are the wedding candies Charles picked. Aren't they pretty?"

Every one of them was a fruit flavor I couldn't stand.

I had fallen out of the bed from the pain and was reaching for my phone to call the nurse.

Her message popped up on my phone again.

"Summer, I'm just in love with the wedding decor sketches Charles put together."

I stared hard at this image.

I'd seen this picture before.

It was the third-anniversary gift Charles had given me.

Our future wedding.

Back then he'd kissed my forehead and said with a smile:

"Summer, this is the wedding design I made for you. One day I'm going to marry you right here."

But now.

It belonged to Eugenia.

Seven straight days of preoperative treatment wore me down until I started thinking of giving up on the surgery.

I dialed Charles's number.

"Charles, I'm in so much pain."

"Could you come to the hospital right now?"

As long as he came.

I'd give up the surgery.

But the other end was silent for a long moment before he spoke.

"Summer, let me come see you once I'm done, all right?"

“It’s late. Get some rest now.”

I gave a soft hum and hung up.

He’d heard the disappointment in my voice.

But he didn’t call back.

Five minutes later.

Eugenia sent over a screenshot of a chat.

Then unsent it.

“Summer, I sent that to the wrong person, you didn’t see it, did you?”

One minute.

Long enough for me to read every word.

Charles, complaining to Eugenia.

“She called and wanted me to come to the hospital.”

“I told her no.”

“After all these years of taking care of her illness and her moods, I’m a little worn out.”

Eugenia sent a comforting little hug emoji.

Charles sent back a crying face.

And one more line.

“If only everything we have right now were real.”

A screenshot can be unsent.

But the brain can’t delete a memory.

My hand tightened around the phone.

I typed back.

“What did you send? I didn’t see it.”

Eugenia sent a tongue-out emoji.

“Just an unimportant picture.”

But I knew. She wanted me to see it.

She and Charles didn’t want to be the villains. They wanted me to step aside on my own.

The day before the wedding.

Charles came to the hospital to pick me up.

He didn’t take me home. He sent me and all my luggage straight to a hotel instead.

“The house is being turned into the wedding suite for tomorrow. Sorry to make you put up with one night at a hotel.”

I blinked, the corner of my mouth twisting into something bitter.

Nothing they did now, no matter how far it went, surprised me anymore.

After tomorrow, it would all be over.

Tomorrow afternoon I’d be going in for surgery.

If it worked, I’d never have to depend on Eugenia’s blood to stay alive again.

If it failed, I’d just call it a fresh start in the next life.

Whether or not I came off that operating table, I was done with this love and this friendship. Both of them.

The next day, I stood behind Eugenia as her bridesmaid.

The venue was beautiful.

Exactly the way I’d imagined it.

Only the bride wasn’t me.

Charles and Eugenia stood up on the stage.

The vows.

The exchange of rings.

The kiss.

Both of them with red-rimmed eyes.

As if reaching this happy ending had cost them everything.

I still remembered how, right before we went up, the two of them had each said a line to comfort me.

“Summer, don’t be sad in a bit, okay? We’re only acting.”

“Right, just think of it like we’re playing one of those murder-mystery games.”

I’d smiled and nodded back then.

Hadn’t told them.

I didn’t care anymore.

The officiant suddenly held the microphone out in front of me.

“I hear this bridesmaid is the bride’s best friend since childhood. Do you have any words of blessing for the newlyweds?”

There was no such moment scheduled in the ceremony.

I glanced at Eugenia.

She kept her head down, not daring to meet my eyes.

Charles shot me a warning look not to say anything out of line.

I looked at their ten fingers laced together, and inside I was strangely calm.

“I wish you a love that lasts, happiness forever, growing old together. Congratulations on your marriage!”

The next second, warm applause broke out from the floor below.

Then came the bouquet toss.

Charles was just about to take the bouquet from Eugenia’s hands to pass it to me.

But Eugenia abruptly raised it and flung it into the crowd.

In the scramble, the flowers hit the floor and were trampled to a pulp.

Charles froze for a moment, then gave a helpless little laugh.

He came to my side and lowered his voice.

“Eugenia got carried away, she just forgot.”

“I’ll buy you a new bouquet once the wedding’s over.”

With that.

He stepped forward, slid his arm around Eugenia’s shoulders, and went off with her to make the toasts.

I picked up the bouquet, crushed underfoot.

I looked at it for a moment.

Then I dropped it into the trash.

After I left the reception, a text from Charles popped up on my phone.

"Go back to the hotel and rest. I'll come get you once things wrap up here."

I didn't reply.

I flagged down a cab and went straight to the hospital.

The moment I lay down on the operating table.

The fear slowly settled into calm.

The blessing I'd given at the wedding was sincere.

And so was my hatred for them.

As the anesthesia went in, my world sank into darkness.

……

Elsewhere, the wedding reception ended.

Charles saw the text Summer still hadn't answered two hours later, and an uneasiness he couldn't explain rose in his chest.

Summer would never leave one of his texts unanswered.

Once, after they'd fought and she went quiet, he'd panicked so badly that he rode his motorcycle all over the city in the dead of night looking for her, and nearly crashed.

After that, they'd made a promise: no matter what happened, neither of them would ever ignore the other's messages.

He shrugged off Eugenia, who had her arm hooked through his.

"I'm going to get Summer. She's still waiting for me at the hotel."

Eugenia clung to his hand, refusing to let go.

"Charles, today is our wedding. Can't you just not go looking for Summer?"

Charles ignored her and walked off.

The whole way to the hotel, he kept calling Summer.

But the other end gave only a cold, automated message: the number was powered off.

He rushed to the hotel room door.

Inside, there was only the cleaning staff.

"Where's the guest staying here?!"

The cleaner jumped at his shout and rolled her eyes at him.

"Checked out, so she's gone. How would I know where to?"

Charles stood frozen.

And just as he stood there at a loss, a call from the hospital flashed up on his phone.

"Is this a family member of Ms. Summer Chase?"

"Please come to the hospital right away. Something has happened to Ms. Chase…"