Marrying His Best Friend

Silas was a walking red flag, a seasoned player. Everyone in their orbit knew his three ironclad rules for dating. No innocent girls. No clingy girls. And no Sloane.

When Brooks brought her up, Silas merely ground the cherry of his cigarette into the glass ashtray. "I watched her grow up. Our lives are too deeply entangled.

If we crossed that line and crashed, it would destroy everything. I can't risk losing her completely." "So if you're passing, you cool if I shoot my shot?" Brooks asked.

A low, arrogant chuckle rumbled in Silas's chest. "She's obsessed. It's me or nobody. She'd never say yes to you." But this time—he was dead wrong.

Chapter 1 Over the years, an unspoken rule cemented itself between us. Whenever he had a girlfriend, I ceased to exist in his world. Radio silence.

Everyone knew I was obsessed with him. We had to keep our distance. He couldn't risk upsetting whoever was warming his bed.

It took a long time before the realization finally hit me. A sharp ache hit my chest. My lungs constricted. I couldn't drag in a breath. Five years.

I had openly worn my heart on my sleeve for him for five entire years. I glanced at my screen. Our last text thread sat untouched for two months. [Me: I’m outside your place.

Brought some dessert I made. When will you be home?] An audio message stared back at me. Two seconds long.

His voice—deep, steady, stripped of any real emotion. "Almost there." He never showed. I stood on his porch as the sky broke open.

I gripped my phone, dialing his number, firing off text after frantic text. Nothing. Panic clawed at my throat. I pictured his car wrapped around a tree.

I nearly called Pierce to track him down. Then, my thumb dragged down my Instagram feed. Kendall. My old college roommate.

We'd had a screaming match freshman year and spent the rest of college acting like the other didn't exist. We hadn't spoken since graduation.

She had no idea I even knew the untouchable Silas.

Her caption hit me like a physical blow. [Finally holding his hand.] The photo showed their intertwined fingers against the blurred leather interior of his car. I knew that car.

I knew the exact throw pillow pressed against her hip—I put it there. And I knew that hand. The faint, tiny mole right on the knuckle of the index finger. Silas.

Kendall was stunning. Radiant. Exactly his type. It made perfect, nauseating sense that their paths crossed. But the question still ripped through me. Why?

He cycled through women like they were disposable. Why could he never look at me? Was I that unlovable? My barrage of unread messages sat rotting in his inbox.

That was the end of us. Months passed. Her feed became a shrine to him. How rich he was. How he spoiled her rotten. He drove her to work. He carried her bags.

In every candid shot she posted, his eyes held nothing but soft, yielding patience. He tracked her cycle. He texted her to take Advil and brought her heating pads.

She sent him emojis, and he actually sent them back. He was ruthless in business, yet for her, he dropped everything. A single text, and he was there.

Over time, the sharp pain dulled into a suffocating numbness. I watched from the sidelines, cataloging every gesture. He kept Kendall around longer than any of the others.

He actually cared. That numbness held—until tonight. I stood outside the heavy oak doors of the VIP suite. Snap. It felt like a fragile string in my mind had quietly snapped.

The delusion finally shattered. He really did just see me as a little sister. The air suddenly cleared. I didn't actually need him to survive.

My eyes traced the wood grain of the closed door one last time. I looked down at my phone. My thumb swiped left on his name in my messages. [Unpin.] Footsteps approached.

Chloe turned the corner, her heels clicking against the marble. "I've been looking everywhere for you," she said, grabbing my arm. "You vanished." I forced the corners of my mouth up. "Just had to take a call.

Let's go." Chloe didn't press. She linked her arm through mine, leaning in to whisper. "I just ran into Craig down the hall.

He said some massive VIP bought out the whole suite tonight to throw his girlfriend a birthday party. God, I'm so jealous." I kept my eyes locked straight ahead.

My voice came out flat, hollow. "Yeah. So jealous." Chapter 2 Looking back, he used to go all out for my birthdays, too. He’d buy out the most exclusive club in the city.

VIP invites scattered across the elite circle. He’d drop nearly seven figures in a single night without blinking. Could I say he didn't care? No.

But he only cared about his little sister. Seeing Kendall flaunt him all over my feed didn't even make me flinch anymore. My thumb just swiped right past.

