He Married My Best Friend, Then Lost Me Forever Chapter 03
Before I headed home the day before, I had asked him three times whether we should use this opportunity to tell my parents about our relationship.
His dark eyes rested on me, and he smiled lazily. “Are you really that desperate to marry me? I didn’t realize you were so desperate to get married.”
I pretended to be angry and moved to smack him.
He caught my hand and pulled me into his arms.
Then he patted my back soothingly and chuckled. “All right, stop fussing. When the time is right, I’ll tell them.”
For all five years of our secret relationship, I had looked forward every day to the moment he would finally make us official.
I could not wait for everyone around us to know that I, Lillian Miller, was Zachary Shaw’s girlfriend.
The reason I never made a scene was not because I did not care.
It was because I did not want things to become ugly.
I did not want myself or my family to become a joke.
“Zachary, your mom’s stomach is bothering her. She asked me to get her medicine, but I don’t know what she usually takes. Come with me.”
Sophia walked out of the stairwell with my mother.
She was smiling brightly.
When she referred to Zachary’s mother as “Mom,” she sounded so natural and familiar, as if she had said it countless times before.
Zachary pressed his lips together and did not continue the conversation with me.
He left the base housing complex with her.
Watching their backs as they walked away, my mother suddenly sighed.
“I used to think you and Zachary might end up together. I didn’t expect Sophia to be the one he loved. Good thing I never tried to set you two up. Otherwise, it would be so awkward every time we saw each other.”
I pressed my lips together and said nothing.
She went on, “When you date someone in the future, learn from Sophia. No matter how busy Zachary is with the Army, whenever her family needs him, he takes leave and comes back with her.”
“Then look at you. I really don’t know what kind of man you fell for before. Every year, when I asked you to bring him home for dinner, he always claimed he had some mission…”
My mother kept complaining.
But my mind had gone blank.
It was as if the whole world had fallen silent in that instant.
I could not hear anything anymore.
On every major holiday, I would ask Zachary if he was willing to come home with me.
He always said, “Lily, I just pinned on my first star. The Army has me swamped right now. When things slow down, I’ll go back with you.”
He said his unit had operations.
He said there was an exercise.
I believed him.
I never once doubted him.
But the truth was that every time he turned me down, it was so he could be with another woman.
“Mom, do they come back often?”
The bitterness filled my chest, and my voice came out rough.
“Of course. Last month, on your birthday, Sophia’s mother accidentally fell down the stairs. Zachary came back and handled everything for them. He found her the best orthopedic surgeon at the military medical center and stayed at Sophia’s house for several days to help Sophia take care of her mother.”
Hearing that, I suddenly remembered my birthday last month.
Zachary had taken one phone call, then casually tossed my birthday gift to me.
He told me, “My unit just got called into an urgent mission. I have to oversee it myself, so I’ll be out of town for a few days. Don’t be mad. I’ll bring you a gift when I get back.”
Before he left that day, I had asked him whether the mission mattered more or I mattered more.
He looked at me for a long moment and said, “Lily, we’re both soldiers. Don’t ask such childish questions.”
Naively, I had thought his only choices were the Army and me.
I never imagined Sophia had been part of the equation all along.
