Filed To Story: Cheating with My Boyfriend's Best Friend Novel Read Online (Olive & Aaron)
Aaron’s POV:
“What did you tell them? They’re nopushovers. Even if you bring them to their knees at the moment, they won’t be able to pretend for long. The Woods are all the same at heart: stuck up for themselves, and no one can control that,” I said.
“I didn’t ask them to compromise or try toconvince them,” Cinder replied coldly. “I just gave them two choices. They should give up their careers, return to Olive, and spend the rest of their lives making up for the parental duties they haven’t fulfilled over the past thirty years, no matter what Olive’s attitude toward them is. Or they should go back to the United States to find the court and se ver the parent-child relationship with Olive through legal proceedings.”
“Are you out of your mind?” I exclaimed,looking at her in shock.
Rolling her eyes, Cinder stopped in her tracks and stared me in the face. “I’m rather puzzled as to why you went through all the trouble of getting them to act like they regretted abandoning Olive. Do you think thirty years of trauma can be repaired?”
“Do you think that forcing Olive tobecome an or phan is the right thing to do?”
I asked back.
Given my knowledge of the couple, there was no way they’d ever give up the career they’d loved for the past few decades for a daughter they abandoned thirty years ago.
“Aren’t you afraid that Olive will resentyou when she learns the truth?” I asked.
“That’s where we differ,” Cinder retorted,resting her hands on her hips.
“Everything you do is adding up to you, while all I care about is that my best friend gets out of her psyche! I don’t care if she resents me or not. All I know is that dwelling on a wrong relationship will only lead to continued misery, be it love or family affection.”
I had a feeling she was being sarcastic, but I had no proof. After a long silence, I withdrew my gaze and sighed.
“Friendship can’t replace family affection.A piece of her life will be missing forever.”
“There are many incomplete lives in theworld,” Cinder reasoned.”Do you dare to say that your life is complete?”
I was speechless.
“Clean out the rotting f lesh from thewound, and it will slowly grow new flesh and blood.” Cinder continued, gazing calmly into my eyes, “Besides, Olive is far stronger than you think she is.”
Olive’s POV:
Cinder seemed to have been jet-lagged for a long time.
I didn’t see her the following day, and the same went for Aaron. During that time, I asked Rita what the reason for calling Aaron earlier was. All she said was that Aaron had a phone call. But I knew that it could never be just that.
“How is Sam Robin doing? Was thesurgery a success?” I asked, not because I was concerned about him.
I was only worried that Cinder and Aaron would get in trouble for this.
“He didn’t have surgery.” Rita’s wordswere a relief.
Probably seeing through my concern, she reassured me.”The head of the station has already come over to ask about the situation. We provided the appropriate surveillance and witnesses to prove that Mr. Robin had indeed tried to flee. Mr. Morris and Ms. Swann ra n into him on the road and chased him until they caught him and brought him back.”
My eyes widened in disbelief. I’d rather believe that the two had contacted a team of professional hackers to fabricate a surveillance video. But since the evidence was solid, I couldn’t say anything more.
After Rita left, I had two unexpected guests in my ward.
“I told you I didn’t want to see you guysagain.”
When Kristy’s and Chris’s faces came into view, my cheerful mood instantly bottomed out. I craned my head to look out the window, my face expressionless as I refused to have a single interaction with them.
“Your friend came to us yesterday.”Chris’s words entered my ears.
Cinder went to them? I was surprised for a second, but I soon figured that Cinder could have done that. She never could see me being bullied by anyone, no matter what the other person’s relationship with me was. I was just surprised that she was still as mobile as ever.
“Your mother… Kristy and I were up allnight, deeply reflecting on the situation.
Olive, if our presence is really causing you that much pain, we’d be willing to take a trip back to New York with you.”
Back to New York? To do what?
Cinder hadn’t reappeared since she left yesterday, and I didn’t know what she had told them. But I didn’t think that she’d advise them to give up their careers and go back to New York to be a pair of idle, arguing parents, as Aaron had done.
Kristy’s unusually sad voice followed. “Honey, does it have to come to this?”
She didn’t sound like she was going to give up her career for me. I whipped my head around to look at them.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Didn’t your friend tell you?” Kristylooked surprised, her eyes red and puffy with tears.
Chris gently wrapped his arm around her shoulder.”She gave us two choices: either give up our careers and spend the rest of our lives making it up to you, or go back to the U. S. and find a court to se ver the parent-child relationship with you through a formal legal process.”
