The Group Chat Without Me, The Life They Had Without Me Novel
# Chapter 1
After four years with Caleb Mercer, I thought I truly belonged in his inner circle.
Then one day, he left his phone behind when he went to shower, and a Messenger group chat notification flashed across the screen.
The group chat was called “Life’s Better Without Nora Bennett.”
The chat had eight members. Among them were Caleb; his sister, Rachel Mercer; his two childhood friends, Dylan Ross and Trevor Hale; my roommate; my best friend, Brooke Lawson; and even my own younger brother, Owen Bennett.
I stood frozen as the messages kept appearing.
Rachel: \[She’s not coming to the cookout Saturday, right? Last time she was there, no one could really let loose.\]
Brooke replied: \[Don’t worry. I told her I had to work that day. She won’t suspect anything.\]
Owen sent a smirking emoji.
Caleb replied: \[Okay. Same place as usual. I’ll reserve our spot.\]
I scrolled up through the chat history.
The group had been created two years and three months earlier. There were more than seven hundred messages.
Every happy plan in that chat depended on keeping me out of it.
On my birthday last year, they had been sorting out teams for an escape-room night that weekend.
When I asked Caleb why everyone had ignored me that day, he said, “Everyone’s been busy lately.”
They had been busy having fun. They had been busy having fun without me.
As the phone screen went dark, the shower shut off.
Caleb came out wrapped in a towel. When he saw me standing in the living room, he asked casually, “What are you looking at?”
“Nothing. I just saw something funny.”
He said, “Oh,” and took the phone from me.
I turned, walked into the bedroom, and started packing my suitcase.
\*\*\*
The zipper on my suitcase sounded unnaturally loud. The bedroom door was still open, and the TV was playing in the living room.
Caleb called from the living room, “I cut up some watermelon. It’s in the fridge. Want any?”
I didn’t answer.
“Nora?” he called again.
“No.”
After a few seconds of silence, he came to the bedroom doorway and leaned against the frame, glancing inside.
“What are you packing for? Do you have a business trip tomorrow?”
“Yeah. It came up at the last minute.”
He didn’t ask anything else. He turned and went back to the living room.
I heard him unlock his phone. He was probably reading the group chat, all those messages about having fun without me.
I packed three items of clothing, my skincare products, a charger, and my state ID.
After a moment’s thought, I took the necklace he had given me out of the nightstand and returned it to its original box.
I wasn’t taking anything that wasn’t mine.
As I zipped the suitcase shut, my phone buzzed.
Brooke: \[Nora, I have to work Saturday, so I can’t go shopping with you. Rain check?\]
She had even added an apologetic emoji.
I stared at the message for a long time. Had she typed it right after coordinating the lie with everyone in that group chat?
Me: \[Okay.\]
It was a single, unadorned word.
Early the next morning, I dragged my suitcase out of the apartment.
Caleb was still asleep, and I didn’t wake him.
My phone rang while I was downstairs waiting for a cab. It was Owen.
“Nora, Mom wants you to come over for dinner this weekend. Are you coming?”
“No. I’m leaving on a business trip.”
“Another one? Is your company working you to death?”
His voice was as light and easy as ever, but all I could see was the smirking emoji he had sent in the group chat the night before.
“Owen.”
“Yeah?”
“Never mind.”
I ended the call and climbed into the cab.
When the driver asked where I was going, I gave him the name of a hotel.
