Done Hiding as Your Backup Plaything I'm Shining Golden as a Queen - Chapter 135: Chapter 135

Travis stayed frozen in that chair, face buried in his hands, sobbing so violently that no sound came out. Watching him completely shatter should have made me feel something—anything.
But all I felt was hollow relief.
The next morning, there he was outside my dorm again, clutching a coffee cup and a paper bag from the campus café.
He stepped directly into my path. "Gabby, please, I had no idea what Camila was really doing to you—"
I walked straight past him like he was invisible, heading toward Tanner who was leaning against a tree nearby with that easy smile I'd grown to love.
I slipped my hand into his and said sweetly, "I'm dying for some of those blueberry pancakes from Murphy's. Please tell me you grabbed some?"
Tanner held up a takeout container with a theatrical flourish. "With extra maple syrup and whipped cream, just how you like it."
The pure domesticity of it—him knowing exactly what I wanted for breakfast—made my heart flutter in ways Travis never had.
Behind us, Travis completely lost it. He hurled the coffee cup at the ground, hot liquid splashing everywhere.
"GABRIELLA! You're seriously going to throw away thirteen years for some random guy you've known for five minutes?!"
His voice cracked with desperation. "You'll regret this! And when you do, I'll be right here waiting!"
But I was already walking away, Tanner's warm hand anchoring me to my new reality.
Travis started stalking me. Skipping his pre-med classes to camp outside my dorm, showing up in the back row of my business lectures, following us to the library.
Like some pathetic ghost waiting for me to come crawling back.
Instead, I fell deeper in love with Tanner every single day. Behind his cool, scholarly exterior was someone who made me laugh until my sides hurt, who got adorably jealous when other guys so much as looked at me, who kissed me breathless against library stacks and then sweetly asked if I needed help with my economics homework.
I was completely, utterly gone for him.
We became that couple everyone either envied or wanted to throw things at—finishing each other's sentences, sharing earbuds, stealing kisses between classes.
Travis's breakdown became the talk of campus. His father eventually showed up, red-faced and furious, literally dragging Travis back to his classes by the collar.
But Travis kept ditching anyway, and his grades plummeted.
Mr. Russell even called me once, his voice tight with barely controlled panic. "Gabriella, I know I have no right to ask, but Travis won't listen to anyone. Could you possibly talk to him? He's destroying his entire future."
I told him everything—every lie, every betrayal, every moment Travis had chosen Camila over me. The line went dead silent for a long moment.
"I... I had no idea," he whispered. "I'm so sorry."
He never called again.
Life moved on. I threw myself into my coursework, into building something real with Tanner. Travis became background noise, a cautionary tale whispered about in study groups.
It wasn't until Christmas break that his name came up again.
Dad was shaking his head over dinner, looking genuinely troubled. "You remember Travis Russell? Poor kid completely fell apart after you left for the business school. Failed out of Brown—too many absences, couldn't pass his finals."
My fork paused halfway to my mouth, but I felt nothing. No guilt, no satisfaction. Just... emptiness where he used to live in my thoughts.
"His parents tried sending him to some military academy in Vermont to get him back on track," Dad continued. "But the boy tried to hurt himself there. Had to be hospitalized."
"Dr. and Mrs. Russell quit their practices to take care of him full-time now. They've been driving him to specialists all over New England."
The golden boy who used to be every parent's dream had become everyone's worst nightmare.
On New Year's Eve, the Russells showed up at our front door, looking haggard and desperate. I watched from my childhood bedroom window as they begged my father to let me visit Travis.
Dad gently told them I wasn't home.
Which was true—at that exact moment, I was standing in front of Cinderella Castle, watching fireworks paint the sky in brilliant colors, wrapped safely in Tanner's arms.
The magical atmosphere felt like something out of a fairy tale, but this time I was living it instead of just dreaming about it.
"Hey, little crybaby," Tanner's voice was soft against my ear. "Remember on Lovers' Peak, when you said you'd do anything to repay me?"
I tilted my head back to look at him, my heart doing that familiar flip at his nearness. "I remember. What's my debt, Mr. Lockhart?"
His eyes were impossibly tender as he brushed a strand of hair from my face. "I want to spend the rest of my life making sure you never stop smiling like this. Think you can handle that?"
For a moment, I couldn't breathe. The sheer rightness of it—of him, of us, of this moment—hit me like a physical force.
I went up on my toes and kissed him, pouring thirteen years of heartbreak and hope and healing into it.
"Yes," I whispered against his lips.
"God, yes."