The Eclipsed Echo
Jaafar Jackson x reader ft Maddie
Jaafar has it all…a thriving career and a stable 10 years relationship with his fiancée, Maddie. But what’s really happening behind closed doors?
Previous Chapter
Three Months Later
Moon no longer asked permission before climbing into Jaafar’s lap.
He simply did it every morning like it was his constitutional right.
“Moon.”
The golden retriever ignored Y/N completely and rested his head on Jaafar’s thigh.
“Moon come to mama.”
His tail wagged.
Traitor.
Jaafar smirked over his coffee.
“I think he likes me.”
“I think he’s a terrible judge of character.”
Moon barked.
“See?” Jaafar pointed.
“Even he disagrees.”
Y/N rolled her eyes with a smile and Jaafar laughed.
The sound came easier these days.
Almost too easy.
Three months of sunrises, texts, coffee, conversations that somehow never ran out.
The strange part wasn’t how often they talked anymore, It was how natural it had become.
Neither of them remembered who started texting first.
Their chat looked less like a conversation and more like two people slowly becoming part of each other’s daily routine.
Sometimes they had days where sarcasm is the language that no one can understands but them
Their chats became a collection of sarcasm nobody else would understand.
But also there were the ranting moments that was the foundation of the whole friendship ..
But she unintentionally always makes it easier, because why would he be smiling while going back home after an exhausting rehearsals unless,
The dangerous part wasn’t that he enjoyed her company , the dangerous part was how much he missed her whenever he went home.
Because every morning when he saw or text her, everything else felt lighter, easier and when he drove home, everything felt heavy again.
Home wasn’t peaceful anymore. It hadn’t been for a while.
At first it had been questions, then accusations, then monitoring, then control.
Maddie always wanted to know where he was, who he was with, why he was late and why he didn’t answer.
At first he told himself she was stressed, wedding planning, work and life.
But eventually excuses stopped working, because no matter what answer he gave… it was always wrong.
One evening he woke up from a nap and immediately knew something was off, Maddie was sitting at the kitchen table.
His phone sat in her hands.
“Maddie??”
She looked up calmly. “Who’s Y/N?”
The room went silent, Jaafar stared at the phone, then at her, then back at the phone.
“You went through my phone?”
“I asked a question.”
“You went through my phone?”
“Answer me.”
His jaw tightened.
“She’s my friend.”
Maddie laughed, a short, bitter laugh.
“A friend.”
“Yes.”
“A friend you text.”
“Yes?.”
“You think I’m stupid.”
“Maddie—”
“When was the last time you told me about your day?” Her voice rose.
Silence.
“When was the last time you looked excited to see me?”
“I still don’t see how is that my problem tbh” He snatched the phone and walked off with tight jaw because she hit another nerve.
Blaming him for not being able to talk to her instead of getting close to him again and asking about him.
She stared at him walk off with the anger in her eyes slowly becoming something uglier. Resentment.
That night, while Jaafar slept…Maddie copied Y/N’s number to her phone.
The call came the next afternoon…Unknown number.
Y/N answered while throwing a tennis ball for Moon.
“Hello?”
“So you’re Y/N.”
She frowned. “Sorry?”
A woman laughed the kind of laugh that made your stomach tighten before you even knew why.
“You know who this is.”
“No…?”
“It’s Maddie.”
Y/N blinked.“Oh?”
Moon dropped the tennis ball at her feet but she barely noticed.
“Hi.”
“You spend every morning with my fiancé.”
The bitterness in Maddie’s voice practically dripped through the phone.
Y/N straightened immediately. “Maddie—”
“No.”
The interruption came fast and sharp.
“You don’t get to pretend.”
“Nothing is happening.”
“Really?”
“Yes we are just really good friends.”
Maddie laughed.“Friends? As if that makes it innocent.”
The word sounded insulting coming from her.
“You know what women like you always call themselves?”
Y/N’s grip tightened around the phone. “Excuse me?”
“Home wreckers.”
Y/N said nothing because suddenly she wasn’t sure she wanted to hear the rest.
“Maddie—”
“You should be ashamed.”
Nothing had happened. Absolutely Nothing.
“You think you’re different?”
“You think because you haven’t crossed a line with him, then you’re innocent?”
Y/N swallowed.
“You aren’t.”
The words came quieter now which somehow made them worse.
“You’re just another whore waiting around for a man who belongs to somebody else.”
Click. The line went dead.
Y/N stood there staring at her phone.
Moon nudged her hand.Nothing.
The home suddenly felt too quiet, empty, exposing, because Maddie was wrong, nothing had happened. She genuinely was helping Jaafar be okay and she knew her limits so well.
