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My Bestie Married My Boyfriend - FULL | DramaReel
#shortdrama
#heartstringshub
#shortdrama
#heartstringshub
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Short filmTranscript
00:02I learned my fiancé had been married to my best friend for five years on our marriage certificate day.
00:09On Valentine's Day, I linked arms with Jasper and walked into the city hall to register our marriage,
00:15then frowned and looked at my fiancé.
00:17Mr. Hale, you'll need to finalize your divorce before you can register a new marriage.
00:22The world detonated somewhere behind my eyes.
00:26Oh, right. I think I accidentally got married five years ago.
00:31Who?
00:32We had been together for almost ten years.
00:35Vivian Shaw.
00:36That was my best friend's name.
00:38Vivian, who collected boyfriends the way other people collected speeding tickets.
00:42Never keeping one longer than a month, always juggling at least five at a time.
00:47When he saw me trembling, Jasper opened a video call without a word.
00:53Vivian's impatient voice filled the room before her face even loaded.
00:57Why are you calling early? It's not time for our meetup yet this month.
01:01Vivian had been living abroad for years.
01:03I had only ever saw her face on a screen for years.
01:07Jasper angled the phone until the camera found me.
01:09On the screen, Vivian was draped across two men I didn't recognize.
01:14Nina! What are you doing there?
01:17We're at City Hall. Getting married.
01:21Oh my god, congratulations, babe. Finally, you deserve this so much.
01:28Ugh. Why does a jerk like Jasper Hall get this lucky?
01:32She launched into a cheerful stream of insults aimed at Jasper.
01:35I couldn't hear any of it. There was a ringing in my ears that drowned out everything.
01:41In my memory, Vivian and Jasper had never been able to stand each other.
01:45I was the only thing that had ever kept the peace between them.
01:48And yet, legally, they had been husband and wife for five years.
01:54Vivian, did you forget something?
01:57You forgot to divorce me.
02:00She scrambled to pick it up, and when her face reappeared, it wore the exact same blank, unbothered expression as
02:07his.
02:08Oh, right, that. Hold on, I'll fly back tonight.
02:11I opened my mouth, closed it. It was already too late.
02:15We didn't speak on the way home.
02:20Inside, Jasper reached out to ruffle my hair the way he always had.
02:24His hand hung in the air between us, awkward and lost.
02:27Why?
02:30He pulled his hand back and lit a cigarette like nothing had happened.
02:35It was an accident.
02:37Five years ago, around this time, we both drank too much at some party.
02:43Our friends thought it would be funny to dare us to get married on the spot.
02:47When we woke up the next morning, we both just forgot about it.
02:53Something surged up from my stomach.
02:55I pressed my back against the wall and dry heaved.
02:58It was a long time before I could wipe my eyes.
03:00What did she mean it wasn't time for your meetup yet?
03:04We see each other once a month.
03:07Sometimes she comes back, sometimes I fly out.
03:11An absurdity so vast it had its own gravity settled over me.
03:17Vivian had been abroad for years.
03:20I could only see her on a screen.
03:24When was the last time?
03:27The 17th.
03:29Last month.
03:31The 17th.
03:33Our anniversary.
03:33I had taken the day off work.
03:36I baked a cake by myself and burned my hand on the oven rack.
03:39Then his text came, working late.
03:41So sorry.
03:42I waited from morning until the sun went down.
03:45In the end, I ate the cold dinner alone at our table, pretending hard enough that it almost
03:49felt like he was there.
03:50The tears came all at once, enormous and unstoppable.
03:54Jasper reached over and wiped them away, gentle as he'd always been.
03:59I wasn't trying to hide it from you.
04:02We worked things out between us a long time ago, I just didn't know how to tell you.
04:06The soft t-shirt I was wearing suddenly felt like it was strangling me.
04:09I shoved him away and tore through the room, glasses, books, anything I could reach.
04:16Get out!
04:17Get out, Jasper!
04:18You make me sick!
04:19A shard of glass sliced past his temple.
04:22Okay.
04:23Calm down.
04:25There is nothing going on between me and Vivian.