Once again, my heart stung hard. Cinder gave them two choices, and they made their choice. In their hearts, career always took precedence over family.
“Does it really have to come to this? Evenif we are not as close as other families, we have maintained harmony for so long. Moreover, your father and I have come to a deep realization of our former mistakes during this time. We are willing to make amends. It’s just that…”
“Just don’t force you guys to choosebetween me and your careers, right?” I chuckled as I suddenly understood Cinder’s intent in giving them those two choices.”You guys suck.”
Looking at their frozen expressions, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of mockery. “Why so surprised? The rapprochementyou all thought you had for the past thirty years was based on my pain. Don’t tell me that you are not aware of that.”
I continued, “One cannot have their cake and eat it too. You want freedom and a cause you love, and I respect that. I’ll give it to you. When you are free, go back to New York and go through the legal process. Then we will be strangers, never having any contact again, and even if we meet again, there will be no need to greet each other.”
I closed my eyes and concluded, “Please leave. I need to rest.”
Kristy broke down and cried in pain, startling some onlookers outside the door. Chris put his arm around her and gently soothed her as he led her out of the ward.
I heard Aaron’s and Cinder’s voices, but I kept my eyes closed.
It wasn’t until Kristy’s and Chris’s voices faded away that I felt a faint pang of sadness. My eyes were a little moist, but there were no more tears.
“Honey, are you okay?” Cinderapproached me worriedly.
I opened my eyes, trying to reassure her with a smile. But as soon as my lips parted, a wave of intense nausea washed over me. I turned my head and retched on the edge of the bed.
It was a moment of physical reaction that brought tears to my eyes, woefully out of control.
The war d was in chaos.
Cinder exclaimed as she stepped forward to hold me up and pat my back.
“Doctor! Get a doctor!” Aaron screamed ashe prepared to ring the call bell.
I grabbed his arm, stopping his move-ments. I tried to say something, but anoth-er wave of revulsion made it impossible for me to muster the energy to utter a single syllable.
Cinder scrambled to grab the tissue from the nightstand and wipe it for me while the caregiver rushed to get tools from the cor-ner to clean up. When I finally caught my breath, I was greeted by a sea of worried faces.
“Why are you still throwing up? Any more vertigo?” Aaron squatted in front of me, gazing into my eyes.
I shook my head.”No need to call a doctor. I’m fine.”
It was just the baby in my womb reminding me that I still had loved ones. As hard as the pregnancy reaction was, the physical discomfort was nothing compared to the mental soothing it brought.
“Vertigo?” Cinder craned her neck to lookat Aaron.
“The sequela of a concussion,” he ex-plained.”It’s gotten better lately, but it nev-er fully recovered.”
Cinder gave me a look before turning back to Aaron and nodding.
She stood up and pushed him toward the door.”Your pres-ence is no longer needed here. Give us the room.”
“What’s that I can’t hear?” Aaron protested.
“More than enough for you not to hear!”Cinder retorted bossily.
“Don’t forget why you asked me to come here, and don’t make me slap you in front of all these people.”
I had rarely seen Aaron so defeated, but the way he was holding back was kind of funny.
After he left, Rita and the caregiver had the good sense to leave after completing their work. The next thing I knew, I was getting eye torture from Cinder.
“What for?” I asked, not understanding whyshe was suddenly looking at me so silently.
“Are you pregnant?” Her words made myexpression freeze.
“My God! You really are…” She subcon-sciously raised her voice and then silenced herself, glancing cautiously in the direction of the doorway before looking back at me.
“You really are a miracle, my baby!” Shelowered her voice and whispered,”Don’t tell me that night caused this! Or I’ll go crazy.”
I didn’t know what to say. I just sheepishly withdrew my eyes.
“You gotta be kidding me.” Cinder spunhysterically, grabbing her blonde hair.
“There’s no need to be so surprised, isthere?” I said diffidently.
“You look more emotional than I am.”
Cinder suddenly leaned over and looked fixedly at me. “Why aren’t you? Don’t tell me you did it on purpose!”
“Of course not!” I explained in a hurry, “I ad-mit that I did forget to take emergency con-traception after that day, but you know that I was in the lab for over two months straight after that. I was busy as hell. And my periods were already pretty irregular.”
“My goodness! What a legendary experi-ence!” Cinder paced back and forth in front of me, suppressing the urge to yell. “So, you came to Antarctica with a little life in your womb, got attacked, avalanched, and admitted to the ICU…And this little guy is fine!”
“You think it’s magical too, don’t you?” Icouldn’t help but laugh at her frantic look.