Replacing My Cheating Ex

At 2 AM, a text lit up Declan's phone.

[ If you didn't have a girlfriend, would you go for me? ]

He replied with a single word.

[ Yes. ]

I shoved the glowing screen right in front of him.

He crushed his cigarette hard into the ashtray, his jaw tight. I already told you Sienna is just a coworker. I promised nothing is going to happen between us. Isn't that enough?

He stared right at me, his voice flat and dead.

At that exact second, the air left my lungs.

I looked at the man sitting across from me and realized I was staring at a stranger.

Chapter 1

Half asleep, I heard the front door click open. Heavy footsteps slowly made their way toward the bed.

The familiar scent of Declan washed over me. I sat up and reached out, wrapping my arms around his neck.

My lips were inches from his when he suddenly jerked his head to the side.

My kiss landed on empty air.

We both froze. That knee-jerk reaction snapped me wide awake.

Declan tugged at his tie, avoided my eyes, and strode straight into the bathroom.

A minute later, the sound of the shower running echoed through the door.

Declan had been working crazy overtime lately, coming home late almost every night.

I figured he probably hadn't even eaten dinner yet. The tightness in my chest loosened a bit.

I fumbled around for my phone to order him some takeout, then remembered I left it charging in the living room.

I glanced over and saw Declan's phone tossed casually on his pillow.

I grabbed it without a second thought, pulled up the delivery app, and ordered truffle mac and cheese from that diner he liked.

I finished the order and went to lock the screen. A notification popped up from DoorDasha custom delivery order was just marked as complete.

I tapped the receipt. It was a bottle of ibuprofen and an electric heating pad.

Right then, a text message dropped down from the top of the screen.

[ The painkillers really helped. Thanks! ]

My breathing stopped.

My finger hovered over the screen for what felt like hours before I finally tapped the notification.

The previous messages were from half an hour ago.

[ Declan: You looked pretty pale when you headed home. ]

She replied with a pathetic, crying-face sticker.

[ Declan: I finished the proposal. ]

[ Good! Then I can sleep in and head to the office a little late tomorrow. ]

[ Declan: Yeah. ]

A few minutes later, Declan sent another text.

[ Are you doing okay? ]

She didn't reply.

Five minutes passed. Then, another text from Declan.

[ I bought you a little something. Make sure you stay warm. ]

Declan hadn't saved her contact name. But looking at the profile picture and the chat, it was glaringly obvious.

It was Sienna.

The first time I heard the name Sienna was a month ago.

Declan had taken me out to the movies. Halfway through the film, I noticed his eyes wandering away from the screen.

I glanced over. He was staring down at his phone. The corners of his lips were curled up, the tension drained from his face.

I watched him in the dark. It took me a long time to finally ask, "What are you looking at?"

Declan didn't look up. His voice still held that faint smile. "Sienna."

The air between us went dead.

That was the exact moment I heard the name Sienna fall from his lips.

He said it slowly, letting the syllables roll off his tongue like a sweet taste.

He suddenly realized what he said and snapped his head up to look at me.

He held my gaze for two seconds. Then, he handed me his phone, his expression turning dead serious.

"Sienna is a new coworker. She works really hard. I just see her as a junior I can mentor."

I stared hard at the glowing screen.

The girl in the video was celebrating her birthday. Someone had smashed frosting all over her face. She didn't care at all. She was just laughing, a bright, massive grin on her face.

It was obvious she was a fun, laid-back girl.

"A coworker sent the video to our group chat. I just clicked on it to see what it was," he said.

Declan grabbed my hand and squeezed it tight. The heat of his palm was distinct against my skin. His voice was steady and gentle, just like always. "Harper, trust me."

I studied his face for a long time. His eyes were clear. He didn't look like a guy caught in a lie.

But for some reason, the image of that soft smile on his lips just kept playing on a loop in my head.

Chapter 2

We didn't say another word until the movie ended.

I never expected that all the signs were there so early.

Ten minutes later, the bathroom door opened. Declan walked out in his pajamas, water dripping from his wet hair.

When his eyes met mine, he froze. "Are you going through my phone?"

I opened my mouth to speak, but an itch in my throat made me cough into my hand.

Declan stared at me for a moment. "Do you have a cold?"

