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Unwilling to Owe in Love, We Meet in Hatred
NovelShort
new
Completed
On our wedding night, just as everyone was getting ready to crowd into the bridal suite for the games, I suddenly got word that my childhood friend had slit his wrists at home over a breakup. After apologizing to Denise, I rushed to his place like a madman. But when I got there, he wasn't hurt at all. Instead, he locked me inside the room. My phone suddenly rang. Someone in the bridesmaids' group chat had posted a video.
Chapters (4)
第1章
The wedding was over, and the guests had just gathered to crowd our bedroom for the games.
Then I got the call. My oldest friend had been dumped, and he'd slit his wrists at home.
I apologized to Denise Henson and drove for his place like a madman.
But when I got there, he wasn't hurt at all. He shoved me into the room and locked me in from the outside.
My phone buzzed. Someone had dropped a video into the bridesmaids' group chat.
Andrew Swanson, Denise's so-called male best friend, had his arms around her, grinning as he sucked a hickey onto her neck.
"Every important moment of your life, I've been part of it, ever since we were kids."
"So obviously the wedding night gets a little of me too~"
Through the door, Lucius James kept talking.
"We did this for you, you know. We were worried you'd get all jealous again, so we got you out of the way."
"The games everyone planned tonight are pretty wild. You're too uptight, you can't loosen up, you'd just kill the mood. That's why Andy stepped in for the wedding night."
"And come on, if there really were something between him and Denise, you wouldn't be the groom, would you? So quit throwing a fit."
On the screen, Denise sat with her hands tied.
She didn't stop him. She lowered her head, all suggestive.
One by one she undid the buttons of Andrew's shirt, lost in the game and having the time of her life.
Just like that, I lost all interest in any wedding-night games.
If Denise thought it was fine to let her best friend take my place on our wedding night,
then I could just as easily let someone else take her place at the marriage license office.
...
My eyes landed on the luxury gift box on the nightstand.
The brand Andrew liked to buy.
I spoke to the friend on the other side of the door.
"Lucius. If you don't let me out, I'm dropping this gold cuff link of yours into the toilet and flushing it."
The next second, sure enough, the door opened.
Lucius came charging in, furious.
"Give it back. That's the gift Andy gave me for getting you out of there!"
Right. Of course it was.
I looked at him, and I was just disappointed.
"So for a watch, you teamed up with someone to trick your own oldest friend?"
"When your boss humiliated you, I was the one who stood up for you, who got you into a better company. Is this how you repay me?"
Lucius rolled his eyes, yanked the watch off his wrist, and threw it at my feet.
"Don't flatter yourself, Harvey Harding. Andy told me the whole thing. He's the one who put in a word with my boss for me!"
"Andy told me this junk birthday present you gave me isn't worth thirty bucks. And you think you deserve to call yourself my friend?"
"The cuff links he gave me run close to a hundred grand. That's what a real friend is!"
"And besides, the two of them have known each other way longer than you and Denise. It's perfectly normal for best friends to share each other's big moments. You're the one making a thing of it. I did all this because I was scared you'd blow up and Denise would call off the license and you'd lose your golden ticket. What gives you the right to blame me?"
I looked at the watch, its face shattered, and I almost laughed.
Junk that wasn't worth ten bucks?
It was an antique I'd bought at auction. Worth over a million.
As for the boss at that company, he probably didn't even know who Andrew Swanson was.
Running into Lucius again in this city years ago, I'd been genuinely thrilled.
I'd thought that between friends there was no need to put a price tag or a title on a gift.
Turns out I'd poured my whole heart out to a dog.
I picked up the cuff link, dropped it into the toilet, and while Lucius shrieked and scrambled to fish it out, I left.
By the time I got back to the wedding suite, the master bedroom was full of cheering.
The video that had gone out to the group by mistake had already been deleted.
But I'd made it back in time for the live show anyway.
Denise and Andrew were sitting on the wedding bed, playing some game where you kiss for five minutes without coming up for air.
One of them bare-chested, the other down to a camisole, both of their necks covered in kiss marks.
A full five minutes before they finally broke apart, a thread of spit still stretched between their lips.
They saw me push the door open, and the air froze.
Andrew shrugged and drawled at Denise, snide.
"Den, your little jealous fit is back. Game's over, huh? Better go soothe her. Don't make it sound like we're the ones who did her wrong."
Denise pulled me out to the living room and asked, low.
"Harv, why did you come back? You didn't wait for me to come get you."
"Getting married is a big deal. Everyone just wanted me to enjoy it. They were afraid you'd be too self-conscious to loosen up, that they might accidentally upset you, so Andy played those games in your place. There was nothing to it."
I looked at her face, not a trace of guilt on it.
"Our wedding night. You get the groom sent away, then you're tongue-kissing another man and letting him give you hickeys, and you call that playing a game?"
