< <Finding Forever After…
(Finding Forever After the Betrayal Chapter 4
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Hannah clutched the trophy, her face devoid of any joy. Instead, she bit her lip, her eyes welling up.“Violet,” she began, her voice a soft tremor, “the director asked me to give this to you. Congratulations, it’s a huge honor.”
She paused, then added, her voice barely a whisper, “Would it… would it be awful of me to ask if I could… maybe keep it for a few days? I’ve never won
anything like this, and I just thought it might be nice to…”
I stared at her, completely dumbfounded.“Borrow it?”
My tone must have betrayed my disbelief because her face flushed, a delicate
shade of pink that crept up her neck.“I know, I know, it’s a ridiculous request. I
just thought it might inspire me, you know? Seeing it every day…”
“If you want to win one,” I said, my voice tight, “then enter the competition.
yourself.”
I reached for the trophy, but her grip tightened, her knuckles turning white.
“I’m not trying to take it from you!” she cried, her eyes wide and wounded.“I
just want to…”
The trophy, caught between our battling wills, slipped. It tumbled to the
floor with a sickening crunch, shattering into a dozen pieces.
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“Hannah!”
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Aiden and Ethan, back from their knight–in–shining–armor mission,
rushed towards us, their faces etched with concern. Aiden knelt beside Hannah,
his eyes scanning her for injuries.
“Are you alright?”
She shook her head, her face pale. Aiden’s eyes followed her gaze to a thin
line of blood welling up on her leg, a shard of crystal embedded in her skin. His
eyes darkened.
“Let’s get you to the hospital,” he said, scooping her up in his arms, ignoring
her weak protests.
Ethan rounded on me, his eyes blazing.“What did you do?” he spat.“You have
everything. Why do you have to take this from her too?”
“Take it?” I laughed, a humorless sound that caught in my
throat.“This was
my award, Ethan! Three months of work, and she…” I gestured at the shattered
trophy, my voice shaking with anger and something else, something deeper and
more painful that I couldn’t quite name.“She tries to claim it as her own, breaks it,
and I’m the one at fault?”
“It’s just a trophy, Violet!” Ethan exploded, his voice echoing in the sudden
silence.“You can have a million trophies. It doesn’t mean anything compared to
Hannah getting hurt!” And with that, he turned and followed Aiden, leaving me
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< <Finding Forever After…
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standing amidst the glittering wreckage of my award, and something infininely
more fragile: our friendship.
Just a trophy.
His words were like a slap in the face. He wanted me to apologize To her?
For what? For having the audacity to win an award? For daring to stand up for
myself?
I stared at the shattered trophy, my reflection staring back at me, distomed
and broken. I noticed then, with a dull sense of shock, that I was lending A
shard of crystal had sliced a gash in my leg, deeper and more bloody than Hannah
s injury.
I bit back a sob, my fingers trembling as I gathered up the broken güeces of
crystal. Just a trophy.
Later that evening, my phone burred with a message from my mother.
Photos of wedding dresses, lace and silk and talle, a dizzying array of white. I
scrolled through them numbly, a wave of exhaustion washing over me.
call.
“Did you find one you like?” my mother asked when I finally returned her
“They’re all beautiful “I said, my voice flat. My throat felt right, the wacős
choked out.
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“Violet? Sweetheart, what’s wrong?”
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I closed my eyes, the image of the shattered trophy, of Aiden and Ethan’s
furious faces, flashing behind my eyelids.
“Nothing,” I lied, forcing a brighter tone. “Just a bit tired. How are the
wedding plans coming along?”
“The wedding?”
Aiden and Ethan’s voices, a discordant chorus of disbelief, cut through the
fragile peace I’d been trying to create.
I hadn’t even seen them come in.
(Finding Forever After….