But that wasn’t the problem.
The problem was that if Jaafar showed up right now and told her he wasn’t engaged, she wasn’t sure she’d walk away.
And that realization made her feel sick.
The next morning she didn’t go to the beach.
Moon sat by the door with his leash already in his mouth waiting for his morning walk, tail wagging.
Y/N looked away. “Not today Moon.”
Moon tilted his head, confused and slowly the tail slowly stopped wagging.
Y/N felt awful.
The first day Jaafar assumed she was busy.
The second day he checked his phone more than usual because she never ignored his texts.
The third day, he was sitting alone on the beach, coffee cooling beside him, watching the sunrise, people walking by, dogs running across the sand, and for the first time he realized the beach wasn’t what he looked forward to.
It had never been the beach….
His chest tightened because everything was exactly as it had always been, except she wasn’t there.
Another day passed and he stopped sleeping properly, he was angry, but not at her.
At himself, because he couldn’t figure out what he’d done wrong to push the only person who actually cared away.
He felt empty, like somebody had quietly removed the best part of his day and expected him not to notice.
Meanwhile Moon hated every new route Y/N tried, every new park.
Every single morning he pulled her toward the beach like he couldn’t understand why they stopped going.
Truthfully…
Neither could she.
Meanwhile, Maddie was planning a wedding, like nothing was wrong, like Jaafar wasn’t quietly falling apart.
One evening she spread venue photos across the dining table.
“Look at this one.”
She slid a photograph toward him, Jaafar barely glanced at it.
“Maddie.”
“I think the white roses look better.”
“Maddie.”
“Or maybe orchids.”
“Maddie.”
“The florist needs an answer by Friday.”
Jaafar stared at her not believing this was happening, she could see him unraveling and still care more about centerpieces.
Then suddenly she spoke. “You haven’t been sleeping.” For a second he thought she was finally asking if he was okay.
“The photographer noticed the dark circles.”
Silence…
“Can you fix them before the photo shoot?”
Something inside him broke like a rope finally snapping after years of strain. Jaafar looked down at the venue photos, the life they’d spent years planning.
And for the first time…It felt like someone else’s future. “Maddie.”
“What?”
His voice was calm. “We need to talk.”
She froze but continued to ignore him.
“Maddie.”
“No.”
The answer came immediately. Almost panicked.
“I don’t want this anymore.”
Her face went white.
“No.”
“I can’t do this.”
“No.”
She stood so quickly her chair nearly tipped over.
“We’re getting married.”
“Maddie—”
“You don’t get to do this.”
“I don’t get to do this?”
“Ten years.” Her voice cracked. “I gave you ten years.”
And for a moment guilt clawed its way into his chest then she spoke again.
“And she’s gone anyway.”
Jaafar frowned. “What?”
Maddie folded her arms.
“I called her.”
The room suddenly felt too small.
“What did you just say?”
“I called her.”
His stomach dropped. Because suddenly the unanswered texts, missed calls, empty beach, the way Y/N had vanished without a word, every single piece clicked into place.
Not because she wanted to leave because she thought she had to.
His chest tightened. “What did you say to her?”
Maddie looked away.
“She needed to know her place.”
The rage that hit him was immediate and violent, not because Maddie called. Because Y/N had been carrying whatever was said to her completely alone, thinking she is a bad person for being his bestfriend.
She’d been hurting and he hadn’t even known.
Maddie hesitated. “Jaafar—”
“What.” his voice rose “did you say?”
Maddie swallowed, for the first time she looked uncertain. “I told her to stop being a home wrecker and to stay away from you.”
The blood drained from his face, because suddenly he could picture it.
Y/N answering her phone, hearing those words, blaming herself for being a friend, disappearing because she thought it was the right thing to do.
His hands shook. “She was my friend.”
“Oh please.”
“No.” His voice cracked. “YOU don’t get to do that!”
“You were choosing her over me!”
“I wasn’t choosing anyone!”
The words exploded out of him.
“I was trying to breathe!”
Silence.
“You don’t understand.” His chest felt tight. “She was the only person who actually asked if I was okay.”
Maddie’s face fell.
“And you made her think she was doing something wrong for caring.”
He looked at Maddie, really looked at her and for the first time…
He couldn’t see their future, only exhaustion, distance, two people desperately trying to hold together something that had already broken.
Whatever she saw in his face at the moment, made her heart crumble. Because she saw his eyes go cold.
“No.” Her voice cracked. “Jaafar…”
He closed his eyes.
Because this was the moment, the point of no return.
“I think I’ve been gone for a long time.”
The engagement ended that night.
A/N : that was a hard one for me ngl
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