The Jealousy Game novel · Chapter 14 of 24
Chapter 14: Poor Maddie
I had practiced for her to cry.
I had practiced for her to say it was all a misunderstanding, and to reach for my arm.
I had not practiced for her to stand there with her chin up and tell me the truth.
"You love him," I said.
"I've loved him for three years."
"You said two."
Her mouth twisted. "Two years of the cottage. Three years of him. I knew him first, Lena."
I stared at her.
"I met Brett at the insurance office, when I got my car policy. We had coffee four times. I took him to your birthday party that spring as my date."
My birthday party was the one at the Anchor.
I remembered a tall man in a blue shirt, holding a drink and laughing at one of my father's old stories.
"He asked me to introduce you," Maddie said. "I did. And you said yes to dinner, and I said I was so happy for you."
"You never told me he was yours."
"You never asked me one thing."
A woman in a walking boot came around the corner of the building and stopped at the side door.
She had a folder under her arm and a tote bag over her shoulder.
She was clearly Maddie's eight o'clock, and she was not going to be inside for another five minutes.
Maddie saw her and lowered her voice, but it did not get any softer.
"Do you know what it was like, being your best friend?"
"I thought it was good."
"I wore your coats. Your dad paid for my braces and called it a loan he'd forget. My mother cleaned your bakery for eleven years, and everybody in this town said 'Poor Lena,' and not once did they say 'Poor Maddie.'"
Keep reading free with an account. Start The Jealousy Game from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.
← Chapter 13 · All chapters · Chapter 15 →
Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend