"He Chose Her... Then Came Back to Me"
"You don't get to hurt me and then make me responsible for how guilty you feel about it."
"Friends don't stand next to you, learn everything about you, and then use it to get close to the one person they know matters."
Aria thought she knew two things for certain: she was going to graduate with her best friend, Iris, by her side, and she was in love with her boyfriend, Liam.
One kiss changed everything. But as the secrets of their "before" come to light, Aria realizes the betrayal didn't start at a party or in a moment of weakness. It started weeks ago, in the conversations she wasn't part of and the moments she wasn't invited to.
Now, Aria has to decide if she can find herself again in the wreckage of the people she trusted most-or if some bridges are meant to be burned
Chapters
Share
Chapter 1
The music was too loud. Not the kind that made you want to dance just noise, constant and sharp, pressing into Aria's head like it had something to prove. Conversations overlapped, laughter came too quickly, too easily. It felt forced. Like everyone here had agreed to pretend they were having a better time than they actually were.Aria stood just inside the doorway for a moment longer than necessary, scanning faces she barely recognized.
"This is why I don't come to things like this," she muttered under her breath. She only came because Iris insisted. "Ten minutes," Aria had said earlier. "I'm leaving after that." "You say that every time," Iris had told her earlier.
Aria exhaled slowly
She checked her phone. No New messages.
Iris? Gosh, where are you?"
She murmured it more to herself than to anyone else.She moved past the Restroom, weaving through people who didn't notice her and didn't need to. That was fine. She preferred it that way.
"Looking for someone?" She turned at the voice.
Daniel stood there, one hand in his pocket, the other holding a drink. He looked relaxed, like he belonged here in a way she never quite did.
"Iris," Aria said. "Have you seen her?"
He nodded toward the back hallway. "I think she went that way. A few minutes ago."
"Okay. Thanks."
She started to walk past him, but she felt it that pause, that slight shift in his attention. It lingered.
It always did.
"Don't take too long," he added lightly.
Aria didn't respond. She just kept walking.
The hallway was quieter. The music dulled into a low, distant rhythm. The further she went, the more the noise faded, replaced by something else stillness, almost. "Iris?" she called softly. No answer. She frowned slightly and took a few more steps. Then she heard voices.
She stopped. "...we shouldn't be doing this," Liam said. Aria's brows drew together.
There was a pause, and then Iris spoke. Her voice was softer than usual. Careful.
"Then why are you still here?"
Something about that tone made Aria's chest tighten. She didn't think. She just moved.
One step. Then another.And then she saw them.
They weren't just standing close.Liam's hand was resting at Iris's waist. Not awkwardly. Not like he was about to pull away. Like it belonged there.
Aria's steps slowed, but she didn't stop.
She watched as Liam leaned in slightly, his head tilting just enough and then he kissed her.There was no hesitation.
No confusion. Iris kissed him back.
Not like it surprised her. Not like it was a mistake. Like it had already happened before.
Aria stood there, her mind oddly quiet.
For a second, she expected something inside her to react. Anger. Shock. Anything.
But there was just... stillness.
Liam pulled back first, his hand still at Iris's side.
"This isn't right," he said.
Iris let out a soft breath. "Then why does it feel like it is?" he didn't answer, He didn't move away either. Aria shifted her weight, and the slight sound of her shoe against the floor broke the moment.
Both of them turned. Iris's face changed instantly. "Aria-" Liam froze.
Aria looked at them carefully, at the space between them that had suddenly appeared. At Iris's shoulders, tense in a way she had never seen before. At Liam, who looked like he was searching for the right words but hadn't found them yet.
"How long?" Aria asked.
Her voice was calm.Too calm.
Iris shook her head quickly. "It's not what it looks like," Don't," Aria cut in. Iris stopped.
Just answer the question. How long?"
Liam stepped forward slightly. "Aria, listen-"
"No." She met his eyes. "You don't get to explain it." he hesitated.
That was enough to tell her everything.
Aria folded her arms loosely, more to keep her hands steady than anything else.
"I just need to understand something," she said.
Neither of them spoke.
She glanced briefly at Iris, then back at Liam.
"Was I the one you chose..."Her voice didn't shake.
"...or the one you kept until you figured it out?"
Iris looked down immediately.
Liam said nothing.
The silence stretched just long enough to settle the answer in place.
Aria nodded once. "Okay."
"Aria, please-" Iris muttered
Aria turned back slightly.
"I would have rather you told me," she said.
Her tone didn't change. It didn't accuse. It didn't rise. "That's all."
Iris opened her mouth, but nothing came out.
There was nothing she could say that would fix this. They all knew it.
Aria didn't wait for anything else.
She turned and walked back down the hallway.
The music grew louder with each step, swallowing the quiet behind her. By the time she reached the front door, it was like nothing had happened.
Like everything was normal.She stepped outside.
The air was cooler. Quieter.Real.
Aria stood there for a moment, breathing in slowly, letting the noise fade out of her head.
Then she reached into her bag and pulled out her phone.
Liam's name was still at the top of her messages. She stared at it.
At the conversations. The plans. The small, meaningless things that had once felt important.
Her thumb hovered over the screen for a second.
Then she deleted the entire thread.
No hesitation.No second thoughts.
Some things didn't need closure.
They just needed distance.
You may also like
7.3
I found out my husband of three years had cheated on me and his mistress is the one who told me-because he didn't have the balls to do it himself.
I move out and get a new apartment, a job as a bartender, and try to move on with a broken heart. I wonder where it all went wrong, if I hadn't been enough for him, if I'd been stupid for marrying him in the first place.
I'm at work one night when he walks inside-the most beautiful man I've ever seen. He sits at the bar and a forest fire burns between us. I was depressed the moment before he entered, but the second I look at his blue eyes, I forget the dumpster fire that my life has become. I invite him back to my place and it's the most passionate night of my life. I expect to never see him again.
