KARA

When I started getting closer to Erin—who truly is too good for this world—she tried, bless her heart, to bridge the gap between Cass and me.

She’d casually invite me to game nights where he might show up, or “accidentally” double-book us for lunch at the same café. She even got Eli in on it once or twice, pretending not to notice the way I lingered near doors, hoping he’d walk through them.

But Cass never did.

From what Eli told Erin—who, in turn, told me—Cass had become a ghost. Twitch streams at night, gym at dawn, silent days in between. He kept to himself, surfacing only for a tight circle of friends who visited his penthouse like it was some sacred, haunted chapel.

Now, here I was. In a satin dress in Erin’s bridal suite. Pretending my lungs weren’t shrinking with every passing minute.

And then I met her.

Ali.

The bride’s oldest friend. The only woman, other than me, who’d ever made it past Cass’s velvet rope heart.

Cass’s one and only ex.

She gave me a knowing look the moment we were introduced—like she already knew everything. She probably did. Erin talks, and Ali listens the way only old friends do.

We ended up alone for a moment, away from the makeup chairs and pre-wedding chaos.

“So,” she said, folding her arms, “you’re the girl who broke Cass’s heart.”

I smiled weakly. “I hear you were the first one to ever do it.” I gave her a mock bow.

She laughed. So did I.

Okay. So Erin and Eli had a point. We were eerily similar.

“They always wanted us to meet,” Ali said, echoing my thought. “You kept dodging.”

“I wasn’t ready,” I admitted. “But I’m glad I am now.”

She nodded. “So, do you want to know what happened?”

“Not really.”

“Great. I’ll tell you anyway.”

I laughed again. It was disarming, this honesty. She leaned in like she was about to spill secrets to an old friend.

“Cass was a full-blown fuckboy in college,” she said. “And I was the female version of him. My friends and I made a bet—who could get him to date, officially. I took it on... and won.”

“But then?”

“I fell for him.”

That struck something in me. Yeah, that rings a bell.

“I broke it off,” she added with a shrug.

So she rejected him too.

“And then he became the Cassanova we all know. Or, at least, the one we used to know. Until about a year ago. Then you came along.”

She smiled—not accusing, not smug. Just... understanding.

“I always felt a little guilty. Like I ruined him for every girl after me. But then you came. And you didn’t just fix him... you softened him.”

I swallowed. “Only to break him again and ruin him forever.”

Ali didn’t argue. She didn’t need to. Because we both knew the weight of truth when it settled.

Talking to her—really talking to her—made me see it all from Cass’s perspective for the first time.

After that night, when I’d slapped him and he stormed out of my apartment, I’d been split clean down the middle. One half of me still loved him. The other half still blamed him.

But the blame... it had been eroding.

Even before that night.

Maybe that’s why I kept digging. Why I finally chased the truth behind what happened between him and my sister.

And when I found it—the court records, the police statement, the restraining order—it all came crashing down.

Cass was innocent

Kira had shown up, uninvited, again and again. He’d tried to set boundaries. She crossed them. It spiraled, and he’d had no choice but to protect himself cutting off all communication and requesting for a restraining order

Cass had been a victim of my sister’s illness.

And in that moment, whatever flicker of resentment I had left was snuffed out. Grief took its place. And love—real, sharp-edged, no-longer-deniable love—swelled to fill the space it left behind.

He didn’t deserve what I did to him.

But I didn’t know if I’d get the chance to say it.

Not today.

Not at his best friend’s wedding.

Not unless he looked at me.