I gave a soft hum.

It was already fall. My immune system had been weak since I was a kid. The slightest draft could give me a severe fever.

In the five years Declan and I had been together, he used to treat the change in seasons like a bomb threat. He would check the weather app constantly, remind me to take a jacket, or drag me to the gym to build up my immune system.

Whenever I laughed at his paranoia, he would wrap his arms around my waist from behind, bury his face in my neck, and mumble, "I don't want you getting sick. Not even a sniffle."

But for the past few days, we had been locked in this bizarre cold war. He hadn't noticed my symptoms at all.

"Work's been crazy lately. I didn't notice." Declan's voice pulled me back to reality.

He sat down on the edge of the bed and pulled the blanket up to my shoulders. His Adam's apple bobbed. "It won't happen again."

My fingers tightened around his phone. "Is it really just work?"

"There is nothing going on between Sienna and me." He pulled a cigarette from the nightstand and lit it, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

I didn't say a word. I just shoved the glowing screen right in front of him.

It was a text from three days ago. Sienna must have been drunk in the middle of the night.

[ If you didn't have a girlfriend, would you go for me? ]

Declan replied with a single word.

[ Yes. ]

Seeing the screen, Declan froze.

He crushed his cigarette hard into the ashtray, his jaw tight. "I already told you Sienna is just a coworker. I promised nothing is going to happen between us. Isn't that enough?"

He stared right at me, his voice as cold and hard as a stone.

At that exact second, the air left my lungs.

I looked at the man sitting across from me and realized I was staring at a stranger.

Right on cue, his phone lit up in my hand, cutting through the suffocating silence.

Another notification popped up. It was Sienna, asking if he had eaten.

Then, another message followed.

[ I bet you haven't eaten. I ordered you some truffle mac and cheese from that place I took you to last time! ]

I stared at the text. My throat closed up. My chest heaved, struggling to pull in a single breath of air.

Declan never used to like mac and cheese.

He grew up poor. His dad died early, and his mom worked out of state, leaving him home alone all the time with barely enough money for food.

He was a quiet, withdrawn kid back then. None of the neighborhood kids wanted to hang out with him. I was the only one who ever went over.

One time, I went over to drop something off. The second I walked in, I saw him sitting on a beat-up sofa, his head lowered as he silently ate a cheap bowl of instant mac and cheese. There wasn't even a single piece of meat in it.

When he noticed me watching him, his grip on his fork tightened.

But he quickly relaxed his shoulders, acting like nothing was wrong, and kept eating.

I stared at his sharp jawline, a lump forming in my throat.

Maybe I just saw a bit of myself in him.

Chapter 3

My mom only ever wanted a son. But the delivery wrecked her body, and the doctors told her another pregnancy was off the table. Because of that, she spent her whole life hating me.

Declan and I survived those dark, suffocating years together. We were each other's lifeline.

Right up until middle school graduation. His mom's startup took off, she ended up in some financial magazine, and she whisked him away.

I didn't see him for years. Not until we ran into each other in college.

After we got together, I noticed Declan never ate mac and cheese. I figured out why pretty fast. He didn't want to be reminded of how dirt-poor he used to be.

But lately, I kept catching him bringing home takeout boxes of truffle mac and cheese from the diner down the street.

I joked about it at first, asking why he was suddenly obsessed with truffle mac and cheese.

He just brushed it off. "No reason. Just craving it."

I was actually happy for him back then. I thought he had finally moved on from his past.

Turns out, it was just because of her.

I told Declan we were done.

I was pulling the zipper of my suitcase shut when his hand shot out and clamped around my wrist. "Harper, are you seriously leaving?"

I was forced to look up at him.

I used to love the way he looked at me. Soft. Focused. Like I was the only person in the room.

Sophomore year of college, my roommate and I planned a trip to Aspen to go skiing, but she bailed at the last minute.

The flights were already booked and the itinerary was set, so I just went by myself.

On my second day in Aspen, I hiked up the snowy trails.

Right as the first faint rays of sunrise broke through the mountain mist, I saw a familiar face.

It was Declan.

"Weren't you still in New York for that investment bank interview?" I asked, my heart skipping a beat.