04:28If I wanted her, do you think you'd even be here?
04:30She comes back tonight, we file the divorce, and then you and I get married.
04:35That's it.
04:36He walked out without looking back.
04:40I pressed my palms over my face and started to laugh.
04:43I laughed until the room spun, until the tears wouldn't stop.
04:47When I came downstairs the next morning, Vivian was curled up on the couch.
04:52Nina, you're up early.
04:54Did I wake you?
04:55She was my best friend.
04:56Even after all those years abroad, she still had a key to our place.
05:00She always had.
05:01But when Vivian bounced up and threw her arms around me, all I could think about was those
05:05two names glowing on the marriage registry screen.
05:08My stomach turned, over and over.
05:10I couldn't stop the thoughts.
05:12How many times had they been here?
05:14In this apartment, while I was away?
05:16Every time Jasper said he was working late, was he here?
05:19With her?
05:20In our home?
05:21I ran for the bathroom and didn't stop until I was on the floor, arms around the toilet.
05:26When I finally managed to stand, Jasper and Vivian were in the doorway, side by side, wearing
05:31the exact same worried expression.
05:33I laughed, short and sharp, like something tearing.
05:36They even looked like a couple.
05:38Vivian's brow creased.
05:40She kicked Jasper hard in the shin.
05:42I trusted you to take care of her.
05:44This is what you call taking care of her?
05:46Since when is she yours to get Jasper?
05:49Since when is she yours to give away?
05:51Keep it up, and I'll take her back overseas.
05:54You'll never see her again.
05:56They were off, the two of them trading blows like they'd been doing their whole lives.
06:00Except I was supposed to be the subject of this conversation.
06:03I was still barely holding myself upright against the wall.
06:06They couldn't see me at all.
06:08As if this apartment only had room for the two of them.
06:11That was when it finally, slowly, landed.
06:14In their world, I had never been anything more than a supporting character.
06:18By the time I met them, the two of them had already been at each other's throats since
06:22kindergarten.
06:23I was 12 when my family moved into the gated community.
06:26Most of the kids there were third or fourth generation money.
06:29I was the daughter of a man who'd made his fortune overnight, new money, rural roots,
06:33and no amount of coaching could scrub the roughness out of me.
06:35They looked down on me.
06:37They were also too smart to make an enemy of me outright.
06:40When I got into the same private school, the quiet exclusion got worse.
06:44The kind that leaves no marks.
06:46That was when Vivian and Jasper found me.
06:48I knew Vivian first.
06:50She'd mentioned her rival.
06:51That rival turned out to be my new desk partner.
06:54Their families had been close for five generations, neighbors and business partners.
06:58Even a childhood betrothal once, a match their parents had called off after Vivian and Jasper's
07:03fighting got so bad it couldn't be ignored anymore.
07:05The Shaws were the kind of family that never believed in rules, and Vivian had grown up
07:09knowing it.
07:10By the time she was an adult, nothing had changed.
07:12She never had fewer than five boyfriends running at the same time.
07:16Jasper was the opposite.
07:17The Hale family was old and serious, their name carrying weight in every room.
07:21Vivian mocked him constantly for being rigid, traditional, buttoned up.
07:25He called her reckless.
07:27She called him a fossil.
07:28The only time they could be in the same room without someone ending up hurt was when I was
07:32between them.
07:32In high school they once went to their parents, both sets of them, to fight over who got to
07:37sit with me at dinner.
07:38They threatened each other with stock holdings.
07:40I had to talk them both down from opposite ends of the argument.
07:43And it took the better part of an evening.
07:45Everyone said I was lucky.
07:47Protected by both heirs.
07:49Because of them, my path through that world had been smoother than it had any right to be.
07:53The day Jasper told me he liked me, I called Vivian and talked her ear off until
07:57sunrise.
07:58She spent the whole night insulting him.
08:00The next morning, they both disappeared for a few hours.
08:04When they turned up again, they were both bruised badly enough that the school called
08:08all three families in.
08:09The older generation still tells that story at dinner parties.
08:12They were like opposing poles, pushed them together and they'd fly apart.