Until I walked into a highend jewelry boutique and saw them in the flesh. Silas was picking out a diamond ring for her.

He leaned against the glass display, his arm slung lazily around Kendall’s waist. "Here," he murmured. "Let me put it on you." Kendall beamed. "Okay." Watching them, a bitter memory clawed its way up my throat.

Plenty of girls had tried to drag Silas to the diamond counter before. His jaw would instantly lock, his eyes turning to ice. "Some things are way out of your league.

We're done." But now, the ultimate player was actually hanging up his jersey. For Kendall. My stomach twisted.

I turned on my heel to leave, but Kendall’s voice drifted over. "By the way, I heard a rumor.

People say Sloane is completely obsessed with you?" Silas frowned, his posture stiffening. "Who the hell is gossiping to you? Don't overthink it.

I don't look at her like that." Kendall let out a soft laugh. She pulled out her phone and swiped the screen. "I’m not interrogating you, babe.

I just wanted to know… is this the Sloane you know?" Silas glanced at the phone. His brows shot up in surprise. "How do you have a picture of her?" "Oh, we were college roommates.

Small world, right? We should take her out to dinner sometime.

It’s not her fault she fell for you." If I didn't know exactly how toxic Kendall was, I might have actually believed she was playing the bigger person. But I knew her game.

That dinner wasn't an olive branch. It was a trap to publicly humiliate me. Silas clicked his tongue. "Fine. Whatever you want." Two minutes later, my phone vibrated in my pocket.

A text from Silas. [?] A single question mark. His first message to me in two agonizing months.

In the past, I would have desperately scrambled to find a witty reply, terrified of losing his attention. But now. I stared at the glowing chat bubble on my screen.

My thumbs moved on autopilot, typing out two rapid lines of text. Then, my thumb drifted to the backspace key. I deleted it. Word by word. Letter by letter. "Forget it.

There's nothing left to say." Later that night, the guy who had previously joked to Silas about asking me out actually made his move. Brooks. We weren't exactly close.

We had exchanged maybe a handful of words in passing. But somehow, he got my number. He called me out of the blue, asking to take me to a movie premiere. "Come on, Sloane.

Humor me?" His voice was smooth over the line. "If I remember correctly, you're a massive fan of the lead actor." He wasn't wrong.

Back in high school, my bedroom walls were plastered with that actor's posters.

Silas had barged into my room one afternoon, taken one look at my shrine, and immediately snitched to my mom, Jacqueline. He told her I was distracted from my SAT prep.

I remembered the sheer, insufferable arrogance on his face as he stared at the posters. "Is he really better looking than me?" He had scoffed. "Sloane, your taste is garbage." Looking back at the five years I spent waiting for Silas… my taste really was garbage.

I held my phone for a long moment, letting out a slow, steady breath. "Sure," I told Brooks. "Text me the time and place." Chapter 3 To be honest, I never saw Brooks making a move on me.

Growing up, he was the golden boy. Straight A's, zero scandals, and completely off the dating market. The undisputed king of the Ivy League track.

When we got to the theater, Brooks headed to the concessions stand, leaving me to find our seats in the dark auditorium. And of course.

Sitting in the row directly next to ours were Silas and Kendall. The second she spotted me, Kendall looked at Silas in surprise. "What is Sloane doing here? Did you invite her?

You didn't even tell me! Sloane and I haven't seen each other in forever.

You should've given me a headsup so I could've gotten her a welcome gift." She played the gracious girlfriend perfectly. Not a single hair out of place.

But Silas's jaw instantly locked.

His eyes darted to me, cold and warning. "Sloane, I have a girlfriend." I gave a stiff nod. "I know." [More than you think.] I’d spent the last few months watching their entire honeymoon phase unfold on her Instagram stories. "Then why the hell are you here?" He pulled out his phone, his thumb swiping aggressively through his contacts. "Leave.

Now. I'm having Pierce pick you up. Wait outside.

He's across town, so it'll be at least thirty minutes." I stared at him, my brain shortcircuiting. "So you want me to wait out in the lobby for half an hour?" "What else do you expect?" His voice lowered into a sharp hiss. "Everyone knows you're obsessed with me.

If you keep stalking us like this, my girlfriend is going to get the wrong idea." He had never spoken to me like that. Not once.