Declan rubbed his hands together, pulled the scarf off his neck, and wrapped it tight around mine. His face and the tips of his ears were bright red from the freezing cold, and his voice shook slightly.

"I saw on your story that you came out here to catch the sunrise alone. I was worried, so I caught an early flight back."

He took a breath. "I wanted to watch it with you."

He didn't take his eyes off me. The pale golden sunlight reflected in his eyes, but I felt the burning heat directly in my chest.

Things shifted between us after we got back from Aspen. We started dating not long after that.

But now, everything was different. I was still the same. He was still the only one I saw. But now, when he looked at me, all I saw was a tight jaw and pinched brows.

He probably didn't even realize he was doing it.

I yanked my wrist out of his grip, refusing to meet his eyes.

"I'll finish packing and move out first thing in the morning." I turned away. "I'm sleeping in the guest room tonight."

It was past midnight by the time I shoved the last of my things into a box. I collapsed onto the bed, my bones heavy.

I unlocked my phone. A new friend request was waiting for me.

[ I'm Sienna. ]

I accepted it. Sienna didn't send a message. Pushed by some dark impulse, I clicked on her profile and opened her feed.

Her latest post was uploaded just minutes ago. There were two photos attached.

The first one was a selfie. Behind her, a steaming bowl of bone broth mac and cheese sat on a table.

The second picture was another bowl of the exact same dish, but the background was terrifyingly familiar. The dining table had a distinct checkered pattern. Next to the bowl sat a vase of fresh, blood-red roses.

The vase holding those roses was the exact one Declan and I had picked out together at the grocery store.

Sienna's caption read:

[ Lol, having a virtual mac and cheese date with Declan! (This post is only visible to Declan!) ]

Chapter 4

Declan had liked the post.

Sleep didn't come easy that night. My dreams were a messy blur. One second I was a kid again, holding a cotton swab soaked in antiseptic, carefully dabbing a dark bruise on Declan's jaw. He hadn't even flinched, but I was already crying for him.

Then the scene shifted to the mountain in Aspen. The wind was howling, and his cool hands gently wrapped around mine, pulling them deep into his coat pocket.

But in the end, it warped into Declan wrapping his arm around Sienna. They walked right past me, their faces blank, not sparing me a single glance.

The nightmare felt so real that the next morning, when I dragged my suitcase down the stairs and saw Sienna sitting in my living room, my feet glued to the floor.

I had only ever seen her in that video on Declan's phone. Technically, this was our first time meeting face-to-face.

Honestly, she was gorgeous. Pale skin, a long, elegant neck.

She was sitting on the sofa, her face tilted up. There was a small cut on her forehead, a tiny smear of blood on her skin.

Declan was tending to it. He leaned over her, one hand gently gripping her chin to keep her steady, the other carefully pressing a cotton pad to the cut. His movements were incredibly careful.

Sienna let out a sharp hiss of pain. Declan's hand immediately slowed down.

Sunlight sliced through the blinds, hitting his face perfectly. It highlighted the tight pinch of his brows and the dark focus in his eyes. And standing at the bottom of the stairs, I had a front-row seat to all of it.

My grip on the handle of my suitcase slipped.

It hit the floor with a loud thud.

Declan snapped his head up at the sound. He frowned at me, but didn't say a word.

Sienna broke the silence. She introduced herself with a bright, easy smile, explaining that Declan had to meet a client today and she was just dropping off some files.

"The elevator in your building is broken. I tripped on the stairs coming up," she said. "I'm so sorry for intruding."

I didn't answer. I just grabbed my suitcase and walked straight toward the front door.

My hand grabbed the doorknob, but Declan's fingers clamped down on my wrist.

He stared down at me, a muscle feathering in his tight jaw. "Are you done throwing this tantrum?"

His grip was like a vice, the pressure biting into my skin. I yanked my arm, fighting to break free, but his fingers just dug in harder.

In the struggle, his sleeve rode up, revealing a sleek gray watch on his wrist.

I stopped dead.

Last month, for his birthday, I bought him a silver watch. But before I could give it to him, I noticed he was already wearing that gray one. I didn't recognize the brand, but the heavy, flawless design screamed old money.

Declan had just brushed it off, saying a friend gave it to him.

