Chasing Stars with Another Woman

My fiancé goes missing after a grand and lavish engagement party. He leaves nothing but a letter behind. It states that his childhood sweetheart has a terminal illness—her only wish is to see the aurora.

On the day he returns to the country, I visit him, wanting to call off the engagement. Ivana Jennings stands beside Jacob Gardner and weeps. "I'm sorry for putting you two in a tough spot, Ariel. I'll leave now. I'll never disturb you anymore!"

Jacob stops her and shields her behind him. He looks at me frostily. "I'll kill you if you dare do anything to Ivana!"

I sneer. "I don't deal with just about anyone for two reasons. Firstly, I don't want to dirty my hands. Secondly, I don't want to deal with rabid dogs."

"What the hell do you mean by that, Ariel Winslow?" Jacob Gardner glowered at me hatefully, the anger sparking in his eyes. Behind him, Ivana Jennings buried her face in her hands, her shoulders moving with each dramatic sob.

She looked so pitiful that Jacob abandoned our fight for a second to pull her into his arms. He was sympathetic as he comforted her. "There, there, Ivana. This isn't your fault. She was wrong for shouting at you like that. You must have been so scared!"

I could have sputtered in disbelief. I tossed a piece of paper at him. It was a copy of Ivana's health report, which indicated she was perfectly healthy.

I wanted Jacob to know the truth—that he had been duped into doing something so off base and ridiculous. Unfortunately, he barely glanced at the report before casting it aside like trash.

He sneered, "I never pegged you for a psychopath, Ariel. You know what emotional stress does to Ivana, yet you decided to fabricate a health report to frame her!

"How could you do this to a sick person? Do you find her so insufferable that you'd stoop this low?"

Had Jacob expected me to put up with Ivana? It seemed he had deemed my refusal to tolerate her was part of an ongoing tantrum.

A self-deprecating smile formed on my lips. I took a deep breath and forced my tears back.

Jacob and I had known and loved each other for seven years, yet that was nothing compared to Ivana's emotional well-being.

Jacob would brace a downpour to get Ivana any food she was craving. If she asked, he would stay up through the night to keep her company. If she fell sick and was hospitalized, he would tirelessly guard her bedside.

But when I picked fights with him over how he always went out of the way for Ivana, he would brush me off. "You're reading too much into this. Ivana is like a sister to me."

He would then turn the blame on me and tell me that if I loved him, I would respect his female friends.

I wanted to retch at the thought of what this so-called pair of