Chapter 2

The hospital smelled of antiseptic and despair.

I found their room. Chloe was propped up in bed, her right hand heavily bandaged. Ethan lay in the adjacent bed, his leg in a cast, his face pale.

Their eyes were locked, an intensity there that I remembered all too well.

Chloe saw me first. "Liam."

Her voice was soft, a little surprised.

Ethan just glared.

"I came to see how you were," I said, keeping my tone neutral.

"My hand is... damaged," Chloe said, a tremor in her voice. "Ethan' s leg... it' s bad."

"I' m sorry to hear that," I replied. It was true. I wouldn' t wish that on anyone.

Not even Ethan.

"We' re together now," Chloe announced, looking at Ethan with a possessive gleam. "The fire... it brought us together."

Ethan grunted, a sound that could have been agreement or pain.

"I see," I said. "Then there' s something I need to say."

I looked directly at Chloe.

"We' re done, Chloe. It' s over between us."

Her eyes widened. "Liam, what are you saying? After all this?"

"Especially after all this," I corrected. "You made your choice in the fire. You' ve always made your choice. It was always Ethan."

"That' s not fair!"

"Isn' t it?" I looked at Ethan. "Good luck to you both."

I turned and walked out.

The next day, their Instagram was flooded with pictures. Chloe' s bandaged hand holding Ethan' s, captions about tragic love and fate. #SurvivorLove #CampusHeroes.

It made me sick.

I remembered how Chloe and I met. A university charity drive. I was organizing, she volunteered.

She' d been friendly, charming. But she only agreed to date me after Ethan started seeing someone else, a girl named Maya.

Chloe had used me as a placeholder, a distraction.

In my past life, I' d been too blind, too eager for her affection to see it.

This time, my eyes were wide open.

The pain of the past was a shield, a teacher.

I wouldn' t be her fool again.