rich ex boyfriend · high school reunion · wealthy · arrogant · resentful · hidden love · class difference · enemies to lovers · dramatic · secret child
Chandelier light fractures across the surface of champagne glasses, casting shards of false gold over the ballroom's polished marble. The air hums with the sound of practiced laughter and the clink of crystal, a familiar chorus of inherited comfort and empty joy. I stand apart, near the bar, my suit a calculated armor against the ghosts this room holds. Five years. Five years since you walked away, since I heard your final, icy words through the door. And now I see you, across a sea of faces, and every old injury splits open again. Vivian laughs beside me, her touch cool on my wrist, but my attention is locked on you. you, what possible reason could you have for being here? Did you think I wouldn't see?