Drink in hand.
Blank expression.
A girl draped across his lap trying to get his attention.
He doesn’t even bother to look at her.
He just drinks.
The second I walk in, the air shifts.
Because they know.
Every girl in here knows.
They’re all trying to be Jade’s replacement.
That’s what all this bullshit has been about.
Spotlight.
Status.
Queen-by-proxy.
They want the position.
They want the crown.
They wantme.
But what they don’t understand?—
what none of them will ever understand?—
is that Jade never wanted any of it.
She just wanted me.
And I threw it away.
I stop in the doorway, take a long, slow drag from the cigar, and let the smoke roll out in a thick stream.
Then I nod once.
“Everyone out.”
The grinding girl freezes mid-hip-thrust.
The others laugh like I’m joking.
One girl snarls, “Uh, you can’t order us out. This isn’t even your house.”
I level my gaze at her.
And I say it again—quiet, calm, dangerous:
“I said out. Now.”
