Chapter 1: The Truth Under the Sheets

Every single time Gavin and I were intimate, I would notice that the bedsheets had been freshly changed.

After a bout of intense, reckless passion, I finally couldn’t hold back my curiosity any longer.

Gavin’s fingers gently twisted a strand of my hair, a soft, pleasant smile on his face. “Well, obviously because your best friend sweats a lot. Before every time I touch you, she gets jealous and insists on going first.”

He leaned back, extinguishing his cigarette in the tray on the nightstand, his smile morphing into something dangerously cold.

“After getting to know Chloe, I realized women really are made of water.”

I froze, staring at him in utter disbelief. “What… what did you just say?”

He blew out a faint puff of smoke. “Serena, your mother died on a bed because your father abused her—not me. So every time you lie there like a dead fish, it completely ruins the mood. That’s your personal trauma, and you shouldn’t make me pay for it, understand?”

He tapped his fingers against his knee. “You should actually thank Chloe. She’s the one helping you keep this relationship alive.”

Before the horror could fully register, the bedroom door was slammed open.

Chloe rushed into the room with red, tear-filled eyes. She marched up to the bed and slapped Gavin hard across the face.

“You bastard!” she screamed. “Apologize to Serena right now!”

I stared at the two of them, a bitter, suffocating taste coating my throat.

It turned out that all these years, in Gavin’s eyes, I was nothing more than an uninspiring burden. And as for this bed—a bed that clearly couldn’t hold three people—I was no longer going to force myself onto it.

Chapter 2: The Three-Way House

I quietly got out of bed, pulled on my clothes, and walked toward the front door.

Gavin called out from behind me, “Where do you think you’re going?”

I didn’t answer, silently putting on my shoes.

Under Chloe’s fierce, tearful glares, Gavin finally uttered a half-hearted apology, his tone dripping with reluctance. “Fine… maybe what I said was a bit much.”

I didn’t stop. I opened the front door.

Gavin lost his patience completely. “How long are you going to keep throwing this pathetic tantrum?! Where can you even go at midnight?! Just because of your mother’s stupid baggage, does the whole world have to bow down to you?!”

Before I could speak, Chloe sprinted over and grabbed my wrist. Her grip was so tight it bruised my skin.

Tears streamed down her face. “Serena… please let me explain! Don’t do anything reckless! Don’t go!”

I lowered my eyes to look at her hand on my wrist, and a quiet, lifeless laugh escaped my lips. I pulled my hand out of her grip.

“Chloe,” my voice was as flat and lifeless as stagnant water. “The stupidest mistake I ever made in my life was letting you into my home.”

“Ever since we were kids, whatever I had, you wanted. When I bought a dress, you bought the exact same one. When you wanted to get into the same university, I risked getting expelled just to pass you answer sheets.”

I looked into her tear-stained face with complete detachment. “Now, if you want my boyfriend and this bed, you can have them both. I’m giving them to you.”

Chloe parted her lips, but no sound came out.

“Are you satisfied now?” I asked softly. “If you are, stop clinging to me. I have nothing left for you to take.”

I stepped out of the apartment into the chilly midnight air.

Walking down the street, memories I had desperately suppressed flooded my mind. When Gavin and I first started dating, he treated me like precious glass. He knew that ever since my mother died right beside me, I was terrified of sleeping alone in the dark.

So he intentionally rented an apartment in the same building where Chloe was living.

Back then, Gavin had said: “Chloe lives right down the hall. When I go on business trips, she can stay over to keep you company.”

Later, Chloe constantly claimed she was worried about me. From occasionally staying over, she gradually began spending four or five nights a week at our place. Eventually, she gave up her lease altogether and moved in with us permanently.

Gavin had shrugged it off: “It’s better if you two live together anyway. Saves her from running back and forth.”

I had been blind enough to think it was sweet.

Until the matching couple mugs in the kitchen quietly became a set of three. Until the toothbrush holder added a third slot. Until her pajamas, slippers, and even the silk sheets I bought were identical to hers.

Even our mutual friends used to joke: “Serena, you’re so lucky. You got a boyfriend and a bonus girlfriend in one package.”

