–
“Wait please!” Her voice cracks. When I look back, her face has changed. She’s not cold anymore. She looks… scared. Desperate.
“I’m sorry,” she whispers. “I didn’t mean it like that. I’m just, I’m drowning. I didn’t want to hurt you, but you kept making it so hard-”
My stomach drops.
“I wouldn’t have done it if you’d just told me earlier that you were a Vanderbilt,” she says, eyes wide. “I wouldn’t have told her about you and Stone.”
My body goes still.
“What…?” I breathe.
“But- but the boss offered so much money for something juicy and I needed it. Lacey just… cut me off out of nowhere. Stopped lending me anything. And she didn’t even know I was the one sleeping with her husbands back then.”
What?
She laughs, but it’s all wrong–like she doesn’t even hear herself
anymore.
“She was so mean to me, always looking down on me. I know I shouldn’t have done it, but she pushed me to the edge and I had no choice. I didn’t have anyone else-”
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“Céline,” I say, my voice low and shaking. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
My hands are trembling. My mind spinning. I don’t even know where the air in my lungs has gone,
She just stares at me, eyes glossy, lips still moving.
And just like that, I think I’m finally seeing the real Céline.
Her voice rises like a storm, sharp and bitter. “It’s not fair! Why does she get everything?! The men. The business deals. The money. And she doesn’t even care!”
She throws her head back and lets out this wild, broken laugh. There’s something unhinged in her eyes–something that makes my stomach drop. She’s not just angry.
She’s gone.
“God, she’s so pathetic. Always smiling like her life isn’t one big joke. But even the best people have weaknesses, right?” Her mouth twists into this cruel, gleeful smile. “She’s a corpse in bed. It was easy to get to her husbands. The third one took some work but…” She shrugs like she’s proud. “He paid so well.”
EMILIA
“So that’s what all of this was about?” I ask, barely recognising my own voice. “Money?”
Everything clicks.
Liam’s weird reactions to everything involving Céline. Lacey’s offhanded comment about her being a gold digger.
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How Céline latched onto Tonia’s boyfriend so fast.
Was it really about stealing him away from Tonia? Because he’s some crypto millionaire.
God, I really should have listened to Liam and stayed away from her, but in the face of Irma, his warnings had completely left my mind.
Now, I’ve walked straight into this mess.
And I’m left wondering – how long has Liam known? What exactly did he know?
Céline’s face twists. “You wouldn’t understand anything I I go through,” she snaps, like I’ve just insulted her mere existence. “You don’t know what it’s like to have nothing. To wake up every day knowing you’re stuck while someone else gets everything.”
Her voice rises. Her eyes burn.
“To sit there and think: What does she have that I don’t? Why does she get the perfect life? And what can I do to take it away from her?”
For a second, I just stare at her.
Then I laugh. Bitter and loud.
She flinches. “What the hell are you laughing at?!”
“You,” I say, “You’re actually insane.”
I feel something twist in my chest – something sharp and sick. Not because of Céline. But because of Lacey,
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God, Lacey.
How heartbroken she’ll be when she realises the one person. she trusted… was the one setting her up to fall.
I shut my eyes for a second, try to breathe through the bitterness rising in my throat. When I open them again, I look Céline dead in the eye.
“No,” I say. “You’re right. I don’t understand. Because I’m not a selfish, twisted bitch who takes joy in destroying her best friend.”
She goes still. Her face freezes.
But I’m not done.
“I could never hurt Tessa the way you hurt Lacey.”
I think about Lacey’s constant laughter, the way she lights up every room. The way she drinks too much when she thinks no one’s watching. Her three divorces. The pain beneath the perverted jokes.
Is any of it real?
Is that why Liam worries about her drinking?
Everything feels heavier now.
“You spent all that time blaming Irma for everything, but in the end… you’re exactly what you accused her of being,” I say, voice shaking now. “You tear people down to feel powerful.”
Céline’s lips part like she wants to argue – but nothing comes
out.
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Because she knows I’m right.
And it finally shows.
My ears are ringing. I feel dizzy, like the hallway is spinning
around me. Every memory of Céline starts replaying in my head
–
– but none of them add up. She’s never been this person.
