Year Five: The Perfect Goodbye Plan novel Chapter 2

At first, she didn’t understand—her cheeks flushed as she bit her lip, shyly showing she was willing.

But Shipley only smiled gently, smoothing her hair with a tenderness in his eyes. “You’re still young,” he told her softly. “We’ll wait until we’re married before we do anything like that.”

Back then, she thought he was cherishing her, and, blushing even deeper, she buried her face in his chest.

It wasn’t until Vianne came back, and Shipley was out with his old friends, that she learned the truth.

That night, she arrived late. Just before she pushed open the door, she overheard Shipley’s friends teasing him. “Shipley, now that your girl’s back, when are you going to break things off with her stand-in?”

Another voice chimed in, “Yeah, if it weren’t for Silvia, your girl wouldn’t have had such a tough time. She can’t stand Silvia.”

Vianne had once lived with the Ashford family as a foster child—she was the housekeeper’s daughter. Years ago, because of the housekeeper’s scheming, Silvia and Vianne had been switched at birth. It wasn’t discovered until fifteen years later.

After that, the Ashfords brought Silvia home, sent Vianne back to the Williamson family, and gave her a hefty sum as compensation.

Not long after, Vianne left the country and lost contact with the Ashfords.

So, in Shipley’s friends’ eyes, Vianne had suffered because of Silvia.

But the truth was, Silvia’s first fifteen years with her foster mother were far from happy, and even after returning to the Ashfords, she always felt like an outsider.

Others might not have noticed, but Shipley knew exactly who was in the right and who was in the wrong between her and Vianne.

Even so, when his friends joked, Shipley only interrupted with a cool, indifferent, “Don’t talk nonsense.”

Just a few short words—no further explanation, no defense.

In that moment, Silvia finally understood: Shipley had never loved her.

He kept his distance not out of respect for her, but to keep himself pure for Vianne.

All along, she’d been nothing but Vianne’s substitute.

Of course.

Even now, as she felt Shipley tense beside her, she could sense his restraint. A second later, he gently let go of her hand.

Silvia stared at her now-empty palm, a wave of sadness she couldn’t put into words washing over her.

She and Shipley had practically grown up together.

When she first moved in with the Ashfords, she was withdrawn and awkward. Some of Vianne’s friends went out of their way to make her life difficult, even hiring a group of thugs to corner her in an alley.

Shipley had taken a knife for her that night.

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