08:16Only I had ever held them in the same orbit.
08:18When did it become like this?
08:20Had Jasper always loved Vivian?
08:22Drawn to her freedom, unable to forgive her wildness?
08:25And had I always been the acceptable substitute?
08:27I dried my eyes and cut into the middle of their argument.
08:31I looked at Vivian.
08:33Forgetting to file for divorce for a day, a week, a month?
08:37Fine.
08:38I could believe that.
08:41But five years, Vivian?
08:43Was it on purpose?
08:45She opened her mouth carefully.
08:47We were both so drunk that night.
08:50Then how did you both remember the second I brought it up?
08:55You never forgot.
08:57Not for a single second.
09:01Jasper's face darkened.
09:03He shifted and stepped in front of her.
09:05That's enough, Nina.
09:07Look at yourself.
09:08He glanced at me, shaking, hair undone, and softened his voice.
09:11Barely.
09:12Stop making things up.
09:14Vivian and I are going to City Hall right now.
09:16Come back when you've calmed down.
09:19Don't bother.
09:22I'm leaving.
09:24Congratulations to you both.
09:29You're being hysterical, Nina.
09:31We'll be back in an hour.
09:32Try to act like an adult.
09:36Like he was the one who had a right to be angry.
09:39What was he angry about?
09:40My distrust?
09:42After five years of lying to my face, he still expected my trust.
09:48Then I grabbed my bag and went to the biggest bar I could find.
09:51All day, my phone never rang once.
09:53I came home past midnight, reeking of alcohol.
09:56Sound drifted from the guest room, low, breathless, unmistakable.
10:00Through the gap in the door, barely open.
10:10Jasper's hands gripped her shoulders, and there were tears on his face.
10:13This is the last time!
10:18Vivian, take our son and stay over Sears.
10:21Don't come back.
10:23Don't let Nina see you again.
10:25Pain and guilt moved through both of them at the same moment.
10:28They pulled each other close and held on like it was the end of everything.
10:31My mind went completely white.
10:33A child.
10:35A child.
10:37They had a child together.
10:39I wanted to laugh, at myself, at how thoroughly I'd been deceived, at how little I had known.
10:44But all I could do was press both hands over my mouth until I couldn't breathe, until the darkness came.
10:48I woke up in a hospital room I recognized.
10:52Jasper and Vivian were on either side of my bed, watching me with the same anxious face.
10:56Nina.
10:57When you got home last night, did you hear anything?
11:00No.
11:01I drank too much.
11:02I passed out the second I walked in.
11:05They both exhaled at the same time.
11:07Something vast and empty opened up inside me.
11:10Vivian reached over and rested her hand on my stomach, her expression shifting to something scolding.
11:16Nina.
11:17You know you can't drink when you're pregnant, right?
11:20Every part of me went still.
11:22Why now?
11:23Why like this?
11:24What?
11:26Jasper looked more shocked than I was.
11:28The doctor told me just now.
11:31Vivian pressed her lips together into a small, helpless smile.
11:34But Jasper, Jasper lit up.
11:37A first-time father's joy, unguarded and complete, oblivious to anything else in the room.
11:42He and Vivian immediately began arguing about the baby's last name.
11:45I was pushed to the edge of the scene, as if the pregnant one wasn't me.
11:49I forced a smile and was about to say something when a small voice came from the doorway.
11:53Daddy.
11:54Mommy.
11:55The hospital room stopped breathing.
11:57Both of them went rigid.
11:59Jasper looked at me instinctively, and I couldn't look away from the boy in the doorway.
12:03The boy who was Jasper's face, seven parts out of ten.
12:06The resemblance was too precise.
12:08There was no version of denial that could survive it.
12:11Nina, that's...
12:12Jasper started to speak, but the boy had already launched
12:15himself into his arms.
12:16Daddy.
12:17My head hurts.
12:19A man in a butler's uniform appeared behind him, bowing apologetically toward Vivian.
12:24I'm so sorry, ma'am.
12:25The young master kept asking for parents, and when he threatened to stop eating, I had no
12:31choice.