My feelings for him were the worstkept secret in our zip code. Our families were old money, deeply intertwined. We grew up side by side in New York.

When we were kids, he was my fiercest protector. Whenever I got into trouble, I didn't call Jacqueline or Lawrence. I called Silas. Because he always fixed it. Unconditionally.

That illusion shattered the year I turned eighteen. I walked in on him shoving his tongue down the throat of Kelsey, the literal prom queen, in the back of a limo.

I spent that entire night choking on my own sobs. That was the night I realized the truth. I was utterly in love with him. From then on, I twisted my entire life to fit into his.

I dropped my Humanities track to suffer through STEM just to take the same classes. When college applications rolled around, I threw away my acceptance to Yale.

I stayed in New York. Just to breathe the same polluted city air as him. I ghosted anyone who showed the slightest interest in me.

For years, I stood in the background, watching him cycle through an endless parade of women while I never dated anyone.

His inner circle always ran their mouths. ["Out of all the girls orbiting Silas, Sloane is the most pathetic. She has zero shame.

Wonder how long until she finally wears him down."] Silas would just swirl the amber liquid in his crystal glass, a smirk playing on his lips. ["Honestly?

I'd rather she just got over it."] So, naturally, he assumed my presence at the theater was just another desperate attempt to stalk him. I said, "I'm not leaving.

I genuinely want to see this movie." Kendall let out a breathy laugh. She leaned into Silas's space, her lips brushing his ear. "Let it go, babe. Don't force her out.

She just wants to breathe the same air as you, that's why she made up this pathetic excuse. Don't be too hard on her. I don't mind." But her words only fueled his anger.

Silas's temper flared. A cruel, mocking sneer twisted his mouth. "Be a good girl, Sloane." His tone was lethal. "Don't make me repeat myself.

I'd hate to humiliate you in public." I stared at him. A cold shiver ran down my spine. My stomach dropped into a bottomless pit.

I parted my lips to fight back, but a deep, resonant voice cut through the heavy tension from behind me. "What a coincidence." Brooks stepped into the row, two large sodas in his hands. "You guys are here too." Chapter 4 Brooks dropped into the plush velvet seat beside me.

Silas went completely rigid. The smug arrogance melted off his face. "You two came together?" Brooks didn't miss a beat.

He popped the plastic lid off his drink. "Yeah." He tilted his head, his gaze locking onto Silas. "But when I was walking up, I swear I heard you trying to kick her out.

What's the deal, Silas? Since when do you own the AMC? It's a public theater." Silas’s jaw ticked. He stared at Brooks, tightlipped.

Kendall immediately shifted into damagecontrol mode, her voice dripping with fake sweetness. "Silas was just messing around. You don't mind, right, Sloane?

It's really not a big deal." I forced a slow breath through my teeth. "Right.

I don't mind." After knowing him my entire life, even if the obsession was dead, causing a scene wasn't worth the energy. Brooks shot me a look.

A question hovered in his eyes, but he kept his mouth shut. Instead, he reached over and silently adjusted the recline on my seat. It should have ended there.

But Silas was a dog with a bone. He had been dead silent, but the second the opening credits rolled, he whipped his head around.

His dark eyes burned into the side of my face. "Sloane." His voice was a low, demanding rasp. "Don't you think you owe me an explanation?" My brows pulled together. "Huh?" He already knew I wasn't stalking him.

What else did he want? A harsh, disbelieving scoff tore from his throat. "You leave my text on read, but you're out at the movies with him?" The theater was pitch black.

I turned my head, meeting his furious stare. The old me would have panicked. I would have tripped over my own words, desperate to fix whatever I broke. Now?

I just offered him a small, empty smile. "Oh. My bad. I didn't see it." The temperature around Silas plummeted.

He opened his mouth to snap back, but Kendall tugged firmly on his sleeve. "Babe, let's just switch seats," she whispered loudly. "I know you hate having to look at her." Silas went dead still.

His eyes flicked to me, searching for a reaction. When he found nothing, a muscle feathered in his jaw.

For a fraction of a second, his arrogant mask slipped, revealing something raw and dangerously conflicted before he forced it back down. I gave him nothing.

