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    Fake Dating My Ex’s Favourite Hockey yer

    bChapter /bb140 /b

    LACEY

    Out of the corner of my eye, I see Liam heading toward Emilia, but my focus doesn’t

    budge.

    Céline.

    She stands there like she’s the one who’s been wronged – wide–eyed, trembling, like she just stumbled onto a stage she didn’t know she was standing on.

    I wonder how many nights actresses like Jessica Monroe have spent in front of the mirror, trying to perfect that exact look. The helplessness. The carefully measured innocence. Céline wears it effortlessly, like it’s second nature.

    Maybe it always was.

    Maybe the entire friendship was just another performance.

    No. No, I can’t-

    I can’t believe that.

    Because if I do, it means none of it was real. Not thete nights, not theughter, not the way she used to cry in my arms and say I was the only person who ever stayed. It means I made it all up. Like some desperate idiot chasing love in a house full of mirrors.

    “Tell me it’s not true, Céline,” I say, but it’s not really me speaking. It’s some broken part of me trying to crawl out. The part that still thinks she’ll shake her head, fall to her knees, and say she was scared and sorry.

    But she doesn’t.

    And all bI /bcan see is her standing there. Looking at me like I’m nothing. Like I’ve always

    been nothing.

    This is the girl I let sleep in my bed when she had nowhere else to go. The girl I defended when no one else would. The girl I made a hundred excuses for because I thought – God, I really thought she just needed someone to believe in her.

    —

    bWas /bI blindb? /b

    Or did I just want so badly to be loved that I ignored everything?

    She took everything. Piece by piece. My trust. My peace. My family. My life. And I let her.

    My chest caves. My knees almost give. I can’t breathe through the sobs tearing out of meb. /bI can’t see her clearly, but I try. God, I try. Even now. Even after everything. Just like I always did. Just like I always do.

    “Tell me you didn’t mean it,” I beg. “Tell me you were angry or scared or joking and I’ll forget it. I’ll forgive it. Just say it.”

    I don’t know what I’ll do if she doesn’t.

    “Lace-” Emilia tries, but her voice is barely there.

    “Don’t.” Liam, maybe. I’m not sure.

    I don’t care.

    I don’t care because none of it makes sense and all of it hurts and I feel like I’m falling and

    there’s no bottom.

    I gave her everything.

    And she used it to destroy me.

    Her mouth opens.

    For a second, just a second, there’s a flicker like maybe she will say sorry. Maybe she’ll drop to her knees and cry and beg and I’ll forgive her. Maybe I’ll get her back.

    But instead… she smiles.

    Not the sweetb, /bsleepy smile I once knew. This one is twisted. Wild. A little too wide. A little too proud.

    “I meant every word.”

    My world cracks open.

    “You balways /bthought you were better than me,” Céline says, stepping closerb, /bher heels clicking against the polished floor. “Perfect little Lacey with her soft voice and soft heart. God, it was disgusting. The way people loved you. The way you made me feel like trash without even tryingb./bb” /b

    Sheughs, but it’s hollow ugly. “You really don’t get it, do you? You took up so much.

    –

    space. All the space. There was never room for anyone else. Not really. I was just orbiting you,

    hoping to catch the scrapsb./bb” /b

    I feel the heat rising in my face. My vision blurs with tears I refuse to let fall.

    “So what?” My voice shakes. “My ex–husbands? Eric? Were those just the scraps I left behind? Should I thank you for sleeping with every single man I ever loved? With the man I was going to build a life with? A family?”

    Céline flinches like the words p her – but she doesn’t stop.

    “You would’ve moved on!” she screams. “You always do! You’d cry, you’d spiral, you’d burn for a bit – but then you’dnd on your feet like you always do. Another guy woulde along, another ring, another perfect chapter in the Lacey Show – and I’d be right back where I always am. Watching. Waiting. Forgotten.” (1

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    Julie Boy

    Envy, one of the 7 Deadly Sins

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