He Married My Best Friend, Then Lost Me Forever Chapter 01
After my childhood sweetheart—the newly promoted one-star general who had strung me along for five years—announced that he was marrying my best friend, I did not cry or make a scene.
I simply left the Army, changed my name, moved south on my own, and opened a small flower shop.
One day, a friend from my Army days suddenly pushed open the door to my flower shop.
The moment he saw me, shock flashed across his face. “You’re alive? Then why haven’t you gone to Zachary Shaw? Do you have any idea he walked out on his own wedding for you and has stayed single ever since?”
I only lifted my hand and showed him the ring on my finger. “But I’m already married.”
The second those words left my mouth, the air turned strange.
After he kept frantically signaling at me, I turned around.
Zachary stood there in his Army uniform, glaring at me with barely contained fury.
I only felt confused.
Back then, Zachary and I had kept our relationship hidden for five years, and he had always refused to come home with me to meet my parents.
Then, on my mother’s birthday, I went back to my hometown alone and found a wedding invitation sitting on the coffee table.
Groom: Zachary Shaw.
Bride: Sophia Brooks.
My mind went completely blank. I was just about to call him and demand an explanation when Zachary’s voice came from the doorway.
“Mrs. Miller, don’t tell Lily about my wedding yet. She’s been clinging to me since we were kids. If she finds out I’m getting married, she’ll probably make a scene again…”
Before he could finish, he noticed me standing there, and the smile on his face faded.
My mother did not notice. She only smiled and said, “Lily, Zachary is marrying your best friend. When are you going to bring your boyfriend home for us to meet?”
At that, a mocking smile tugged at the corner of my mouth.
“He’s dead.”
“Just yesterday.”
…
My mother froze.
Then she gasped, “So suddenly? When you came home yesterday, didn’t you say his unit was tied up with Army operations and he couldn’t come with you, but he still made sure to buy me a birthday present?”
At the mention of that, a dense, aching bitterness spread through my chest.
My mother had known for a long time that I had a boyfriend. She just did not know who he was.
Every year, she hoped I would bring him home so we could make things official sooner rather than later.
But Zachary never wanted to. He always said it was not the right time yet.
So my mother would not worry, I bought my parents gifts every year in his name.
He did not know about any of it.
He did not care, either.
Now, after hearing my mother’s words, Zachary arched a brow.
While she shook her head with regret, he stepped closer to me and lowered his voice. “Sophia’s father was badly injured during a training exercise. I wanted to give her money to handle it, but you know how proud she is. She wouldn’t take a cent from me, so the only way I could get the money to her was by marrying her and folding it into the wedding fund.”
“Don’t say that,” I said. “If Mrs. Miller ever finds out about us, it’ll scare her half to death.”
“She won’t find out.”
She would never find out.
She would never know that Zachary and I had been together for five years.
Something shifted in Zachary’s expression, and a complicated look flickered in his eyes.
“Suit yourself.”
“Still, Sophia and I are getting married next week. She wants to look beautiful on her wedding day. As her best friend, you’ll help her, won’t you?”
He looked at me with the same gentle smile he always used on me, as if there had never been anything intimate between us, as if he had never held me in the barracks after lights-out and whispered that he loved me.
“Lily, Zachary…”
Sophia’s voice came from the doorway.
As if nothing had happened, she walked in with a bright smile and linked her arm through mine.
“My mom made all our favorite dishes today. She told me to come get you two for dinner.”
Our three families had always been close.
On every major holiday, our parents would make plans to have dinner together.
To me, Sophia had never been just a friend. She had been more like the sister I could tell everything to.
Now, the way she looked at me still seemed open and natural.
Only faintly, beneath that, could I see the caution she was trying to hide.
“You knew I liked Zachary.”
“You guessed he was my boyfriend too.”
“Sophia, how could you do this to me?”
She was standing very close to me, so my trembling voice was quiet.
Quiet enough that only the two of us could hear.
The night before I joined the Army, she slept over at my house.
By accident, she saw the feelings I had written in my journal but never dared to say out loud.
She read my journal while laughing so hard she rolled around on my bed.
After she was done laughing, she teased me and said, “If you like Zachary, why don’t you tell him?”
“If you’re too scared, how about I tell him for you?”
“And if you two ever get married, you have to seat me at the head table as the matchmaker!”
But now, there was not a trace of guilt in her clear, doe-like eyes.
She bit her lip lightly and said in a soft voice, “Lily, I love him, and he chose me.”
“When you two were together before, I truly wished you both well.”
“But now I’m the one marrying him. You served beside me, and you’re my best friend. I believe you’ll give us your blessing.”