Instead, I simply leaned closer to Brooks, keeping my voice barely above a whisper. "I missed that part. What did the guy just hand her?" Brooks leaned in and murmured the answer.

A sharp, ugly laugh cut through the dark from Silas's side. A second later, Kendall was the one sliding into the seat directly next to me.

Dead silence stretched between us for the next two hours. The second the credits rolled, I reached for my purse. But Silas was already on his feet.

He shoved past our row, his face carved from stone, and stormed up the aisle without a backward glance. Kendall scrambled out of her seat, jogging to catch up with him. "Silas!

Wait up!" I sat frozen for a split second. A ridiculous, fleeting thought crossed my mind. [Was he pissed off? Because of me?] I crushed the thought instantly. Impossible.

He didn't even like me. Silas always had a notoriously short fuse; he probably just remembered some VIP club opening he had to get to.

An hour later, Brooks and I were sitting across from each other in a dimly lit Italian place.

I traced the rim of my water glass. "Thanks for tonight." He raised an eyebrow over his menu. "For what?" "For bailing me out back there." Brooks chuckled, setting the menu down. "Sloane, I've actually been dying to ask you something." He leaned forward, his gaze piercing right through me. "Why exactly are you so hung up on Silas?" Chapter 5 People asked me that constantly.

I’d always brush it off with a casual shrug. [I just do. There's no reason.] But now?

Maybe because I had finally let go of those feelings, I actually told this nearstranger the truth. "When I was ten, I fell into a lake. I almost drowned. Silas pulled me out.

So cliché, right? But ever since that day, I was his shadow. I was too young to know it was a crush. I just wanted to be around him." Brooks froze.

A strange, unreadable shadow crossed his face.

He stared at me, a complex mix of frustration and something almost like regret settling in his eyes. "That's the only reason?" he murmured.

I gave a small nod. "Yeah." Not long after Brooks dropped me off, my phone buzzed. A text from Kendall. [Sloane, I'm so sorry for stealing your man.] She attached a photo.

Crisp white hotel sheets. In the top right corner, a bare, muscular forearm rested against the pillows. I recognized it instantly. Silas.

I stared at the glowing screen for a long, suffocating beat. My thumbs hovered over the keyboard. "I don't even like him anymore. Also, you could've taken a wider shot.

Just a forearm is kind of boring." I hit send. Before the typing bubble could even appear on her end, I permanently blocked her number. My hatred for Kendall hadn't been random.

I had always kept a low profile in college. No one knew I came from money. One morning, my family's driver dropped me off at the dorms.

He helped me carry a heavy box out of the trunk, standing a little too close. Someone snapped a picture. Kendall. She came from a wealthy family, stunning, and completely entitled.

She looked down on anyone she thought was broke, including me.

She posted the picture on the university's anonymous gossip page, writing a thousandword essay exposing me as a sugar baby desperate for a payout. We had a massive screaming match.

I posted a clarification saying he was a friend's dad, and she gave a halfassed public apology. But the damage was already done. She was rich, popular, and charismatic.

Within weeks, she successfully gaslit the entire campus into alienating me. I spent four years of college as a total outcast.

I thought I’d never have to see her toxic face again after graduation. Now, here she was, throwing her shadow over my life all over again. Two days later, Jacqueline called.

She demanded I come home immediately for a family dinner. I pushed open the front door and kicked off my heels.

Jacqueline's voice drifted from the living room. "Sloane, look who's here." I walked in. Silas. He was sitting across from Lawrence, intensely focused on a chessboard.

At the sound of my footsteps, his dark eyes flicked up.

He flashed me a warm, easy smile, as if the previous unpleasantness never happened. "You're back." With my parents watching, I forced the corners of my mouth up. "Hey, Silas." His family was a massive, oldmoney dynasty in the city.

When we got close as kids, he told me I was practically family. For years, I was the only outsider he treated like actual blood. I used to think it meant I was special.

I clung to that scrap of affection. But the truth was staring me right in the face the entire time. He really did just see me as a little sister.

Chapter 6 Silas humoring Lawrence with a grueling game of chess—in our old dynamic, this was him waving a white flag. His family basically owned half of Manhattan.

My family’s wealth had been quietly hemorrhaging for years. Him merely stepping foot in our foyer was a massive concession. [Fine.] Sister. Friend. Whatever.