"Denise. Do you take me for an idiot?"
Before she could say a word, Andrew came out, dressed again.
He held out a set of red pajamas to me.
"Here, these are yours. Den and I were playing the strip game just now, she'd nearly gotten me down to nothing, and I didn't bring pajamas, so I borrowed these for a bit."
I'd chosen them carefully for tonight.
Instead of the tenderness I'd imagined, there was only this, and it made my skin crawl.
I dropped the pajamas straight into the trash.
Andrew's face darkened.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
I said it plainly, with all the contempt it deserved.
"Isn't it obvious? I don't want a homewrecker's filth in my house. Get out. Now."
第2章
Anger flickered in Andrew's eyes, then he sneered.
"Den, if your husband doesn't want me here, then let's take the party somewhere else."
"Come with your best friend or stay home with your man, your call. But I'm telling you now, if you pick him, we're done."
He turned and led the rest of them out first.
Denise dragged a hand through her hair, exasperated.
"Harvey, everyone came here to have a little fun on our wedding night, and you had to get jealous and blow it up so nobody could save face?!"
"Andy and I grew up together running around in diapers. To me he's no different from another girl. We really are just close friends, otherwise you wouldn't be the one standing here as the groom tonight."
I was sick of it, the way she always fell back on this so-called 'best friend' as her excuse.
I lost control and shouted.
"Then get out with him!"
Denise's special ringtone kept going off, like it was hurrying her along.
Five years, and Andrew's number was the only one she'd set to a special ringtone.
I'd asked her about it once. Every time she just shrugged it off.
"Ugh, I spoiled that kid rotten when he was little. If I miss his call, there's no telling what kind of fit he'll throw."
And yet I could rarely get through to her at all.
Sure enough, Denise answered a few of his messages first before she even looked at me.
He gave a cold laugh and tossed out one last line.
"Andy's got you pegged. All you do is kill the mood. No wonder even your own childhood buddy can't stand you."
Denise snatched up her coat and walked out without a backward glance.
I didn't want to go back into that disgusting master bedroom, so I curled up on the couch and let the bitter tears fall.
Earlier I'd thought Lucius, my childhood friend, had really slit his wrists, and I'd rushed out in the rain to find him, forgetting to grab an umbrella.
I must have caught a chill, because late that night a high fever set in and I didn't even have the strength to sit up.
I forced myself to take my temperature. A hundred and three.
But there wasn't any fever medicine in the new place yet.
I called Denise.
More than a dozen calls, and no one picked up.
So I texted her instead.
【Denise, I've got a high fever and can't get up. The pharmacies are all closed at this hour. Can you come back and take me to the hospital?】
Ten minutes later, she finally replied.
【Got it.】
But I waited a full hour and more before the door opened.
And it wasn't Denise who walked in. It was Lucius, my childhood friend.
He looked down at me from where he stood.
"Andy had too much to drink. Denise was worried his stomach would act up tonight, so she went over to his place to take care of him and told me to come check on you first."
"Tsk, your face is so red. Nice act. You pressed a hot water bottle to your face before I got here, didn't you?"
As he spoke, he lifted the phone that was already on a call.
"Hey, Denise, don't worry. There's nothing wrong with Harvey, he's just faking sick."
"You know how he is. Always the jealous type. Just take good care of Andy."
I stared at him, unable to believe it.
Gritting my teeth, I grabbed the phone. "Denise, he's lying, I didn't—"
Denise cut me off, impatient.
"Harvey, are you ever going to stop? Andy called it. You really are faking sick to trick me into coming back. Even your own good buddy says so, what's left to argue about?"
"If you hadn't gotten jealous and embarrassed Andy and ruined his mood, he wouldn't have drunk so much and gotten this sick throwing up."
"If you still want to sign the marriage license with me, you're going to have to accept that being with you doesn't mean I'll abandon my best friend. That's it. I've got to look after Andy. You take a good hard look at yourself, and quit being so possessive from now on."
The call was cut off without a shred of mercy.
Before Lucius left, he didn't forget to mock me.
"Harv, look, I'm not trying to rub it in, but a country hick like you landing a blue-chip catch like Denise, that's your good fortune. She married you in the end anyway, so why keep trying to outdo Andy?"
"Denise cares that much about Andy. Keep him happy and your married life goes smooth. I just now said Andy's more generous than you and has a better build, and Denise handed me a hundred grand as a reward. That's the smart play. Don't go being an idiot."
After Lucius left, the fever had my vision going black in waves.
My phone rang out of nowhere, that familiar string of numbers on the screen.
I pressed answer and asked weakly,
"Are you still abroad?"
"Of course. You went and held a wedding with someone else, am I not even allowed to go clear my head... Harv, your voice sounds wrong. What's going on?"
