?Chapter 2023:


    Megan didn’t answer right away. Instead, she offered a cold, crooked smirk—wordless, but sharp enough to slice through the room.


    Her eyes still burned with jealousy and bitterness, but the rage from before had dulled into something more calcted.


    “I’m not here to fight with you,” she said atst, her voice slow and deliberate. “Eric’s out of the emergency room…”


    Hadley’s breath hitched. Her heart leapt at the words. He made it. He was okay. “He’s stable, for now.” Megan rified, catching the hope in Hadley’s expression. Then, her tone shifted, sharpened. “But for how long? You do realize how serious his condition is, don’t you?”


    Hadley said nothing. She had heard about it from Colleen herself.


    But what puzzled her was Megan’s reason foring. Why was she saying this? Why now?


    “Eric…” Megan’s gaze locked onto Hadley, steady and unflinching. “He was being ckmailed by me.”


    The wordsnded like a p. Hadley stared, stunned. “What do you mean… ckmailed?”


    “It’s exactly what it sounds like!” Megan snapped, her jaw tight with frustration. In truth, it had taken every ounce of courage Megan had just toe here and face Hadley.


    “I was never with him,” she confessed, her voice cracking at the edges. “I’m not his girlfriend—I never was. Everything I said… it was a lie. Just my own foolish fantasy.”


    She looked away, her shoulders tense with shame. “He turned me down from the beginning… but I found out about his illness. And a bitter, self-loathingugh slipped from her lips. “I used it. I told him that if he tried to push me away, I’d tell his siblings the truth.”


    At those words, rity finally struck Hadley.


    “Yes, I did it.” Megan lifted her chin, her voice firm despite the trembling beneath it. “And I don’t regret what I did. And I won’t say I was wrong. There’s nothing wrong with loving someone and fighting to stay by their side. I gave it everything I had—I loved him.”


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    Hadley didn’t respond.


    She couldn’t pass judgment—not when she and Eric had already ended things before all of this began.


    But as Megan spoke, herposure unraveled. Her eyes glistened, her lips quivered, and the raw emotion in her voice deepened.


    Then the truth hit like andslide.


    “He’s really sick, Hadley,” she whispered. “The doctor says he needs surgery—soon. If he copses again, there might not be a next time.” Her voice brokepletely. “But… but he won’t do it. No matter what we say—he won’t agree to it!”


    The weight of Megan’s words echoed like thunder.


    Hadley’s thoughts spun. She hadn’t expected things to be this dire.


    Surgery? That had always been ast resort—something the doctors said they’d only consider if all else failed.


    Her brows drew together in confusion. “Why won’t he agree to the surgery?”


    “I don’t know!” Megan replied, her voice strained with frustration. She shook her head, helpless. “I asked him, more than once actually, but he shut downpletely ignored me. He must have his reasons, but Hadley…”


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