“I’m proud of you,” Lillian said gently. “That’s not easy to say.”
I smiled — warm, breathless,ready.
But as we turned to head back toward the boys, the smile began to slip.
They hadn’t noticed us yet. We were just steps from the corner, the edge of the ballroom curtain. I heard Liam say something about cake, and Noah chuckling.
But then Adonis spoke — casual, low, just loud enough.
“So… does she know yet?”
Noah didn’t answer.
Adonis sighed. “About the bet.”
Time stopped. I froze mid-step. My champagne glass tilted, slipping from my hand, hitting the marble in a soft clink but not shattering.
Mary gasped. “Liz…”
I didn’t hear the rest.
Everything — the room, the music, the gold and glass and velvet — fell away.
The bet.
Thebet.
He bet on me.
My lungs squeezed tight, my heart dropped straight through the soles of my heels. The warmth I’d carried, the love I hadjustfound the courage to name… shattered into silence.
I was a bet to him. I was nothing more than a tool for his purpose. Just like my father.
Just like every man who ever looked at me like a mission, a challenge, a thing to be won or ruined, and this time, ithurt more.Because I had let Noah in. Because I had loved him.
Noah
I didn’t see her at first.
Liam was laughing about cake, Adonis had just finished his drink, and I was… happy. Lighter than I’d felt in years. Thinking about Liz. That dress. The way she kissed me like I was hers. The way she looked at me like maybe —maybe— I could finally be more than what I was made for.
Then Adonis said it.
“So… does she know yet?”
And everything in me stilled.
He kept going, casually, like he didn’t see the bomb he’d just dropped. “About the bet.”
The words echoed in the air like they’d been spoken through a megaphone.
A softclinkmade me turn.
Liz.
She was standing just past the edge of the curtain, the glass she dropped spinning gently on the floor. Mary and Lillian were behind her, wide-eyed and silent, but all I could see washer.
Her mask was still on, but I didn’t need to see her full face to know what was breaking beneath it. Her mouth parted, her eyes—those mismatched eyes, one storm blue, one forest green—were wide, wet, and shining with something worse than rage.