12:32That's enough.
12:35Finley.
12:36I told you I'd be back in two days.
12:39Who said you could come here on your own?
12:41Finley.
12:42What a good name.
12:44I wish I hadn't been the one to come up with it.
12:46When I was younger, I used to imagine having a child with Jasper someday.
12:50Boy or girl.
12:51I always said I'd name them Finley.
12:53And now he had given that name to someone else's child.
12:56A sharp, tearing pain moved through my lower abdomen.
12:59Finley had started to cry quietly.
13:01Jasper snapped at Vivian without thinking.
13:06Don't talk to him like that.
13:09He's burning up.
13:15Jasper.
13:16Vivian.
13:18I'm in pain.
13:19I lay there.
13:20Lips white.
13:21Voice barely a sound.
13:23No one heard me.
13:24I reached up and pressed the call button on the bed rail, a bitter smile pulling at my
13:28mouth.
13:28No one looked back.
13:30For the next few days, Jasper and Vivian moved carefully between my room and Finley's,
13:34back and forth, back and forth.
13:36Every time I tried to bring up breaking up, Jasper talked over me.
13:40The last time, Vivian wasn't in the room.
13:42A thread of impatience finally showed in his voice.
13:45Regardless of everything, Finley is my son.
13:49He'll be our child's older brother.
13:51Nina.
13:52Can you just try to be bigger than this?
13:55My whole body had gone cold.
13:57The man in front of me was like a stranger.
14:00Before I could get a single word out, Vivian's voice tore through the door.
14:03Jasper, Finley is gone.
14:05Get out here and help me find him.
14:07So Jasper left.
14:09Leave me alone again.
14:11I closed my eyes.
14:12A moment later, the blanket suddenly shifted.
14:15The missing Finley was standing at my bedside, staring at me with wide, uncertain eyes.
14:20Miss Nina.
14:20You're my dad and mom's best friend, right?
14:23Can you take me to get a cupcake?
14:27They say I'll get cavities eating it.
14:30But I really, really can't help it.
14:33It was very hard to say no to that small, cute face.
14:36The bakery was just across from the hospital.
14:38We were crossing the street when Finley suddenly grabbed my hand and stopped walking.
14:42His voice was still soft and small.
14:46Miss Nina.
14:48Can you go to the hell?
14:50If you were dead, daddy wouldn't have to sneak around to see mommy anymore.
14:55I want to see who daddy chooses.
14:58You or me and mommy.
15:00He shoved me with everything he had.
15:03I went into the trap.
15:05The last thing I saw was Jasper and Vivian's faces.
15:08Horror breaking them both open at once.
15:10Several cars tore past me, close enough to feel.
15:13My mind drifted without direction.
15:16If I actually died, would they grieve?
15:18Or would they feel relief settling in quietly, like a window finally opened?
15:24Without me, Jasper and Vivian could be together in the open.
15:27No more monthly secrets.
15:29No more hiding.
15:30I thought of the night I stood outside that guest room door, their bodies tangled together,
15:34shattered, desperate.
15:36Like there was no one else left in the world but the two of them.
15:39They shared a pain I was never a part of.
15:41And I was the one who had caused it.
15:43After I lost consciousness, I passed through the ICU more times than I could count.
15:47Each time, the doctors issued the same warning, critical condition.
15:51A month later, I returned to something close to awareness.
15:55I couldn't move.
15:56I could just lay in the bed and listen.
15:58Every day, I could hear Vivian crying like something inside her was breaking in half.
16:02The first day my arm could lift.
16:04All three of them were in my room at once.
16:07Jasper had forced Finley to his knees at my bedside, one firm hand on his shoulder.
16:11Finley wept, furious and unrepentant.
16:13I didn't do anything wrong.
16:15I just wanted to know.
16:17Would dad choose her, the vicious woman, or me and mom?
16:21The sound of her palm connecting with Finley's cheek rang through the empty room.
16:25Finley, I am telling you, if anything happens to Nina, it won't just be your father who walks away.
16:33I will too.
16:35You'll have no one.
