"She has no one but Vincent in her life. Imagine how much worse she'll be once they actually get married. She'll literally stick to him every second of every day. I get that they were childhood friends, but for fuck's sake, marrying that woman?" He laughed in disbelief. "Especially since she's an orphan. She'll have no one else to depend on but Vincent. She's going to cling to him until one of them dies."
Nolan grimaced before turning toward Vincent.
"Oh God, what kind of life is that?" he muttered, his face filled with disgust. "Are you seriously going to deal with that for the rest of your life?"
Juliet's face gradually lost all color with every word spoken in the room.
It felt as though someone was tearing pieces out of her one by one while she stood there helplessly watching.
Her body went rigid. Her fingers curled tightly at her sides as she listened to every cruel word, yet the thing that hurt the most wasn't what they were saying.
It was Vincent's silence.
He didn't deny a single word.
Not even once.
A bitter ache spread through her chest.
‘I always patched things up with him because I thought he wasn't serious, she thought. Every time I saw him with another woman, I told myself he didn't realize what he was doing. I thought he was careless... that he never meant to hurt me.’
Her throat tightened.
But he knew.
He had known all along.
He knew exactly what he was doing, and he did it anyway.
He wanted her to get hurt.
He wanted her to get jealous.
He wanted her to fight with him.
Juliet stared at Vincent, unable to look away.
The man sitting there looked exactly the same as he always had, yet somehow he felt completely unfamiliar.
The friend she had known since childhood suddenly felt like a stranger.
Her gaze searched his face desperately, looking for the boy she used to laugh with after school, the boy who had stood beside her through countless years of her life.
But no matter how hard she looked, she couldn't find him anymore.
Maybe he had disappeared a long time ago.
Or maybe she had never truly known him at all.
A painful realization settled over her.
She had been so desperate for love, for someone who would stay, that when Vincent had asked her to marry him a year ago, she had agreed almost immediately.
Simply because they had been childhood friends.
Simply because she had wanted to believe someone had finally chosen her.
They say you're blind when you're in love.