His family was in a completely different tax bracket than mine now, though he always tried to make sure I never felt it. That was the first time the massive wealth gap between us actually made my chest tight, a sour taste coating my tongue.

I hadn't said anything, but Declan noticed my shoulders drop.

He had let out a low sigh, wrapped his arms around me from behind, and pressed his warm lips to my ear. His voice was deep and soft. "It doesn't matter what watch I wear. It only matters that it's from you."

Since that day, he locked the expensive gray watch away and wore the silver one I gave him every single day.

I never expected that on day one of our breakup, the gray watch would be right back on his wrist.

A bitter laugh almost bubbled up in my throat. I looked at him, my voice flat. "Move."

Declan followed my gaze. He suddenly realized what I was looking at and yanked his hand back like he'd been burned. His voice cracked slightly. "The client I'm meeting today is really important to the firm"

Chapter 5

Before he could finish, Sienna's voice cut through the air, reminding him it was time to leave for the client meeting.

I shot her a look. A sudden realization hit me. I turned back to Declan. "Did she buy you that watch?"

Declan went dead silent. Seconds ticked by before he finally spoke. "Harper, it's just a watch."

I was done talking. I pulled out my phone, but before I could even hit dial, Nolan pushed the front door open.

Nolan is my younger brother. My mom had always been obsessed with having a son. She spent years draining her bank account on fertility clinics and sketchy holistic treatments. Finally, when I was five, she got pregnant again.

She spent the next two decades pouring all her love into him while treating me like a ghost. Surprisingly, Nolan and I still ended up close.

"Just one suitcase?" Nolan scratched the back of his neck, his brows pulling together.

"Yeah."

"Oh, man" Nolan shifted his weight, his face twisting. "I thought you were gonna have a ton of boxes. I figured I couldn't carry it all, so I dragged Gideon out here to help."

I froze. "Gideon?"

"Yeah, Gideon just flew back from a business trip in Chicago, and I dragged him" Nolan's phone started buzzing in his pocket.

A deep, gravelly voice came through the speaker. "Are we good to go?"

"Yeah, we're good. You don't need to come up, we're heading down right now." Nolan grabbed my suitcase. "Let's go."

I grabbed my purse and followed him out the door. Declan shouted my name from the living room, but I didn't break my stride. I didn't even look back.

Gideon's sleek black SUV was parked on the curb. He was sitting in the driver's seat. His long fingers tapped a slow rhythm against the leather steering wheel.

I stared at his sharp jawline.

Gideon and I went to high school together. He was the undisputed valedictorian of our graduating class. But he was unapproachable, and I kept to myself. Even though we shared a desk in AP Calc, we barely said two words to each other all year.

After graduation, I figured I would never see him again. Then, two months ago, Nolan landed an internship at a massive investment firm. I dropped by his office to bring him lunch, only to find out Gideon was his strict, high-level boss.

"Hey, Gideon!" Nolan jogged up to the window.

The man in the driver's seat turned his head. His dark eyes locked straight onto mine.

I gave him a polite nod and reached for the back door handle. I was just about to slide in when Gideon's voice stopped me. "Sit up front."

"It's better for your motion sickness," he said, his tone flat.

I froze. I wanted to ask how the hell he knew I got carsick, but I swallowed the question. I shut the back door and climbed into the passenger seat.

The drive was silent. By the time we pulled up to my mom's house, it was already two in the afternoon.

Gideon dropped us at the curb. He didn't come inside, just threw the SUV back into drive and headed straight to the office.

My mom walked out of the kitchen carrying two plates of food. She shot me a cold glare, her lips pressed into a thin line. But the second she saw Nolan, her whole face softened into a warm smile. "Lunch is heated up. Come eat."

The meal was suffocatingly quiet. My mom hated having me around, so I wasn't planning on staying long. The second I found a decent apartment, I was out of there.

Later that evening, my mom was sitting on the couch knitting a sweater. Her eyesight was getting worse with age. She didn't even notice when the ball of gray yarn slipped off her lap and rolled onto the floor.

Chapter 6

I walked over, silently picked up the ball of gray yarn, and set it on the coffee table.

I was just about to head to the guest room when my mom's voice hit me from behind. "Why did you break up with Declan?"

I slowly stood up. I didn't say a word.

