Maud Matthews was the one Alfred loved.
And sure enough, over the eight years that followed, he proved that suspicion right more times than I could count.
"Maria?"
Alfred frowned and waved a hand in front of my face, pulling me out of my thoughts.
"What's wrong with you? You're white as a sheet."
He reached out and took my ice-cold hand.
"Did something happen?"
I forced the corners of my lips upward and slipped my hand free of his without making a scene.
"It's nothing. I think my period just started. I'm not feeling great."
Alfred relaxed. He pulled out his phone and tapped the screen a few times.
"I ordered some delivery for you. Pads, some hot cocoa, things like that. Hopefully it'll help."
With that, he left my apartment.
I watched his retreating figure. He never once looked back.
The bitterness crept in again, slow and familiar.
How easy it was to fool him.
If Alfred truly cared about me, he would have noticed that my period had already come and gone last week.
A lie that flimsy, and he believed it without question.
It only proved one thing: after three years together, he had never really known me. Never really cared to.
My hands were freezing. I gripped my phone and headed upstairs.
All I could think about was getting the apartment lease terminated before next week so I could wrap up everything here and go home to Harbor City.
But just as I stepped onto the stairs, my phone rang.
It was Sophie Chavez, an old college classmate I'd been close with. When I picked up, her voice was buzzing with excitement.
"Maria, have you heard the news?"
"Maud Matthews is back in the country!"
I already knew, of course.
But hearing that name spoken aloud still sent a jolt through me.
My silence must have given Sophie the wrong idea, because she launched into an eager explanation.
"Don't tell me you forgot who Maud Matthews is! Drop-dead gorgeous, killer figure, voted the most beautiful girl on campus? Ring any bells?"
I tugged at the corner of my mouth. A bitter smile escaped.
How could I ever forget?
Before I could get a word in, Sophie barreled on.
"Plus, she's Alfred's childhood sweetheart. Back at Cloudvale University, everyone who saw them together called them the golden couple."
"People swore up and down they were dating. The rumors were everywhere."
"But the two of them never said a word about it. Flat-out denied the whole thing." She paused for dramatic effect. "Maria, do you think it was actually true?"
Sophie was an old classmate, but we'd been living in different cities for years.
She had no way of knowing.
About my three-year secret relationship with Alfred.
I nodded, even though she couldn't see it. "Yeah, I know who she is. But whether they were together or not, I really couldn't say."
Maud Matthews.
I turned the name over in my mind, and the bitterness swelled again.
When I was nineteen, I saw it with my own eyes: how close Alfred and Maud were. How deep that childhood bond ran.
When Maud got her heart broken by another guy, Alfred was the first one there, offering his shoulder to cry on.
When Alfred got into trouble, Maud was the first to come running.
Their relationship was intimate. More than that, it was something hard to define. More than friends, not quite lovers. A bond that lived in that impossible space between.
Back when I used to trail after Alfred like a shadow, he always turned me down with perfect, gentlemanly politeness.
"Maria, you're a wonderful girl. But there's already someone I like."
He told me he was saving all his firsts for the girl he loved.
Then, the year we graduated from college, Alfred bought nine hundred and ninety-nine roses and started setting up a confession.
