Chapter 2

The next evening was the annual dinner party my parents hosted with Liam' s family. It was a tradition, a celebration of the friendship between our two families that spanned decades. This year, it was supposed to be special, our first one as an official couple. Now, the thought of it made my stomach churn.

I spent an hour in front of my mirror, trying to paint a smile on my face. I put on the dress Liam had said he liked, a soft blue one that usually made me feel pretty. Tonight, it felt like a costume. My reflection looked back at me, a stranger with haunted eyes. I took a deep breath, trying to steady myself. I could do this. I just had to get through one night. For my parents. For his.

When I walked downstairs, the house was already filled with the low hum of conversation and the smell of my mom's cooking. Liam's mom, a perpetually anxious woman named Sarah, rushed over to me the moment I entered the living room.

"Chloe, dear! You look lovely," she said, pulling me into a hug that felt a little too tight. "But where's Liam? I thought he was coming with you."

My carefully constructed composure almost cracked.

"He had a last-minute study group," I lied, the words tasting like ash in my mouth. "He said he's so sorry, but he'll try to stop by later if he can."

It was a plausible excuse. Liam was a dedicated student. Sarah bought it, though a flicker of disappointment crossed her face.

"Oh, that boy. He works too hard," she sighed, patting my arm. "Well, we'll save some food for him."

I nodded, forcing another smile. I spent the next hour making small talk, avoiding my parents' concerned glances. I knew they could tell something was off, but they were too polite to say anything in front of our guests.

As dinner was served, Sarah started to get restless. She kept checking her phone, a frown line deepening between her brows.

"He's not answering his phone," she said to her husband, Mark, her voice tight with worry. "That's not like him. He always answers when I call."

Mark, a calm and steady man, tried to soothe her. "He's probably just got it on silent, honey. He's at the library, remember? He'll call when he's done."

But Sarah couldn't relax. She excused herself from the table and I could hear her pacing in the hallway, her voice a low, anxious murmur as she left yet another voicemail.

"Liam, honey, it's Mom. Please just call me back. I'm starting to worry."

My own phone buzzed in my pocket. I pulled it out under the table, my heart pounding. It wasn't a call. It was a notification from the social media app. Olivia had posted a new story.

I clicked on it, my hands clammy. It was a short video, shot from the passenger seat of a car. It panned from her smiling face to Liam in the driver's seat, his focus on the road. Then she zoomed in on the car's center console. His phone was there, screen dark. She' d added a caption with a winking emoji: "Peace and quiet mode activated. No interruptions tonight."

He hadn't silenced his phone. He had turned it off. Deliberately. So his mother's frantic calls wouldn't interrupt his little joyride with Olivia.

A wave of cold fury washed over me, so intense it was dizzying. I looked up from my phone and saw Sarah walk back into the dining room, her face pale with distress. She was wringing her hands, her eyes darting around the room as if searching for an answer. The sight of her raw, maternal panic, all because her son couldn't be bothered to send a single text message, made me sick.

He could lie to me. He could cheat on me. But to do this to his own mother, to casually inflict this kind of pain on her without a second thought... what kind of person was he?

I thought about how he was with me, so sweet and attentive, always saying the right thing. Then I thought about the boy described in Olivia's posts, manipulative and two-faced. And now, this. The son who ignored his mother's desperate calls to be with another girl. He was a different person to everyone, a chameleon who changed his colors to suit his own selfish needs. The Liam I thought I knew, the boy I had loved since we were kids, didn't exist. He never had.