EVELYN POV
The penthouse is too quiet when she opens the door.
Evelyn comes home early from her shift at the restaurant. She was supposed to work until close but her manager let her go because it was slow. She wanted to surprise Darian. She wanted to tell him about the business promotion her boss offered her. She wanted to say yes to marriage and mean it.
Instead, she hears sounds from the bedroom.
A woman's laugh. Low and familiar. It's not a sound that belongs in her home.
She walks toward the bedroom slowly. Her heart is already breaking but her mind hasn't caught up yet. Her mind is still trying to believe there's a reasonable explanation. Her mind is trying to make this into something that isn't what she thinks it is.
She reaches the door and pushes it open.
Darian is in their bed. His body is moving on top of someone else. And when the woman beneath him shifts, when Evelyn sees her face, everything stops.
It's Bliss.
Her stepsister. The girl who's been poison since childhood. The girl who whispered lies to Sable about Evelyn's character. The girl who's smiled cruelly at her a thousand times.
They're tangled together like they belong in that bed. Like they've been doing this for longer than Evelyn wants to know.
For a moment, Evelyn can't breathe.
"Get out," she says.
Her voice doesn't sound like hers. It sounds like it's coming from someone else entirely. Someone outside her body watching this happen.
Darian scrambles. He pulls the sheet up like that matters. Like covering his body will undo what he's done. His face goes red and his eyes won't meet hers.
"Evelyn, it's not—" he starts.
"Get out of my bed," she says quietly.
Bliss sits up slowly. She's naked and beautiful and completely unashamed. She's smiling like she's won something. She's smiling like she's been waiting for this moment her entire life.
"Oh Evelyn," Bliss says sweetly. "You're home early."
Evelyn can't move. She can't speak. She can only stand there while the two people she trusted most betray her in the worst way possible.
"Did you really think he loved you?" Bliss asks. Her voice is dripping with poison. "Did you really think a man like Darian would choose someone like you? You're the bastard charity case. You're the poor girl Sable picked up out of pity. You were always going to be temporary. I'm the real daughter. I'm the one who belongs here."
Darian finishes dressing without looking at either of them. He leaves the bedroom and a few seconds later, Evelyn hears the front door close. He just leaves. No apology. No explanation. No last look at her.
Just gone.
Bliss gets dressed slowly, making sure Evelyn watches. Making sure Evelyn understands that she won. She walks past Evelyn on her way out and whispers, "Good luck with the rest of your life."
Then she's gone too.
Evelyn stands alone in her bedroom and realizes that her whole life just fell apart in five minutes. Her engagement. Her trust. Her future. All of it destroyed before she could even process it.
She picks up her phone with shaking hands and calls her mother.
Her mother answers on the first ring even though it's early evening. She's always awake now. Worry has made her an insomniac.
"Evelyn? What's wrong?"
"I'm coming home," Evelyn says. Her voice is hollow. "Tell Marcus I'm coming home."
"What happened?"
"I'll explain when I get there."
She throws clothes into a bag without thinking. She doesn't care what she's taking. She grabs her laptop and her father's jewelry and leaves everything else behind. She's crying so hard she can barely see.
By the time her mother and brother arrive, Evelyn has stripped the bed, changed the sheets, and tried to make the penthouse feel like he was never there. But his smell is still in the air. His cologne is still on the pillows. His absence is everywhere.
Her mother holds her while she breaks. Her brother stands guard by the window like he's protecting her from the world.
They take her to her childhood home. The house that's smaller than her penthouse bedroom. The house that smells like her mother's cooking and her brother's books and memories of her real father.
For hours, Evelyn sits in silence. She doesn't cry anymore. She's past that. She's in some strange place where nothing feels real.
Her mother brings her tea. Her brother sits next to her and doesn't say anything. They just let her be broken.
By nine in the evening, Evelyn can't stand being still anymore. She can't stand thinking about Darian. She can't stand replaying the moment she saw them together.
"I'm going out," she says suddenly.
Her mother looks worried. "Where?"
"Somewhere. Anywhere. I just need to not be here."
She finds a black dress in her childhood closet. She finds makeup she hasn't worn in years. She does her hair and makeup carefully, like she's building armor. Like if she looks beautiful, maybe she'll feel less broken.
There's a masked lounge downtown. Nocturne. She's heard people talk about it. A place where rich people go to hide. A place where nobody has to be who they really are.
That's exactly what she needs.
She gets in a taxi and tells the driver the address. The ride feels like traveling to another world. The city changes from residential neighborhoods to the glittering downtown where skyscrapers touch the sky.
When she arrives at Nocturne, there's a line of beautiful people waiting to get in. She finds a silver mask on the entrance table and ties it around her face. The mask covers half of who she is, which feels honest right now.
Inside, the lounge is packed with music and lights and people pretending to be someone else. Women in expensive dresses. Men in tailored suits. Everyone hiding. Everyone broken in some way they don't want the world to see.
She orders wine at the bar. The bartender doesn't ask questions. He just pours.
The first glass tastes like poison. The second glass makes her stop thinking about Darian's eyes when he looked at her with no apology. The third glass makes her believe that maybe, somehow, she'll survive this.
That's when she feels him.
His presence before she hears his voice. His attention like heat on her skin. Someone is looking at her like she matters.
She doesn't look at him. She's done with men. She's done with trusting. She's done with believing that anyone will stay.
"You look like you're deciding whether to burn the world down or let it burn you," he says.
Evelyn turns slowly. The man is tall. Broad-shouldered. Beautiful in a way that feels dangerous. He wears a black mask but his eyes are visible. Storm-gray eyes that look at her like she's the only real thing in this room.
She should tell him to go away.
Instead, she takes his hand.