16:37You'll be homeless!
16:39Finley hit the floor.
16:41He stared up at the two people he called his parents as if he had never seen them before.
16:45His lips trembled.
16:47Oh!
16:48I hate you!
16:49You're not my parents anymore!
16:52You're both terrible people!
16:55Finley, keep your voice down.
16:57She's sleeping.
16:59I listened to all of it and felt nothing ease inside me.
17:03They must love this child deeply.
17:04How else could a child become so casually, genuinely cruel?
17:08He wasn't really like either of them, in the end.
17:11Finley bolted from the room.
17:13Jasper and Vivian both called his name and ran after him.
17:16I knocked my water glass off the nightstand.
17:18It shattered.
17:19I opened my eyes in silence.
17:21Both of them stopped mid-step.
17:23For the first time, they chose me over Finley.
17:26Nina.
17:27You're awake.
17:29Do you have any idea how scared we were when the doctors said there was a chance you'd never wake
17:34up?
17:35I kept thinking, if you never came back, I would still write your name into the Hale family records.
17:42After everything.
17:44After all of it.
17:45When we're gone, we'd still be buried side by side.
17:49I swore it.
17:49All I felt was nausea.
17:52Ridiculous.
17:53How was it possible that this man still believed that I would never leave him?
17:56Buried together?
17:57As if I'd want his name following me into whatever came next.
18:01Vivian gripped my other hand.
18:03She was crying too hard to speak.
18:05Only a broken, forced sorry kept forcing its way out of her throat.
18:08I looked at their faces, both wrecked with regret, and felt absolutely nothing.
18:12Like my heart had forgotten how.
18:14I pulled my hands back.
18:16Calm as still water.
18:18Jasper.
18:20Vivian.
18:20Let me go.
18:22Don't look for me after this.
18:28They both went still.
18:30And I noticed something almost funny.
18:32Growing up together had made them mirror each other in ways they'd never seen.
18:35Small expressions.
18:36The same angle of stillness.
18:38Vivian bent over the side of my bed and wept without stopping.
18:42She was usually immaculate.
18:44But during the weeks she'd spent here, she had stopped caring about any of that.
18:48Her hair was undone.
18:49Her face was raw from crying.
18:51Nina.
18:52If you don't want Finling around, I swear I'll keep him overseas forever.
18:57He will never be in front of you again.
19:00Her voice was in pieces.
19:01He was never supposed to happen.
19:03I watched her quietly after a long moment.
19:07What about me?
19:07I nearly died.
19:09Does that just get forgiven and forgotten?
19:12And my baby is gone.
19:15Jasper dropped to his knees.
19:18Nina.
19:20He's still my son.
19:21I won't claim him, but can you let this one thing go?
19:30Just this.
19:31I felt perfectly calm, so I nodded.
19:34Fine.
19:35Transfer the money.
19:37What?
19:39The legal compensation amount.
19:42Wire it to my account.
19:44After that, we're square.
19:53I know I was wrong.
19:54I know it.
19:56Please, Nina.
19:58Give me one more chance.
20:00I won't see Vivian again.
20:02I promise.
20:03Never again.
20:05Please.
20:07Vivian had been pushed to the floor.
20:09She didn't have the strength to get up.
20:11They were both afraid.
20:13The doctor walked in, furious, and pulled Jasper off me.
20:16Are you trying to hurt her?
20:18She's unstable.
20:19She could go under at any moment.
20:22Doctor, can I have a wash?
20:24I feel dirty.
20:25Where he touched.
20:27Jasper's face went gray, slowly, like light leaving a room.
20:31I turned to Vivian.
20:33She was staring at nothing, murmuring fragments under her breath.
20:37Nina.
20:38I'm sorry.
20:39I didn't mean for any of this.
20:41Vivian.
20:42Be honest with me.
20:45Is there really nothing there?
20:48No feeling at all?
20:50Vivian's lips started to shake.
20:52I kept going.
20:53The way you talk about someone else's story.
20:55It can't be nothing.
20:57Every guy you've ever been with, you were done in under a month.
21:02Always.
