After the Last Goodbye

At the reunion, he was a total success, showing up with his gorgeous girlfriend.

"If you hadn't let him go," she said, her voice dripping with a touch of malice, "you'd be Mrs. Sterling by now."

He sat across from me, his arm possessively around his girlfriend, a cool indifference in his eyes. "That was a lifetime ago," he said, his tone dismissive.

The others, always up for some drama, started egging us on.

Under his gaze, I quietly covered the scar on my wrist and forced a smile. "Yeah, we… we're ancient history," I said, the words feeling like sandpaper in my mouth.

1

"Didn't she dump him back then?" someone asked, the gossip mill turning as his girlfriend went to powder her nose.

"She" was me, Tiffany.

Ethan, sitting across the table, wore a faint, almost mocking smile, his eyes chillingly distant. It was the first time we'd seen each other in six years, since our breakup.

And it was completely unexpected. I'd only come because the reunion organizer said Ethan wasn't going to make it.

But here he was, the picture of success, one of the city's top young entrepreneurs, a real golden boy who made it big after his MBA.

Suit tailored, hair perfectly styled, the watch on his wrist probably worth more than my car. Everyone was practically worshipping the ground he walked on.

I, on the other hand, was a bit of a mess.

"Yeah, she called it off," Ethan said, answering the question with a calm, measured tone.

People started speculating, their eyes darting between us. All the usual stuff: I was a gold digger, couldn't handle the grind, backed the wrong horse, and ultimately lost everything.

"Tiffany, heard you were with some guy who ended up in the slammer, right?" some dude snickered. "And you’re stuck with his debts? You here to hit us up for cash?"

As the barbs flew, I noticed Ethan’s steady, piercing gaze fixed on me, not saying a word.

I managed a weak laugh, not bothering to dignify their jabs.

The door opened, and Ethan’s girlfriend, a blonde named Brittany, walked back in. Sensing the weird vibe, she smiled, “What’d I miss?”

Ethan’s demeanor instantly changed, his arm sliding around her shoulders, his voice warm, "Nothing, just catching up with old friends."

She sat down, her eyes settling on me, her smile revealing a dimple. "Ethan's mentioned you. You know, if you hadn’t let him go, you could've been Mrs. Sterling by now."

A wave of awkwardness washed over the table.

Back in the day, my family was pretty well-off, and I was the popular girl, the one everyone fawned over. That kind of jealousy doesn't just disappear with time. It just gets buried until they get an opening to dig it up.

Ethan spoke up, cutting through the tension, his voice cool but firm. “That’s all in the past."

Everyone quieted down, knowing the big guy didn't want to keep talking about it.

Brittany raised her glass towards me. “Thank you for your sacrifice. Please come to the wedding, we’d love to see you there.”

I kept my hand wrapped around my wris...