Chapter 4
857words
Honestly, I couldn't help but feel sorry for myself.
Erin grew up with parents who adored her. She had everything she could ever want ever since she was a kid. She was also beautiful and rich.
Meanwhile, I was just another love-starved kid with a controlling mother.
Whenever we appeared together, I always felt as if people would always pick Erin over me.
People naturally gravitated toward those who never lacked attention and adoration. Erin had never been short of men who'd do anything to pander to her whims.
Still, that didn't mean I'd have to resign myself to a life living in her shadow.
Did I really have to spend my entire life being yanked around according to her desires?
I stopped contacting Dean, but I would still hear about him through Erin.
She would text the family group chat about what she'd been working on lately, informing everyone where she'd gone and what market research she'd done.
Everyone would promptly fall over themselves to praise her, admiring her for being so hardworking despite already being so rich.
The photos she took always had Dean's silhouette in them.
Mom texted me, demanding to know just what was going on between Dean and me. She wanted to know why Erin was involved with another one of my boyfriends.
I replied, "Isn't this what you wanted? You couldn't wait to tell everyone that I was dating someone. As if that wasn't enough, you just had to tell Erin my address. If I didn't know any better, I'd suspect that you did that just so she could steal another one of my boyfriends."
Mom exploded. She sent several voice messages that were at least one-minute long. I did the sane thing and deleted them all.
Another family drama was brewing on the horizon. I honestly didn't have the patience to listen to her screech at me.
…
Erin tagged me in the group chat and even texted me privately for days. However, I didn't reply to any of them.
Just as I expected, her patience had started to fray.
She'd followed me to Ashford right after I posted that I was attending a conference there.
When she bumped into me by the lake, she put on a show as she exclaimed in surprise, "Oh, Cassie! What brings you here?"
"I wrote a post about it," I replied. "Didn't you see it?"
"Really? I've been so busy lately. It's kind of insane. Dean's project has me completely swamped. He even said he's going to give me some shares in his brand. By the way, he'll be here tonight. Did he tell you? Why don't we have dinner together?"
"Thanks, but no," I said. "I'm pretty busy myself. Maybe another time."
It seemed that my reaction satisfied Erin greatly. She believed that I cared about Dean more than my previous exes. After all, he was the best potential husband I'd ever had.
She spared no effort in flaunting how close she was to him.
My conference lasted three days, and she followed him around for three days as well. I even bumped into them from time to time.
Dean clearly hadn't expected me to be there. However, Erin would drag him away whenever he tried to approach me.
After he left, he texted me to explain. "I forgot to tell you that Erin and I are here on a business trip. I'm almost done with work. I'll make it up to you and tell you everything when I get back."
I didn't bother replying. At this point, I was a little disgusted by him.
Truth be told, I might not have been disgusted this much by him if he'd been a man about it and just admitted that he had cheated on me.
On the last day of the conference, I followed the crowd to the lake and decided to take a stroll there.
That was when I saw Erin and Dean kissing behind a statue.
I turned to leave, but I immediately ran into someone familiar.
It was none other than Erin's ex-husband, Eric.
He narrowed his eyes at the couple. Then, he tilted his head to me and asked, "Isn't that your boyfriend? Aren't you going over to say hello?"
I hastily shook my head and declined. "I'm good. I don't want to end up humiliating myself."
I wasted no time walking the way I came. Eric fell into step beside me.
After a while, I asked, "Why didn't you go over?"
"We're divorced," he replied. "Whoever she sleeps with isn't my concern, and vice versa. And honestly, I don't want to get involved in her business."
"That's fair. It doesn't look like you two are interested in getting back together anyway."
Eric was a regular on the entertainment headlines for the past couple of years, being caught on camera with several supermodels and award-winning actresses.
"Oh, right," I said. "Erin told me that she has a stake in what my boyfriend is working on. You might want to keep an eye on that. After all, it's your money she's using."