21:03So how did you stay married to someone you supposedly hated for five whole years?
21:10He couldn't stand your wildness.
21:12You couldn't stand his control.
21:15So staying half connected was the safest place for both of you, wasn't it?
21:20But why did your little game have to involve me?
21:24You both decided I could never leave, that I'd been too dependent on you since the beginning.
21:30So even if I found out, what was I going to do?
21:35Where else would I find people as useful as you two?
21:40No, it wasn't like that.
21:42Vivian shook her head desperately, tears spilling through her fingers.
21:47It just happened.
21:49We couldn't stop it.
21:52I was done listening.
21:54After that, they became perfectly, carefully obedient.
21:58Jasper and Vivian stopped trading words.
22:00They stopped making eye contact.
22:02The easy rhythm they'd always had with each other, gone.
22:05After all these years, they had finally become strangers.
22:08At the cost of a life that had never even had the chance to be born, I grew quieter every
22:13day.
22:13They pushed food on me, supplements, anything.
22:16I lost weight anyway, visibly, week by week.
22:20And then one afternoon, while both of them were out of the room, I slipped out through the window.
22:26She was gone.
22:27Jasper and Vivian didn't realize it right away.
22:30She had bribed the nurses.
22:31They told the two of them she had only stepped out for some air.
22:34But midnight came, and she didn't come back.
22:37They stormed the nurses' station in a panic.
22:39And that was when they found out, she had checked herself out days ago.
22:43Everything had been handled quietly, in advance.
22:46She had kept paying for the room just to keep them from suspecting anything.
22:49Jasper called my phone until his thumb went numb.
22:52Every time, the same mechanical voice answered.
22:57Vivian stood with her phone in her hand, staring at nothing.
23:00She tried to think of someone, anyone, she could call.
23:04A mutual friend who might know something.
23:06That was when it hit her.
23:08I didn't really have anyone else.
23:10All these years, outside of the two of them, Nina had no one she was truly close to.
23:14And what had Vivian been doing this whole time?
23:16She pressed her hands over her face.
23:19A broken sound crawled out from between her fingers.
23:21They walked home in a daze.
23:23Nina's things were gone.
23:24Every single one.
23:26I had cleared myself out so completely that it was as if I had studied how to disappear.
23:30While they had been busy trying to fix things, she had been quietly planning her exit.
23:34She hated them.
23:36That was the only explanation for leaving nothing behind.
23:39Vivian collapsed onto the floor and sobbed into her hands.
23:42She remembered the first time she ever saw Nina.
23:45This awkward, rough-around-the-edges girl, a nouveau rich businessman's daughter.
23:49Newly arrived, impossible to place in a world that had very specific ideas about where people
23:53belonged.
23:54Nina's accent wasn't right.
23:56Her French was painful.
23:57She tripped over my words constantly.
24:00At first, Vivian had only reached out because she was curious.
24:03But then she started to notice.
24:05This girl was relentlessly, stubbornly unwilling to lose.
24:09It didn't matter that everyone laughed.
24:11It didn't matter that she never fit.
24:13Nina worked in secret, drilling her vowels before dawn, memorizing phrases during lunch,
24:18quietly logging the exact way her classmates sneered so she could practice erasing every trace
24:22of where she came from.
24:23One year, two years, Nina went from the bottom of the class to the top.
24:27Her accent became flawless.
24:29Her second language started to sound like a first.
24:32Vivian, for the first time in her life, felt a still pond inside her start to move.
24:37Then one afternoon, an ex-boyfriend of Vivian's showed up at the school gate with a group of
24:41guys, looking for payback.
24:43Nina was weak and she was shaking.
24:45She stepped in front of Vivian anyway.
24:47She took three cuts before anyone could pull them apart.
24:50After that, Vivian had one person in the world she would bleed for.
24:54And look what she had done with that.
24:56Vivian crumpled against the wall in silence.
24:59Completely undone.
25:00Jasper kept redialing on autopilot.
25:03He didn't understand how things had gotten this far.
25:05When they were young, it had all seemed so stable.
25:08So easy.