"Declan told me everything. So a female coworker bought him a watch. It's not like he actually did anything with her. What exactly is the point of throwing this massive fit?"

I stared at her, my throat suddenly dry as dust.

It was always like this.

When I was a kid, some bullies tripped me at school. I came home covered in dirt and told my mom. She was busy chasing Nolan around with a spoonful of food. She didn't even blink. Instead, she just ripped into me.

"What do you expect me to do about it? Why don't they bully anyone else? Why is it always you? Why don't you look at yourself and figure out what you're doing wrong?"

My breathing stopped.

My feet felt nailed to the floor, unable to believe what I was hearing.

While I was frozen there, Nolan thought it would be funny to yank a fistful of my hair. I shoved him away on pure reflex.

Before I could even process what happened, a stinging slap cracked across my face.

My mom scooped up a screaming Nolan, rocking him while glaring at me with venom.

I ran out of the house, my eyes burning. I don't even remember how far I ran. I just kept going until my legs gave out, collapsing onto the pavement and burying my face hard into my knees.

Declan was the one who finally found me.

He sat beside me, gently rubbing circles on my back. He didn't say anything. He just sat there, slowly melting away all that suffocating unfairness.

Back then, I thought my mom would never be on my side, but Declan always would be.

"Look, just know when to drop it. He's coming to pick you up tomorrow. Just give him an out, and let this whole thing go."

My mom's sharp reprimand snapped me back to the present.

She shot me a look and went back to knitting.

"Even if you don't want to think about yourself, you should at least think about your brother. You know exactly who Declan's mother is. She has massive connections. Nolan's future"

I don't even know how I made it back to my bedroom. The lights were off. The room was pitch black.

A loud argument suddenly broke out in the living room. I just sat on the edge of the mattress, perfectly still, staring out the window.

I don't know how much time passed before the bedroom door clicked open.

Someone wrapped his arms around me. A forehead pressed heavily against my shoulder. The sound of choked-back sobs cut clearly through the dead quiet of the night. "Harper I'm so sorry."

"I don't know why she's like this. We're both her kids"

I turned around to look at him.

His face, which looked so much like mine, was stained with tears. His eyes were bloodshot.

A long time ago, I tried to hate Nolan. I took all that rage, all that bitter resentment, all that desperate need for a mother's love, and twisted it into pure hatred for him. I thought if I hated him, it would make the pain a little easier to swallow.

But as he got older, he was just too good to me. I couldn't even manage to hate him.

He looked at me, his jaw set firm. "I just signed a lease on an apartment. I was going to move in myself, but you take it."

"Your future is yours. I'll take care of my own life. You don't ever need to force yourself to do something you hate for my sake, or anyone else's."

"Harper, I'm getting you out of here tomorrow."

Right before I went to sleep, my phone buzzed with a text from Sienna.

[ If that watch caused a misunderstanding, I can explain. ]

I ignored it.

Ten minutes later, another message popped up on the screen.

Chapter 7

[ Last month, my mom brought back two watches from a trip abroad. I kept the women's one for myself. It was right around Declan's birthday, so I just gave him the other one without thinking much of it. ]

A second later, another message popped up.

[ Declan knew that, by the way. ]

I stared at the screen, my thumbs hovering over the keyboard. I typed slowly.

[ Are you saying you have the exact same watch as him, just the women's version? ]

Sienna didn't reply.

The next morning, I packed the bare minimum. Dragging that same suitcase, I slid into the pre-booked Uber with Nolan.

Through the rearview mirror, I saw my mom standing on the porch. Her lips moved, but the car window was already rolled up. I looked away.

My phone vibrated the whole ride. Declan called six times and blew up my iMessage with dozens of texts, demanding to know where I was.

I typed out a single line.

[ We're over. ]

Minutes passed before his reply came through.

[ Harper, I didn't agree to that. ]

I hit the block button on his number, then deleted his contact.

Nolan's rented place was a small two-bedroom apartment. The decor was modern and spotless, and it was super close to my office.

It took the entire afternoon to unpack.

Nolan collapsed onto the couch, groaning. "Harper, you owe me a massive dinner tonight."

I laughed. "Deal."

While scrolling through Yelp to book a table, I paused. I told Nolan to invite Gideon too, as a thank you for helping me move.

