Zoe's POV
The water was warm, but it did nothing to quiet the storm inside me.
I stayed submerged up to my shoulders, arms wrapped loosely around myself, fingers tracing invisible patterns along my skin as my thoughts spiraled far beyond the surface of the pool. The party had thinned out—voices softer now, laughter distant, like echoes from a world I didn't quite belong to anymore.
Everything Garrett had said… it clung to me.
Heavy and unsettling.
I had always known Garrett loved Chloe.
That part was never a secret.
It was in the way he looked at her—like she was something fragile and sacred all at once. Like if he reached out too quickly, she might disappear. But it had always been one-sided. Painfully obvious. Chloe never looked at him the same way.
Or at least… that was what I had believed.
My brows pulled together as I leaned my head back against the tiled edge of the pool.
"Using his feelings like that…" I muttered under my breath. "That wasn't nice, Chloe."