25:09He hadn't noticed Nina at first.
25:11He knew there was a new girl in the neighborhood, some businessman's daughter from the countryside,
25:15but Jasper had never been the type to pay attention to people who hadn't earned it yet.
25:18Then Vivian brought her over.
25:21Jasper had known Vivian since before either of them could remember.
25:24He had never once seen her give her real self to anyone.
25:27So the fact that she had, that this particular girl had gotten through, made him look.
25:32And when he looked, he couldn't stop.
25:36She was nothing like Vivian.
25:38And something about that got under his skin in a way he hadn't expected.
25:41He still picked fights with Vivian out of pure habit.
25:44But his eyes kept finding Nina.
25:46When graduation came, Vivian left the country without looking back.
25:50Jasper felt a rage he couldn't name or explain.
25:53The night of the farewell party, Nina had stayed home to take care of her sick parents.
25:57She wasn't there.
25:58So Jasper cornered Vivian and started pouring drinks.
26:02For both of them.
26:03Looking for a fight, as always.
26:05They woke up the next morning with a marriage certificate neither of them had intended to sign.
26:09Neither of them said a word about divorce.
26:12Vivian left for the airport the next day.
26:14Then Finley came.
26:15And the thing that should have been said out loud became something neither of them could
26:19figure out how to say at all.
26:20So they let it sit.
26:21Told themselves it wasn't really happening.
26:24Assumed that when it finally surfaced, it wouldn't matter.
26:27Suddenly, Vivian grabbed something off the floor and hurled it at Jasper.
26:31Then another thing.
26:32Then another.
26:33Jasper stood there and took every single one, until the blood ran.
26:37When she ran out of things to throw, Vivian turned her hands on herself, striking her own
26:41face until she spat blood onto the floor.
26:44I'm a monster.
26:45My God, I'm such a monster.
26:49I have to find her.
26:51I have to find Nina and tell her whatever she needs, whatever she wants.
26:56My parents came and took me home, back to the countryside.
26:58The day I went out that window, there was a safety mat already waiting on the ground below.
27:03I had placed it there days in advance.
27:05Jasper and Vivian had people everywhere in that hospital.
27:08It was the only way out that none of them would see coming.
27:11My parents had stepped away from everything a long time ago.
27:14Retired, quiet, off the grid.
27:16I had stayed behind for Jasper.
27:18I hadn't gone with them.
27:20They picked me up without asking questions.
27:22I was thin in a way that showed, and they simply held me tighter and gave me more.
27:26One night I woke up at 3 in the morning and heard them in the next room,
27:29talking in low voices about how to go after the Hale family.
27:32They had looked into it on their own.
27:34I hadn't told them anything, and they had gone and found out anyway.
27:38My eyes burned.
27:39Someone had loved me this deeply the whole time.
27:42So how did I let something as hollow as that blind me for so long?
27:45The countryside settled into me slowly.
27:47The rhythm of it, early light, simple work, early dark, scraped the noise out of me.
27:52My body, which had refused to hold weight for months, finally started to fill back out.
27:57My parents had quietly funded a number of small schools in the area after they retired.
28:01There was one in the town we lived.
28:03When I had time, I would go and help the kids with their reading.
28:06That was where I met Elise.
28:08At first it was her profile that caught my eye, the way the light hit her cheekbone,
28:12an angle that reminded me of Vivian.
28:14But Elise was nothing like Vivian.
28:16She was shy, slow to speak, quick to turn red.
28:20When she got upset, her eyes just went glassy and still.
28:23There was no performance in her.
28:25Half a day was all it took to tell them completely apart.
28:28Elise had grown up right here, in this town.
28:30Everything about her moved at the same honest, unhurried pace as the people around her, warm,
28:35unguarded, exactly what it appeared to be.
28:38She was a local girl who had gone to university, come back with a degree, and chosen to stay
28:42and build something instead of leaving.
28:44Somewhere in the middle of our conversations, my guard came down without my noticing.
28:49I started to tell her things I had never said out loud to anyone.
28:52Elise cried on my behalf before I even finished.
