My Boyfriend Left Me to Die in the Desert for His Fake-Sick Best Friend Chapter 05

My Boyfriend Left Me to Die in the Desert for His Fake-Sick Best Friend Chapter 05

Ethan stopped less than a meter from my body. 

He took one step forward and reached out to 

touch my face. 

Just then, Claire suddenly screamed. 

“Ethan! A snake!” 

Ethan immediately spun around and rushed back. 

toward her. 

“Claire! Don’t move!” 

He dragged her into his arms and searched the 

ground frantically. 

Claire wrapped her arms around his waist and 

began sobbing. 

“Ethan, I’m terrified…” 

Still crying, she peered over his shoulder at me lying on the ground. 

“What’s wrong with Erin? Is she still angry with 

me? Is she lying there just to scare us?” 

Mike and Daniel hesitated for a moment before 

getting out of the vehicle too. 

They stayed beside the open door and shone their 

high–powered flashlights toward me from a 

distance. 

“She has to be faking. Do you really think the heat 

could kill her? She’s crossed a desert alone 

before!” 

Mike quickly agreed. 

“Exactly! She’s the strongest hiker here. There’s no 

way she’d die like this, curled up in the sand and 

covered in blood.” 

As the others spoke, the fear drained from Ethan’s 

face, leaving behind nothing but disgust. 

“Erin, you’re pretending to be dead just to force an 

apology out of me? You think making yourself 

look this disgusting will make me feel sorry for 

you? It doesn’t. It makes me sick.” 

He pulled two bottles of water from his pocket 

and hurled them down beside my hand. 

“Fine. If you’re so determined to lie there, then stay 

there all night. I’m leaving you two bottles of 

water. We break camp tomorrow morning. If you’re 

still not back by then, never show your face to me 

again.” 

Then they got back into the vehicle and drove 

away. 

My spirit drifted after them. 

I felt nothing. 

The next morning, the hiking team broke camp 

and returned to the city as planned, but I still had 

not come back. 

Ethan remained silent throughout the drive. 

Claire tried speaking to him several times, but he 

only gave her brief replies. 

Her anger only grew. 

The moment they reached the city, she published 

a post on a major outdoor forum. 

[Desert hike complete. Grateful to the people who truly cared about me. Some people, though, will do anything for attention.] 

In the post, she claimed she had been weak and unwell but had still forced herself to finish the 

hike. 

She painted Ethan as a responsible team leader who had shouldered the pressure of protecting everyone through the crisis. 

She accused me of fighting her for the electrolyte drink without caring whether anyone else needed 

1. it. 

She also claimed I had used stage makeup to fake 

a near–death scene and force the team leader to 

give in. 

The post included photos of them celebrating 

around the campfire. 

The post exploded almost immediately. 

Before long, it was trending across the forum. 

Strangers quickly found my social media account. 

Abuse flooded my private messages. 

“Drop dead, you fraud! How dare you treat a 

matter of life and death like a joke?” 

“Why didn’t she actually die in the desert?” 

“I can’t believe Ethan has been dating someone 

like this.” 

“Faking your death in the desert? Does she think 

emergency rescue resources exist for her 

personal drama?” 

Ethan watched the post climb the trending page, 

then tagged my account in the comments. 

“Erin, Claire has been worried about you all day. 

Are you done pretending to be dead? You have ten minutes to post a public apology to her. Then wash off that stage makeup and record an 

apology video for the group chat. Do it, or we’re 

over.” 

The other team members immediately began 

posting messages in the group chat. 

“Ethan’s right! He should’ve dumped that 

attention–seeking troublemaker ages ago!” 

“Erin, come out and apologize!” 

“Stop hiding behind a screen and pretending 

you’re dead!”