Conrad's Version Ch 48 Vol 3

There was another time just like this one, Belly looking lost and lighting up when I found her.

When we were kids, Mom used to drop us off at the mall, leaving me in charge of Jeremiah, Steven, and Belly. I felt so grown up then. This particular time Belly was around eight and we were headed to the arcade. She reached her little hand out and grabbed my forearm. “Conrad, I really don’t want to go to the arcade.” I felt bad dragging her along to what the guys wanted to do but Mom had drilled it into me that we stay together. “Please let me go on my own,” she begged.

I knew all she wanted was to go to the glass-blower shop. She could spend hours in there but none of us ever wanted to go with her. I saw her glancing at the store, the light dancing in her eyes, and I couldn’t say no. “Okay, fine. But you have to meet us back at the entrance in one hour.” Her whole face opened up with her toothy grin as she walked straight to the shop.

I watched her go before heading upstairs to the arcade. I set an hour alarm on my Velcro watch. When it went off, I went straight back to the entrance, but she wasn’t there. I waited five minutes, then ten, then fifteen. She didn’t show, so I ran to the glass-blower shop expecting to find her playing with the unicorns she always played with. She wasn’t there either.

I panicked. Raced back to the arcade where Steven and Jeremiah were still consumed in their games. “Have you guys seen Belly?”

Neither of them looked up. “She was here a few minutes ago,” Jeremiah said, annoyed at having his game interrupted.

I ran the entire arcade looking for her before racing back downstairs. She was at the entrance, standing alone, looking around with that lost, small expression. When she finally spotted me, a huge smile broke across her face, and we ran toward each other in relief.

“Belly.” I exhaled her name. “There you are. I was looking for you everywhere.” My voice began to rise at the end.

Her face fell. “I’m sorry, there was a unicorn and...” She didn’t finish. Tears ran down her face and she started to cry. I felt sick for raising my voice. “Oh, it’s okay, it’s okay,” I said, wrapping my arms around her. I’d been scared, but she must have been terrified. “I’m sorry I lost you. It won’t happen again. From now on I’ll always be by your side, okay?” She nodded into me, still crying, and hugged me back.

A few weeks later, I had Mom take me back to that store and bought her the big glass unicorn for her birthday with my allowance money.

Now here we were on a sidewalk on the night of her bachelorette and she looked just as lost at twenty-one as she had at eight. I’m here, I thought, just as Jeremiah pushed past me. Her smile of relief had been for him this time. He dipped her and kissed her and I felt my throat close. I forced myself to look away.

Redbird jogged up and interrupted them, murmuring something about the party continuing before he whisked Jeremiah forward to the next bar. The rest of them followed. I walked a little slower and as I passed her, I gave an awkward wave.

I got a few steps past when she said my name. Just my name, and it rooted me to the sidewalk. I turned back slowly.

“Can I talk to you real quick?” she asked, smiling softly.

The guys ahead didn’t look back. “Yeah, of course. What’s up?” I ran a hand through my hair. She took a small step toward me.

“When did you talk to my mom?” she asked, biting her bottom lip.

I blinked in surprise. “Um, yesterday. And the day before. I talk to your mom often.”

“And did you talk to her about coming to my bridal shower?” Her voice was soft but her eyes were steady on mine.

I stammered, “I mean, it’s Laurel, you know how she is. She makes her own choices.”

“That’s not what I asked.” A pause. “Did you convince her to come to my bridal shower or not?”

I couldn’t look away or lie. I exhaled. “Yes. Okay, yes I did.”

She pursed her lips. “Why did you do it?”

I let out a slow breath. “Why else would I do it? Because I knew it meant a lot to you, Belly.” She furrowed her brows, not fully satisfied, so I kept going. “Because... uh, I don’t know. Shit, Belly. It’s your wedding and...” I stopped. Took another breath. “Because you should have everything you ever dreamed of.”

I watched her eyes fill. Her lower lip trembled and I wanted to reach out and put my hand against her cheek. I started to reach for her, but then Taylor and Anika came out of the bar behind her. Taylor gave me one of her disapproving looks. “I should get back to the guys,” I said, already backing away.

It took everything I had to turn around and walk the opposite direction of her.

By the time I caught up with the group, Denise had gone to meet the girls, tired of the boys’ antics. The guys were hammered, taking shots, belting out a song at the top of their lungs. I slid into the booth and joined them.

Then Jeremiah threw his arm around my shoulders. I could smell the tequila on his breath, warm and sharp. “Con. My best man. My brother.” He shook me a little. “Thank you for an incredible night. I’m so fucking happy to have you here.”

“Happy to be here, Jere.”

He squeezed harder. “No, really. Thank you for taking care of us tonight.” He gestured at the others. “For taking care of me tonight. And all of my life, really.”

He was slurring, but I took it. “Of course. I’m your big brother.”

“Wait, no, hear me out.” He turned to face me more fully, eyes serious the way drunk people get serious. “I know you worry about me. But you don’t have to anymore. I’m good. Really good. Dad offered me a full-time position.”

My mouth fell open in surprise. “Really? Is that what you want?” I asked.

“I don’t know what I want, I’m only twenty-two.” A hiccup. “Actually, scratch that. I know I want Belly. That’s why you don’t have to worry. Her and me, we’ve got each other. We’ll take care of each other. Forever.” He looked at me. “You know what I’m saying?”

I wrapped my hands around a glass that wasn’t mine, the cold relief of it against my palms. “Yeah. I know what you mean. I’m happy for you. For both of you.” I made myself smile. He hugged me hard and then just as quickly turned back to his friends, already into the next song.

