I pulled at my lip：“We're already divorced. The certificate just hasn't come through yet.”

In the end, the whole thing was a false alarm.

By the time we left the police station, it was deep into the night.

Nicholas went to get the car.

That left just me and Georgia.

She looked at me and suddenly laughed out loud：“Mia, all these years and you still haven't changed one bit. Still falling over yourself for Nicholas.”

I didn't say a word.

But Georgia kept going：“Want to know why Nicholas fell for me?”

She leaned in close：“Because the person he was supposed to fall for was you.”

I froze.

Georgia went on：“Back then he got so many love letters, but yours was the only one he kept. I didn't know you wrote it at first. Then one day I came back early from morning exercises and caught you slipping an envelope into his locker, the exact same purple as the one he'd saved.”

“You tossed that confession letter in the trash, and I fished it right out. The day exams ended, I scratched your name off, wrote mine over it, and went and confessed to him. He said yes. Told me those letters were fun, that he really liked them. Just like that, we were together. The playboy settled down—for me.”

Every part of me went rigid.

Georgia's smile stretched wider：

“I went through all the letters you wrote him later on. They really were something. What he liked to eat, what he liked to drink, what he did every single day, all of it recorded like a diary. Oh, and one more thing”

“In college, when you heard we'd broken up, you finally worked up the nerve to go after him. Too bad. He turned right around and forwarded your messages to me. Asked me to reply for him. Those two years of flirty texts that kept you dangling? That was all me. Watching you chase your own tail because of words I typed—you have no idea how much fun that was.”

“Later on, he and I kept splitting up and getting back together. I even got caught checking into hotels with different men, and he didn't say a word.”

“Mia, when it comes down to it, I really should thank you. You're the one who made a playboy turn around and fall in love with me.”

The cold went straight through me, head to toe, and I couldn't get a single word out.

Then Georgia's eyes went dark.

She grabbed my hand and slapped herself across the face with it.

“Ah!”

Before I could even react, a harder slap had already landed on my face.

Followed by Nicholas's ice-cold voice：“Mia, do you have a death wish?”

He didn't ask a single question. Didn't hesitate for a second. Just took Georgia's side.

I looked at the satisfaction on Georgia's face, pressed my palm to my burning cheek, and gave Nicholas one long, final look：“Nicholas, you were right. You really are garbage.”

I turned on my heel, threw my things together, and was on a train back to Ashford before the day was out.

Three days later, a wedding invitation appeared on my feed.

Nicholas and Georgia's.

My own wedding was on the same day.