Nine Years of a Dream, Now Awake

Synopsis

Just before I went to sleep, I came across a post: "What kind of life counts as totally messed up?" The top-voted comment was: "So, my best friend's boyfriend pretended to be broke for nine years. She spent all that time living in a rental, and he kept saying their relationship was totally Platonic—never even touched her." "But he gives me at least $300,000 a month. Now we've even got a kid together." "Honestly, I'm just too soft-hearted. I couldn't bring myself to tell her the truth, afraid she'd break down." The post was accompanied by a photo of two hands intertwined. My heart skipped a beat. That guy had the exact same mole on his hand as my boyfriend. I scrolled down to the comments—everyone was tearing her apart. She just picked one at random to reply to. "The real third wheel is the one who's not loved. Tonight, her boyfriend found another excuse to come over and spend the night with me." The photo showed Richard sitting on the couch. I felt like I'd been thrown into an ice bath, my whole body trembling uncontrollably. Richard had told me he was going on a business trip for a week.