The woman's voice went tight with worry in an instant, and I pulled my mouth into a faint smile.
"The wedding happened, but we haven't signed the marriage license."
The woman was silent for a second. "Harv, are you saying..."
Right before everything went dark, I said,
"Come home now. The spot to sign the license with me is yours."
第3章
When I opened my eyes again, I was lying in a private room with no one at my bedside.
A nurse came in to change my IV, still muttering as she worked:
"Fever's down. Mild lung infection. If your friend overseas hadn't called an ambulance last night, you'd be dead by now."
"That wife of yours is a piece of work. Our people got here and couldn't get into the apartment, so they had to get her number from building management."
"Took forever to reach her. We asked her to come back, and what does she do? Insists we're actors you hired. Nothing for it but to force the door."
"Heard you two just had your wedding yesterday. Who leaves the groom alone in the wedding suite? It's a joke."
I said nothing and opened my messages.
Last night, right around the time my fever knocked me out, Andrew had posted a video to his feed.
Knowing my stomach's bad, and worried I'd get hungry again after throwing up, a certain someone personally cooked a whole table of nourishing food.
Now that's a real best friend, not some sick-faking stray mutt.
Denise hadn't commented. But she'd liked it.
The door opened and Denise walked in carrying a takeout box.
For once there was a trace of apology on her face.
"Harv, I only heard from the neighbors this morning when I got home. It's all that idiot childhood friend of yours, couldn't even tell real sickness from fake."
"You haven't eaten yet, right? I made you something. Have a little first to line your stomach."
A few sentences, and she'd wiped her own hands clean.
I glanced at the food in the box and laughed.
"So in your eyes, all I'm good for is eating Andrew Swanson's leftovers?"
It was all what she'd made Andrew for his late-night snack the night before, the leftovers.
Denise looked a little guilty and tried to explain: "I left in a hurry, I didn't have time to cook again, and no restaurant's open at this hour—"
"It's not that there wasn't time. You just don't care."
"Like the bouquet at the wedding. You knew I'm allergic to baby's breath, but Andrew liked it, so you made me take extra allergy pills and hand the bouquet to him."
"At the photo shoot, you said he looked like a woman, that he might never land himself a wife, so I should shoot a few sets with him first. You two shot from sunup to sundown while I stood off to the side with my lips gone blue from the cold, and still got laughed at by him for looking like a ghost."
I cut her off.
"And now even my wedding night, my marriage bed, has to go to him first, and only then to me."
"But when your company was just getting off the ground, I was the one pulling all-nighters with you. You're allergic to alcohol, so I drank in your place with clients, drank until my stomach bled. Where was your best friend to take that for me then?"
"Denise, maybe it doesn't sicken you. But I can't take it. Let's split up."
Denise froze for a moment, then furiously smashed the box to the floor.
"Harvey Harding, one little thing and you can't get over it, is that it?"
"Fine, so I misread the situation last night, and I didn't get around to making you fresh food. But that's your own stupidity, running out without even grabbing an umbrella. You got sick because you asked for it!"
"Because of you, the front door of the apartment got broken. Andy picked that out for me, imported, cost two hundred grand. You don't know how to earn money, only how to waste it. I didn't even blame you, and you've got the nerve to bring up breaking up?"
Before I could get a word out, Andrew came running in through the door.
Behind him were the same people who'd crashed the wedding night.
He reached out and scooped Denise in from the front, grinning. "Kitty-dragon claw grab! I could hear you howling all the way from the hallway. Who's got a death wish, making my girl upset?"
Denise let out a soft grunt and laughed, reaching over to pinch his side. "Stop it. He's here trying to break up with me. Getting married is such a headache."
Andrew twisted his mouth. "Harvey, I know you kept men love your little dramas, but you'd better take a piss and check your reflection first, see if you've got the goods to pull it off."
"Den's spent plenty on you these past few years, hasn't she? You eat off her, drink off her. Even this VIP room's not cheap for one night."
"The wedding's all done, all that's left is the license, and you pick now to make a scene about breaking up? You're doing it on purpose to embarrass her."
I ignored him and lifted my eyes to Denise. "The room isn't your money. The wedding costs we split fifty-fifty. Everything else, the money and the things, I'll pay you back."
Denise scoffed. "Pay me back? You think you're Andy? He's a freelance illustrator, he can support himself. What have you got?"
"You don't even have a job, just a freeloader living off me. You're going to come up with the cost of a VIP room? Harvey, I'm not an idiot."
My hand under the blanket clenched tight.
I never imagined that in her mind I was just a freeloader clinging to her.
But those transfers she'd sent me, I hadn't touched a cent.
All these years, everything I spent came from my own savings.
第4章
Andrew slid an arm around her waist.
"Come on, Den, you promised you'd spend Valentine's with me today. No backing out."
