"May, you're smiling so wide already. Go on, put the bracelet on."
May pouted at once.
"I don't want to—"
"Cornelia, don't come crying about it later!"
Godfrey snatched the bracelet from May's hand and fastened it on her wrist himself.
Then he turned his head and looked at me, almost taunting.
"Nobody owes you a thing!"
With that, he took May by the hand and walked out without looking back.
That night, May sent me a message.
"Haven't you noticed how much happier Godfrey is when he's with me? He and I never run out of things to say."
"If I'd met him first, I'd be the one with him now."
"Nelly, you might never walk again. You shouldn't drag Godfrey down with you."
"So hand him over to me, okay?"
Then came a long video.
The background was a hotel room.
Godfrey and May sat on the bed drinking, a dozen empty bottles scattered on the floor.
Halfway through the drinking, May suddenly leaned in, cupped Godfrey's face, and pressed her lips to his.
His body went rigid for a moment.
Then he lifted a hand to the back of her head and deepened the kiss.
They kissed like they couldn't bear to part, and fell onto the bed together, wrapped around each other.
The video cut off abruptly.
The black phone screen reflected my ashen face.
The next day, Godfrey came to apologize with flowers and a newly bought bracelet.
"Nelly, can we stop fighting?"
"I already took the bracelet back to the shop and had it swapped. The name's right this time."
I laughed coldly and pulled up the video May had sent the night before.
"So this is your guilty little apology after cheating on me?"
The smile froze on Godfrey's face, and something I'd never seen before flickered in his eyes—panic.
"Nelly, let me explain."
"May and I were both drunk last night. It was impulsive. I'm sorry."
"We only kissed. Nothing else happened."
I had just opened my mouth when the door of the ward suddenly swung open and May stepped in.
She was trembling, weeping like a broken flower, and shot me one timid glance before turning to Godfrey, seeming to want to speak and then holding back.
"I…"
Godfrey quickly grabbed the tissues off the table and handed them to her.
"What happened?"
May bit her lip, her eyes full of a hurt and fear that wouldn't lift.
"Someone posted on the campus forum calling me a homewrecker, saying I got between you two. The post has that video from the hospital yesterday. Now everyone at school is shutting me out."
"Godfrey, do I have to drop out? Mom and Dad won't pay for me to retake the year. What am I supposed to do with my life…"
Godfrey took the phone May held out to him.
As he read the post and watched the video, something ice-cold surged in those dark eyes.
"Cornelia, you've gone too far!"
"What?"
He turned the screen toward me.
Let me see exactly what was in the post and the video.
The video came from the camera on my wheelchair.
Back then, worried that something might happen to me when I was alone, Godfrey had installed the camera on my wheelchair himself.
The footage uploaded automatically to the cloud on both our phones.
But the thing he'd done to protect me had become the blade driven into me now.
He was certain I had made that post.
I shook my head.
"Godfrey, I didn't post that."
He didn't believe me. His eyes on me were full of anger and disappointment.
"Cornelia, I never imagined you could be this vicious."
"May waited on you hand and foot, humbled herself like a servant to take care of you. Fine if you're not grateful, but to smear her on the campus forum like this?"