Traffic was a nightmare. It took Nolan and me over an hour to get to the restaurant.

Gideon was already at our booth. His head was dipped slightly, one arm resting casually on his bent knee while the other hand stirred his coffee. He looked detached from the noisy dinner rush around him.

I flashed back to a lunch break in high school. I had woken up from a nightmare, gasping for air. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of Gideon.

He was doing math problems. Sitting perfectly straight, his fingers spinning a pen as he worked out equations on scratch paper. His nails were neatly trimmed.

Feeling my gaze, he turned his head, met my eyes for a second, and silently slid a tissue across the desk. Then he went right back to his worksheet.

It took me a moment to process. I wiped my forehead with the tissue. When I looked down, the paper was soaked with cold sweat.

A groan pulled me back to the present. Nolan was rubbing his temples beside me.

"I'm dead. Being late to work is one thing, but making him wait for dinner? Gideon is going to murder me."

I grabbed Nolan's arm and pulled him toward the booth. "Sorry we're late," I said earnestly. "Order whatever you want tonight. It's on me."

Gideon looked at me for a beat, then a slow smile touched his lips. "It's fine. I just got here."

He caught the waiter's attention and casually slid the menu over to my side of the table. "You pick."

Halfway through our meal, the sound of a guitar echoed through the room.

I looked up and noticed a small stage in the center of the dining room. A girl was sitting on a barstool, strumming an acoustic guitar and singing. The wall behind her was completely covered in polaroid photos of couples.

Nolan cleared his throat softly.

"It's a gimmick this place does. If couples go up and sing a song together, the restaurant snaps a polaroid of them to pin on the wall. Half the people who eat here just come for the photo op."

Chapter 8

I choked on my food, letting out a muffled cough.

A large, warm hand began to gently pat my back. The moment I caught my breath, a bowl of soup slid across the table into my line of sight.

Following the line of those long, pale fingers, my gaze collided with Gideon's pitch-black eyes.

I froze.

Gideon paused. Then, he grabbed Nolan's bowl and served him a scoop of soup too.

Nolan stared at him, his brows knit together. "I'm not choking."

Gideon didn't say a word.

The air turned a little thick. Nolan looked at Gideon, looked at me, and silently excused himself to the restroom.

The singing on the stage wrapped up. I instinctively glanced over.

The girl turned around.

It was Sienna.

She smiled, taking the polaroid from the staff, scribbled something on the bottom, and hopped off the stage to head back to her booth.

No surprise thereI spotted Declan sitting right across from her.

The photo was pinched between his fingers. From this distance, I couldn't read his expression.

Sienna leaned in and whispered something to him. He burst out laughing.

Maybe he felt my eyes burning into the side of his head. He looked up, and our gazes locked.

His jaw went slack, then snapped shut as his features darkened.

A second later, he was striding over to my table. His eyes lingered on Gideon's face before snapping back to me. "What is going on between you two?"

His interrogating tone made my jaw clench so hard my teeth ached.

I dropped my gaze to the photo he was gripping tightly in his fist. "Cute picture?" I asked, my voice deadpan.

A muscle feathered in Declan's jaw. It took him a long moment to spit out, "It's not what you think."

I just stared at him.

I couldn't comprehend how he could still stand there acting so justified. The earnest, gentle boy who used to look at me like I hung the moon was fading, dissolving into a stranger.

"Here's what happened." Sienna strolled over, her eyes wide and unblinking.

"Declan and I made a bet. If I could get our picture pinned to that wall, dinner was on him. I guess he didn't expect me to actually sing."

I kept my face utterly blank. "So, let me guess. Just another big misunderstanding?"

She flashed a brilliant smile. "Of course."

Declan exhaled, his shoulders dropping a fraction. The tension bled out of his posture, immediately replaced by that familiar, silent condemnation.

It was written all over him: Look at yourself, Harper. You're being psychotic over nothing.

The sheer absurdity of it all hit me, followed by a bone-deep exhaustion.

I let the silence stretch out before asking softly, "Do you even love me anymore?"

Declan flinched. His eyes instinctively darted to Sienna.

Then he snapped his gaze back to me, his voice sharp and absolute. "Harper. I love you."

That tiny glance hit my chest like a physical blow