Denise pinched his nose, doting on him. "Fine, fine, fine, you big baby. Only your best friend would put up with you, spending every Valentine's with you like this."
Something in my chest went tight.
For the past several years, every Valentine's Day, Andrew always found some excuse to pull Denise away.
She'd promised me that this year, this Valentine's, she'd come with me to sign the marriage license.
Denise turned to me, cold.
"Harvey, behave yourself. My company's about to raise funding and go public. My net worth will multiply, and you'll get to live off that too."
"Since you're stuck on a drip today, we'll push the license to tomorrow. Cool your head. Because if we really do break up, with your background, you'll never find a woman better than me."
Maybe it was the fluids I'd taken in, and the fact that I still hadn't been to the bathroom.
A cramp pulled low in my belly, and I caught Denise's hand. "I need to use the restroom, but it's hard with the IV. Could you come with me first? Just a few minutes."
Denise was about to agree when Andrew shook her arm off and gave a cold snort.
"Den, the thing I hate most is people who don't keep their word."
"We said nine o'clock. If you're going to keep your best friend waiting over some man, then tomorrow I'm leaving the country and I'm never coming back, so your husband doesn't have to keep glaring at me and making my life difficult."
Denise turned on me at once, irritated, throwing my hand off.
"Is your other arm just for show? Plenty of people in the hospital have no one with them. How do they manage the bathroom on their own? You're the only one who makes such a fuss!"
She linked her arm through Andrew's and walked out without looking back.
I dropped my eyes, my nose stinging before I could stop it.
Right.
It's because some patients have no one at all. But I had a girlfriend, and she'd rather spend Valentine's with her male best friend than spare me a few minutes.
That's what made it more pathetic.
What I didn't see was Andrew, before he left, shooting a look at one of his friends.
I carried the IV stand to the restroom, and only then noticed the hook on the door was set a little high.
Weak after being sick, and with no food in me, I had no strength. I went up on my toes a few times and still couldn't reach it.
I was about to step out and find a nurse when a man shoved his way in.
One of Denise's crowd.
Grinning, he hung the IV bag for me. "Aw, look at poor Harvey. Denise and Andy made a point of sending me back to give you a hand."
His leering eyes put me on edge.
"Thanks, but you can go now."
The man acted like he hadn't heard.
"Don't be like that. The bag's hung, but with one hand you probably can't get your pants down either, right?"
"Look how artsy these buttons are. Bet they're a real pain to undo. Why don't I help you out of them?"
"Denise ran off with Andy, so I'll keep you company and we can have some fun. Lucky for you, you're just my type. Don't be shy now."
His hands started to wander, and I shoved him out the door with everything I had.
But the lock was broken, so all I could do was brace my body against the door.
My phone had one bar of battery left. I called Denise fast.
Only to find she'd blocked me, and then the phone died completely.
The man laughed from the other side of the door.
"Harvey, don't waste your energy."
"Denise didn't want you interrupting her and Andy, so she just blocked you on everything. Let me help you instead. It'd be a real shame if you wet yourself."
Out of patience, he shoved at the door hard enough to knock the IV bag down. It hit the floor and shattered.
I screamed for help.
Almost the instant the door gave, a nurse rushed in with security.
"What's going on here? Out, now. Keep this up and we're calling the police!"
The man's face darkened, and he spat at me.
"Playing so pure and chaste. What you're like in bed, Denise already told all of us as a joke ages ago."
"Ungrateful piece of trash. No wonder Denise thinks you're a buzzkill. Last night she'd rather go sleep with Andy than touch you. And breaking you in would just bring me bad luck anyway!"
The nurse helped me up and asked, worried, if I was all right.
I looked at the back of my hand, already swollen and pooled with blood, and the tears finally came.
Whatever was left of my feeling for Denise burned away for good.
That evening, when I was discharged, Denise sent a message.
"Andy's place is close to where we ate, so I'm staying at his tonight."
"Nine sharp tomorrow, front of the marriage license office. A few media outlets are coming to interview me about my personal journey as a local entrepreneur. Don't be late."
I didn't reply. I walked straight to the Maybach that had been waiting a long time.
...
The next morning, Denise waited a full hour.
There was no sign of me.
The reporters started looking puzzled.
Denise pulled out her phone, irritated, ready to call me.
Then she saw me walking out of the marriage license office lobby.
She stormed over, furious.
"Harvey, didn't I take you off my block list last night?"
"You've been here all this time and didn't tell me? You made me wait for nothing. Do you still want to sign the license or not?!"
As her words fell, Layla Stephens stepped out from behind me and slid her arm through mine.
She looked down at Denise from her full height, and gave a cold smile.
"You're joking, Ms. Henson. My husband certainly wants to sign a license."
"Just not with you."