My Future Self Called Never Choose Those Brothers Chapter 02

I recognized him as someone from my old social circle who had attended my eighteenth birthday party a decade ago.

I slid the wrapped burger across the counter toward him, my voice completely flat.

“Everyone has to make a living.”

He blinked, clearly not expecting such a blunt response.

He took a bite, chewed thoughtfully, and then seemed to remember something.

“By the way, Adrian Shaw and Brody Shaw are back in Bayview. Did you hear?”

The cloth in my hand paused against the counter. “No.”

The man stared at me, looking as if he regretted bringing it up, but since the words were out, he forged ahead.

“Word is Daisy Sutton is pregnant. Adrian and Brody both accompanied her to her prenatal checkup, and the entourage they brought was massive.”

He paused, glancing at me cautiously.

“If you had just chosen one of them back then, you wouldn’t have ended up…”

He didn’t finish the sentence.

He probably caught sight of the gauze on my eye and my mutilated finger and realized that speaking further would be cruel.

I simply offered a faint smile. “Enjoy your meal.”

The man lowered his head and stopped talking.

I turned around to clean up the back kitchen.

An old photograph hung on the wall.

In it, my eighteen-year-old self wore a pristine white dress, standing in the lush gardens of the Winslow Estate.

Dad stood right behind me, while Adrian and Brody flanked my sides like loyal guardians.

Back then, I was radiant, laughing as if I had never seen a single cloud in the sky.

A corner of the photo was blackened by smoke.

It was the only thing I had managed to salvage when the Winslow Estate burned to the ground, the very thing I had clutched desperately to my chest the day I lost my right eye.

My phone buzzed again with another message from my eighteen-year-old self.

[They’ve arrived to pick me up for the engagement party. Can I really not trust them?]

Staring at the text, my heart felt as though it were being violently squeezed by an invisible hand.

Right then, the door bell jingled once more.

Out in the rainy night, two men walked into the diner under a shared black umbrella.

One carried himself with an effortless, polished elegance, while the other radiated a raw, dangerous arrogance.

Ten years had passed, yet Adrian and Brody remained as sharp and immaculate as ever, as though time had refused to leave a single scratch on them.

But the moment their eyes landed on me, they both froze.

Brody spoke first, his brow furrowing into a deep, harsh line.

“Chloe? How the hell did you let yourself end up like this?”

Adrian’s gaze drifted to the red, blistered skin on the back of my hand from a recent grease splash, and then settled on my missing ring finger, his voice dropping an octave.

“All these years… you’ve been surviving by flipping burgers?”

I didn’t answer.

Instead, I placed my phone face down on the counter.

But the screen flashed bright, and the text from eighteen-year-old Chloe burned through the glass.

[Can I really not trust them?]

The rising steam from the grill blurred my remaining eye as I forced a small smile.

“It’s a good life.”

Brody looked as though he had just heard something entirely absurd, his scowl deepening.

“A good life? Chloe, look at yourself!”

Brody had always been like this, except back then, his wrath was reserved for anyone who crossed me.

“Anyone who messes with Chloe messes with me,” he used to yell.

Later, his fury redirected entirely at me.

“Chloe, can you stop targeting Daisy? She grew up with nothing and has suffered enough. Would it kill you to just let her have this one thing?”

I lowered my eyes, slowly wiping away a stray smudge of grease on the counter.

Adrian looked at me, his voice a stark, gentle contrast to Brody’s rough edge.

“We never expected things to turn out the way they did back then.”

My hand stopped moving.

How effortlessly those words slipped past his lips.

Yet, that night was the exact catalyst for the decade-long nightmare that followed.

At the engagement party that year, Daisy had showed up wearing my custom gown.

She stood timidly between Adrian and Brody, her eyes brimming with tears as she whispered, “Chloe, I’ve never worn such a beautiful dress in my life. I just wanted to try it on.”

My face had instantly turned to ice.

“Take it off.”

She clutched the fabric, her tears flowing faster, but she didn’t budge an inch.

I let out a harsh, disbelieving laugh.

“You steal my property and play the victim?”

The moment the words left my mouth, I brought my hand down and slapped Daisy hard across the face.

In the next second, Brody fiercely gripped my wrist.

“Chloe, have you lost your mind?”

Adrian looked down at Daisy’s swelling cheek, his voice turning freezing cold.

“Chloe, apologize. Now.”

Brody’s expression worsened as he shoved me backward with immense force.

I slammed hard against the sharp edge of a table, turning pale from the agonizing pain.

But he didn’t reach out to catch me.

Instead, he merely snarled, “We spoiled you, Chloe, but not so you could bully helpless people.”

So that night, I stood in a dark corner wearing a plain, backup dress.

Meanwhile, Daisy wore my gown, flanked by my protectors, looking like the undisputed princess of the ballroom.