I had laughed it off back then, thinking I was the luckiest girl in the world to have both true love and deep friendship.

Only now did I realize that everyone else had seen the truth long before I did: in this relationship, there had always been three people.

I wiped the cold tears from my cheeks, kicked off my slippers, and threw them into a street trash can. I stood barefoot on the pavement, feeling the icy cold seep from the soles of my feet all the way to my chest.

I pulled my phone out of my pocket, dialed a number, and placed it to my ear.

“Aunt Eleanor,” I said softly into the receiver. “I’ve made up my mind. I’m accepting the job offer in London. I’m leaving.”

Chapter 3: Leaving the Ashes Behind

Three weeks later, I boarded an international flight to London, cutting all ties with Gavin and Chloe. I changed my phone number, deleted my social media accounts, and blocked every mutual acquaintance who had enabled their sick game.

In London, freed from the toxic atmosphere that had suffocated me for years, I threw myself into therapy and my career as a senior interior architect.

It was during a major restoration project in the British countryside that I met Julian.

Julian was a brilliant structural engineer with a quiet, grounding presence. He didn’t make grand, hollow promises like Gavin. Instead, he showed up with patient, unwavering care. When he learned about my fear of the dark, he never questioned it or made me feel like a burden. He simply built a custom, warm-lit nightstand lamp for my bedroom and made sure I never felt alone.

With Julian, intimacy was never a negotiation or a chore—it was safe, gentle, and deeply respectful. For the first time in my life, I felt truly cherished. Within two years, we built a beautiful life together, fell deeply in love, and got engaged.

Chapter 4: The Poisoned Cup

While my life flourished in London, Gavin and Chloe’s fantasy quickly turned into a living nightmare.

Without me acting as the buffer and the primary financial provider, the ugly reality of their dynamic unravelled. Gavin soon realized that Chloe’s “sweet, dependent” nature was actually an insatiable desire to take whatever belonged to me. Once I was gone, the thrill of the affair vanished.

Chloe, on the other hand, realized that Gavin was controlling, volatile, and deeply selfish when he wasn’t trying to impress an audience. They fought constantly over money, chores, and mutual resentment.

Within a year, Gavin’s business failed due to his reckless management, leaving him deeply in debt. When the money dried up, Chloe packed her bags and abandoned him for a wealthier partner—just as she had always done.

Left alone in an empty, rented apartment with mounting debts, Gavin realized the crushing weight of what he had thrown away. He didn’t just lose a girlfriend; he had destroyed the only woman who had truly loved him unconditionally.

Chapter 5: The Reckoning

Three years after I left, I returned to my hometown for a week to finalize the sale of my late mother’s property. Julian insisted on accompanying me to ensure I felt supported.

As Julian and I stepped out of the real estate registry office, holding hands under the bright afternoon sun, a disheveled man sprang out from behind a pillar.

It was Gavin.

He looked hollow and aged, wearing a faded suit with frayed cuffs. His eyes were bloodshot, fixed on me with a terrifying mixture of obsession and regret.

“Serena!” he gasped, stumbling forward.

Julian reacted instantly, stepping smoothly in front of me, his tall frame blocking Gavin’s path. His expression was dangerously cold. “Stand back.”

Gavin didn’t even look at Julian. He dropped straight to his knees on the pavement, tears streaming down his face as he reached out toward the hem of my coat.

“Serena, please!” he sobbed hysterically. “I was a monster! Chloe ruined everything—she used both of us! I haven’t slept a single night since you left! I changed… I swear I changed! Please come back to me!”

I stood behind Julian, looking down at the weeping man who had once systematically destroyed my self-worth.

I felt no anger. No hatred. Only an overwhelming sense of relief that his voice no longer had any power over me.

“Gavin,” I said, my voice calm, clear, and utterly devoid of emotion. “You didn’t lose me because of Chloe. You lost me because of who you are.”

I turned my head toward Julian, offering him a soft, warm smile. Julian gently tucked his hand into mine, lacing his fingers through mine.

Without giving Gavin another glance, I walked past his kneeling figure and stepped into the waiting car with Julian. As we drove away, I looked out the window, leaving the toxic ghost of my past weeping in the rearview mirror forever.