28:54I'd be halfway through a sentence and she'd already be a mess, so I'd stop and go take
28:58care of her instead.
28:59Have you moved on yet?
29:01She asked once, sniffling.
29:03I touched my stomach.
29:04Empty.
29:05Quiet.
29:06A small life had almost existed there.
29:09Maybe it was better.
29:10The way things turned out.
29:11Better for that child, too.
29:14Long ago.
29:14I said.
29:15I was looking at the dry, yellowed leaves on the ground when I said it.
29:18And it was true.
29:20Those old wounds.
29:21All of it, Jasper, Vivian, it would become what old things always become.
29:25A faded photograph.
29:26Something you find in a drawer and no longer recognize yourself inside.
29:30I didn't regret any of it.
29:32Not long after, the community organized a matchmaking social in the town.
29:36My father had contributed more to this place than almost anyone, but he wanted no part of
29:41the event.
29:41So the man who ran the town came looking for me to fill his seat instead.
29:45I went.
29:46Mostly out of politeness.
29:48I was surprised to find how many young people had actually chosen to come back here and build
29:52something.
29:53I exchanged numbers with a few of them and was making my way to a quiet corner when a commotion
29:57broke out in the middle of the crowd.
30:00I pushed through to see what was happening.
30:03The man at the center of it, bleeding and wild-eyed, was Jasper.
30:10Nobody knows what got into him.
30:11He just came out of nowhere and started swinging.
30:14And of all people to go after, those are some of the best-looking guys at this whole event.
30:18What a waste.
30:20Someone's already called the police.
30:22I looked around.
30:25Every man on the ground was someone I had exchanged numbers with that afternoon.
30:29Jasper's eyes were red.
30:31He was swinging at anyone with any reach, completely lost.
30:34Vivian stood to the side, trying to grab his arm, completely at a loss.
30:38Someone in the crowd shouted.
30:46Vivian went completely still.
30:48Then her eyes found mine across the crowd.
30:51She grabbed Jasper by the ear and yanked him around.
30:59Jasper's breath caught.
31:01He looked up and walked onto my face like it was the only thing in the world.
31:04Then something behind his eyes came back online, slow, disoriented, like a man waking up somewhere
31:10he didn't recognize.
31:11He started walking toward me.
31:16Nina, don't be scared.
31:18I won't let anyone touch you.
31:23Elise abandoned whoever she'd been talking to and was at my side in seconds, arms around
31:27me, eyes cutting straight through Jasper and Vivian.
31:31Who are you people?
31:32Across the wall of bodies, Jasper and I looked at each other from a distance.
31:36I let my voice carry.
31:39Jasper, no one here has ever hurt me.
31:42The hardest thing I ever lived through, that's already behind me.
31:50So I didn't see it.
31:52Vivian's eyes fixed on the place where our arms met and stayed there.
31:55One tear dropped before she could stop it.
31:58She has, she has some in now.
31:59After that, the two of them kept drifting around the town.
32:03The locals had their faces memorized within a week and made sure every visit cost them
32:07something.
32:08They were reported to the police again and again.
32:10They kept showing up anyway.
32:12Never close.
32:13Always at a distance.
32:15Just watching.
32:16Elise, meeting the two people from my story in person for the first time, was so furious she
32:21could barely speak and immediately decided she was going to be within arm's reach of me
32:24at all hours.
32:25I didn't know whether to laugh or sigh.
32:27This is a civilized country.
32:29They can't exactly kidnap me.
32:31What are you so worried about?
32:33Elise plugged her ears and refused to hear it and stayed glued to my side regardless.
32:37But no one stays vigilant forever.
32:39One afternoon, the principal pulled Elise into a meeting and I stayed behind in the classroom
32:44to pack up the teaching materials.
32:45When I looked up, Jasper and Vivian were standing in the doorway together, not demanding, just looking
32:51at me like they were asking for something they had no right to ask for.
32:55Nina, can we talk?
33:01There's nothing to talk about.
33:04Just once.
33:05Say what you need to say and we'll leave.
33:08We won't bother you again.
33:12We'll have to.
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