I just want him as an anti-depressant-but he wants me all to himself. I just got my heart ripped out of my chest so I want something easy and no-strings-attached, but he wants all the strings because he's hooked.
I don't get much of a say in the matter, and that's not surprising when I learn why-because he's the Butcher. The crime lord of all crime lords, the boss that overshadows all of Paris, that makes everyone abide by his rules-or pay.
And now I'm his.
9.0
I crashed a wedding.
Got caught by the best man.
Now, I'm pregnant with his baby...
It's Katya's fault. (As per usual.)
My BFF despises her ex and wants to hate-watch him marry the woman he left her for.
Problem is, she didn't fill me in on that plan...
Until we arrive at the ceremony.
As soon as I find out, I run.
Hop on the elevator and smash the Doors Close button like the Energizer Bunny on a sugar rush.
But right before they shut...
A hand comes shooting through.
And attached to that hand, unfortunately for me, is the most stunning human specimen I've ever seen.
Tall.
Dark.
Handsome.
Dangerous.
Also... the best man.
He takes one look at me and knows I don't belong.
"Who let you in here, little bird?" he growls.
I gulp. Tremble.
Open my mouth to lie...
And then the elevator stops.
7.1
For seven years, I was the architect of my fiancé's criminal empire and the strategist behind his every move. I was Dante Gallo’s unofficial Consigliere, his partner in everything but name. Tomorrow, I was finally supposed to marry him and take my place as the queen to his throne.
But on the eve of our wedding, a single text message sent by mistake detonated my life. It was a photo from Dante, showing a platinum wedding band on his hand. The message read: “Married this morning. She’s safe now.”
My gaze fell to the engagement ring on my own finger. It was the identical band, just smaller. The engraved initials ‘D.I.’ didn’t stand for Dante and I. They stood for Dante and Isabella—his childhood sweetheart. My entire relationship was a lie; I was just a shield to protect his one true love.
He dismissed my discovery as a "tantrum." Then, his new bride began taunting me, sending a picture of them tangled in bedsheets with the caption: "Loser." They expected me to break. They thought I would shatter.
They were about to find out just how wrong they were. I forwarded the picture to Isabella’s fiancé, a man far more dangerous than Dante. "Your fiancée is in Suite 8808 at the Grand Hyatt," I told him. "I'll meet you downstairs. We're going to crash their party."
7.2
Elena stood flawless in her bridal gown. Five years of molding herself for Dante Moretti and a powerful mafia treaty culminated now. This dress was her only solace.
Then her phone buzzed. A text from Dante: "Wedding canceled." Two cold words, no explanation. Her world shattered, heart a sledgehammer blow.
Dante answered her call from a hospital, commanding her to leave, no apology. Her father and 500 mafia guests outside whispered of "humiliation." Marco then cleared Dante's things, revealing he was moving his long-comatose 'white swan,' Sofia, into their intended home. Her father's ultimatum: win Dante back in thirty days, or be married to a sadistic Russian boss.
Discarded, betrayed, and trapped, Elena felt absolute humiliation. She despised five years wasted, facing a fate worse than death. But as tears blurred her vision, a dangerous thought ignited: Dante wasn't the only Moretti. She wouldn't cry or beg. Instead, she'd choose the most terrifying Moretti of all, and make Dante pay for his arrogance.
8.7
My little brother's heart monitor was screaming its final warning. I called my husband, Dante Volkov, the ruthless underworld king whose life I'd saved years ago. He had promised to send his elite medical team.
"I'm handling an emergency," he snapped, then hung up. An hour later, my brother was dead.
I found out what Dante's "emergency" was from his mistress's social media. He had sent his team of world-class surgeons to deliver her cat's kittens. My brother died for a litter of cats.
When Dante finally called, he didn't even apologize. I could hear her voice in the background, asking him to come back to bed. He even forgot my brother was dead, offering to buy him a new toy to replace the one his mistress deliberately crushed.
This was the man who had promised to protect me, to make my high school tormentors pay. Now, he was holding that very tormentor, Seraphina, in his arms. Then came the final blow: a call from the clerk's office revealed our seven-year marriage was a sham. The certificate was a forgery.
I was never his wife. I was just a possession he was tired of. After he left me to die in a car crash for Seraphina, I made one call. I texted a rival mob heir I hadn't spoken to in years: "I need to disappear. I'm calling it in."
9.0
"You and your baby are mine whether you want it or not."
Renata Neroni's life was shattered the moment she discovered her boyfriend and stepsister's betrayal. In a rare lapse of judgment fueled by grief and alcohol, she spent a single, anonymous night with a stranger, unaware that she had just surrendered herself to Domenico Veronesi, the most formidable figure in the global underworld.
That night left Renata with more than just a memory; she was pregnant with the heir to a mafia empire.
As her father, desperate to free himself from the debts, prepares to marry her off to a man nearly his own age, Renata finds herself trapped. Her only escape arrives in the form of Domenico himself. Asserting his claim, he interrupts the arrangement and brings Renata to his secluded estate.
Within the fortified walls of the Veronesi estate, the man known for his cold, merciless exterior reveals a singular obsession: the protection of Renata and their unborn child.
However, Domenico's readiness to provide is met with a wall of ice.
Despite his efforts to provide for her, Renata's resentment initially hardens into a wall of silence.
To her, Domenico is simply another powerful man attempting to control her fate. However, as she is forced to navigate the inner workings of his life within the mafia world, she begins to see the man behind the fearsome reputation.
Renata discovers the deeper layers of Domenico, a loyalty and a hidden vulnerability regarding their child, and the fear that once defined her begins to dissolve.