The night went on and the guys got sloppier. Steven disappeared to find Denise. When Jeremiah spilled his drink on me, I handed him a glass of water and went to clean up in the bathroom.

On the way there, I saw a girl with long dark hair and a short white dress. My heart leaped before my head caught up. I got closer and it wasn’t her. I went into the bathroom and ran cold water over my wrists, splashed some on my face, blotted my shirt dry. I couldn’t even be at a bar without my mind going to Belly. Every thought looped back to her. Always.

I gripped the edge of the sink and felt my breathing go shallow. I closed my eyes. Thought of Jeremiah’s face at the table, how wide open and sincere he’d looked. I stayed there until my breathing leveled out. Barely missed the panic attack. Then I dried my hands and walked back out.

I heard them before I reached the table. Ethan’s voice, loud over the music, taunting Jeremiah about only sleeping with Belly all through college.

I stopped, unable to keep from listening at the mention of her name.

They didn’t notice me.

“Jeremiah, what? They don’t know about Lacie?” Redbird hollered, clapping him on the shoulder. Ethan and Blake looked between them. Jeremiah’s face went briefly uncomfortable before he shrugged. Redbird kept going, talking about the spring break hookup Jeremiah had with some girl. All the details of it. Less than five months ago.

I stood there and felt it move through me, slow and then it hit like a punch. He had gone to Cabo while he was with Belly. He had slept with someone. And then came home and proposed like none of it had happened.

Redbird droned on. How hot Lacie was. How they’d been kept up in the hall all night listening because Jeremiah had locked them out. I heard it from somewhere that felt like being underwater, pressure building in my ears, my jaw, my hands going numb at my sides.

Jeremiah laughed and took another shot of tequila like it was nothing.

I gave her up. The thought came in clean and harsh under everything else. I gave her up so he could have her, so he could be the one who did it right, who loved her the way she deserved, and this is what he did with it. Got drunk in Cabo and climbed into bed with someone else and didn’t even have the decency to look sick about it now, laughing along like it’s a story instead of real life.

My father’s face came up, the memory of what he had done. The day I had come home early and walked in on him and Mom fighting. The look on her face as she confronted him about his affair. The year everything came apart because he couldn’t keep it in his pants for our mother, the year I decided there wasn’t a lower thing a person could do to someone who loved them.

And here was Jeremiah, my brother, doing the exact same thing, and calling it a drunken mistake, and expecting the mistake to disappear the second he put a ring on Belly’s finger.

He was just like Dad. Selfish. A cheater. Somebody who takes what he wants and lets somebody else clean up what’s left. I used to think I was the screwup between the two of us. Standing there listening to Jeremiah laugh about it, I understood I had that backwards the whole time. I had deemed myself unworthy of Belly, but it was him who was unworthy.

I had just barely gotten my breathing under control and now it was for nothing. I closed my eyes, tried again to find the floor under my feet, but then Jeremiah shoved past me toward the bathroom with his hand clamped over his mouth. I turned and followed him without thinking. Anger hot in my veins.

He barely made it to the stall. I stood in the doorway watching him throw up and I wanted to put my fist through his skull. I wanted to drag him up off that floor and make him explain himself, make him say it out loud, say what he’d done and who he’d done it to. I stood there long enough to know I wasn’t going to do either. He looked pathetic draped over the toilet, and for the first time in my life looking at my brother, I felt sorry for him. He was an immature little shit. I was done lifting him up and cleaning up his messes.

I was done giving everything up for him. The thought settled into a place in me I knew wouldn’t shift back. I was done making life easy for him. Done being the one who stepped back so he could have the one person I loved most and not even cherish it. He didn’t deserve her. He never had and I was a fool for ever letting her go.

I turned. Walked out of the bathroom and through the bar. Past the guys. Out the door and toward the car, fist clenched the entire time. I needed to hit something so I wouldn’t follow through with the urge to break his face.

Song: “Broken” by Sofia Valdes and Pink Sweat

Authors Note:

This chapter is the climax we’ve all been waiting for, the moment Conrad realizes he gave up Belly in vain. Jeremiah failed her in a way Conrad never would have.

Conrad held onto the belief that letting her go was the best thing he could do for her. Over the course of this night, he finally sees that letting her go was actually his biggest mistake. He’s always had her best interest at heart, from when they were kids all the way into adulthood. He’s spent his whole life cleaning up Jeremiah’s messes, but this is one mess he’s not willing to clean up for him. This is the breaking point Conrad needed to finally fight for Belly without the guilt.

He also puts together the real reason behind the rushed engagement. He understands that Jeremiah proposed out of guilt and fear of losing her because he screwed up, and how selfish that motive actually is.

I love this chapter because it shows that Conrad’s healing isn’t linear. He has relapses, and in this one his anger comes bleeding through. His temper is one of his biggest flaws, and even though he’s worked hard to rein it in, Jeremiah reawakens it.

My favorite part is that Conrad no longer feels obligated to keep his promise to his mom, because Jeremiah isn’t worthy of the sacrifices Conrad made to keep it in the first place. And while part of us wishes he’d punched Jeremiah in the face, it’s almost more poetic that he doesn’t. That he realizes Jeremiah isn’t even worth the effort.

Copyright © 2026 by Cyndy Morgan
All rights reserved.

This book is a work of fanfiction and is an unauthorized, noncommercial, transformative work based on The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han. All characters, settings, and original elements from the original series remain the property of their respective copyright holders. No infringement is intended.

No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted, or distributed in any form or by any means without prior written permission from the author, except for brief quotations in reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All events and dialogue not appearing in the original series are products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Printed in the United States of America
First Edition, 2026

Conrad’s Version
Written by Cyndy Morgan