Part 2I Lost, but I Also Won

I picked up my phone and opened my chat with Selena.

It had been pinned for two years, and next to her profile picture was the note I had given her.

"Selena."

I stared for a few seconds, then deleted the note.

After that, I opened the chat history. There was too much of it.

"It's gotten colder. Put on a jacket. Don't catch a cold."

"Babe, if you have an upset stomach, don't drink anything cold."

"Babe, I'll come pick you up after my meeting. Want me to go with you to get your hair cut?"

I deleted all of it.

Then, I opened my photo album and saw the picture taken last year when I had a high fever.

That night at 3:00 am, I was burning up with a fever and barely lucid. Selena drove me to the hospital, and when I woke up, she was slumped over the edge of my hospital bed.

In the photo, Selena was asleep, one hand still holding my wrist.

At the time, I posted it on Instagram with the caption, "Someone said she'd protect me for a lifetime."

She commented below, "I meant it."

I kept scrolling down.

There was our first trip, our first kiss, and the first time we adopted the puppy "Beanie".

I deleted them one by one.

By the time I deleted the last one, the screen suddenly became a little blurry. I raised my hand to wipe my eyes, only then realizing the back of my hand was wet.

If all of this had been fake, I wouldn't have felt this bad. However, I knew that during those times, Selena had truly been good to me.

But as I cried, I suddenly noticed many things I had never paid attention to before.

For a while, Selena was always looking at job recruitment websites.

"When did your company start hiring for brand operations?" I asked.

"I'm just looking into it for a friend," she replied.

Later, Ivan got into a company that was thriving. But oddly enough, from then on, Selena had to go there on business trips every so often.

I even teased her about it.

"Since when did Hodge Group start working with such companies?"

Now that I thought about it, it was because Ivan was there.

A while after that, he got promoted very quickly and landed several projects that others would kill to get their hands on.

Moreover, he always liked to ask about me and Selena. He even asked, "Chuck, would you mind if there was someone Selena could never get over?"

At the time, I actually replied with a smile, "Of course! If she ever dared to emotionally cheat on me, I'd immediately break up with her and never look back."

The phone slipped from my palm onto the bed.

Suddenly, those words felt so ironic.

"Never look back", huh? Yet, I had looked back today, only to find that all of them had been lying to me.

And there was Mack, too. These past two years he always had all kinds of gatherings.

"Chuck, I've invited a few business partners tonight. Selena's coming too to lend support. You don't need to come. It's just a bunch of people talking business—nothing interesting."

I never liked that kind of socializing anyway, so I had never thought much about it.

I would even say with a smile, "Alright, you guys take your time. I'll just head back and play some games."

But now that I thought about it, how many times had Ivan actually appeared in those gatherings that I found boring and never attended even once?

Suddenly, I didn't dare keep thinking.

The room was too stuffy, and I couldn't sleep. So, I threw on a jacket and went out.

However, as soon as I reached the aft deck, I heard Ivan's voice.

"Tell me the truth, have you really let go?"

The sea breeze blew over. I stood in the shadows, unmoving.

"No."

One word, yet it felt like I had been viciously stabbed.

"Me neither."

The two of them gazed out at the sea.

After a long time, Selena finally spoke, "Ivan, you're going to have a good life. Before I marry him, I'll make sure you're taken care of. I'll introduce you to a woman from our circle with good prospects so you'll be happy afterward."

I gripped the railing tightly.

Ivan's voice dropped even lower. "You shouldn't have introduced me to Chuck in the first place. If we'd never met, things wouldn't have turned out like this today."

But Selena said, "If you hadn't known him, how would you have gotten into this circle? Chuck treated you as a friend, so he was willing to bring you into his clique.

"It's just that I didn't expect him to look back today. But don't worry—even without Chuck, you still have me. I'll take you to all the dinners and cocktail parties from now on. Once you've got a solid footing, I can finally relax."

I stood there, past the point of crying, and just let out a bitter smile.

Ivan becoming my friend was no accident. I was the one who brought him into the fold, took him to parties, and introduced him to my friends. And Selena just used me to slowly ease him into our circle.

I couldn't bear to listen anymore. I went back to the room and called my good friend, Ambrose Dorsey.

He was vacationing on a nearby island and had asked me yesterday whether I wanted to join him. At the time, I'd replied, "No, thanks. I'm going out to sea with Selena and the others."

The call connected.

"Chuck, you should be sleeping. Why are you calling in the middle of the night?"

"Ambrose, can you come pick me up?"

He paused for a few seconds. "Aren't you with Selena?"

"I'm going to break up with her, so I don't want to hang out with them anymore."

Another few seconds of pause, and he replied, "Send me your location. I'll come tomorrow. Wait for me."