We weren't going to just sever ties. He had always taken care of me before. The chess match finally ended. Silas stood, closing the distance between us.

His voice cut through the room, deliberately pitched for my parents to hear. "Sloane. My girlfriend mentioned you blocked her number." The realization slammed into me.

He wasn't here to make peace. He was here to interrogate me.

My chest constricted. "Yeah," I forced the word past the sandpaper in my throat. "I blocked her." Jacqueline swept into the room, shooting me a sharp, disapproving glare. "Silas just told us he’s getting engaged." She crossed her arms. "How can you be so immature?

Unblock her right now and apologize.

She's about to marry into the family, and you need to show some respect." My head snapped up. "You're getting engaged?" Silas ignored the question.

He turned to my parents, smoothly requesting a moment in private. I followed him out to the terrace. The biting wind whipped across my face, numbing my thoughts. I stared at him.

Numb. Silas scrutinized my face.

A hint of secret satisfaction flashed across his face. "Yeah." He leaned against the railing. "But I heard you've been getting awfully cozy with Brooks lately?" I didn't have the bandwidth to dissect his tone.

The words just kept echoing in my skull. [He's getting married.] Human emotions were a sick, twisted joke. I had already killed the obsession. I had walked away.

Yet the word [engaged] still gouged a hollow, aching pit directly under my ribs. And the absolute worst part? It was Kendall. Half the city threw themselves at Silas.

I always knew I’d lose him. I just never thought I’d lose him to her. Years ago, I had actually confessed the entire college incident to him.

He had been downright lethal. ["Are you an idiot, Sloane? You let her drag your name and didn't call me? Where is she? I'll ruin her."] I had begged him to drop it.

Now, he was putting a ring on her finger. He was standing in my own house, interrogating me to protect the exact girl who destroyed my college years.

He knew exactly how toxic this house was. Sandwiched between Valerie, the golden child, and Oscar, the prized son, I was completely invisible.

One wrong move, and Jacqueline would rip me to shreds. I used to believe he would always be in my corner. "Yeah." I kept my voice deadpan.

I had grabbed dinner with Brooks a few times. A cold, mocking sneer twisted his mouth. "Brooks doesn't date.

He's my boy." He stepped closer, towering over me. "You don't even like him, so stop stringing him along.

When this inevitably blows up, I'm the one who’s going to have to clean up your mess." My jaw clenched. "How do you know I don't—" A sharp ringtone severed the tension.

His phone lit up. My eyes dropped to the glowing screen. [Kendall.] Chapter 7 Silas brushed past me without a second of hesitation.

He stepped into the shadowed corner of the terrace, pressing the phone to his ear. I stood rooted to the cold tiles. My lungs fought for air.

I forced myself back into the living room. "I need to head out." Lawrence snapped his newspaper shut. "Stop acting like a spoiled child! Silas is right here.

Are you throwing a tantrum just because he doesn't want you? You are a daughter of this family. Where is your class?

Deleting his girlfriend's number—how pathetic." My throat slammed shut. A sharp, physical ache splintered my ribs. Jacqueline stepped up. "Sit down, eat dinner, and apologize.

We can sweep this under the rug." I grabbed my purse and pulled my trench coat off the hook. I shoved my arms into the sleeves. "Do me a favor.

Tell him I didn't block his girlfriend because of him." I pulled the front door open. "And unless it's an absolute emergency, don't expect me back." I walked out into the freezing night.

I didn't look back. I pulled up Silas's contact profile. [Block Caller.] I scrubbed him from every social media platform. My phone buzzed.

Chase. "You really crossed the line this time, Sloane," Chase barked through the speaker. "Why the hell did you block Silas? He's about to get engaged. He's celebrating.

Did you really have to ruin his night right now?" I gripped the steering wheel. "Silas is sitting right next to you, isn't he?

Put me on speaker." Heavy silence stretched over the line. "You're on speaker," Chase muttered. "Happy engagement, Silas." I kept my voice deadpan.

Not a single waver. "Blocking you wasn't a tantrum. It's a permanent decision. Do not contact me again." Crash.

The sharp, violent sound of glass shattering against a wall blasted through the speaker. I paused for a fraction of a second. "I'm hanging up." I ended the call