Chapter 3

During the first intermission, I went to the lobby to get some air. The memory of her words was still ringing in my ears, making it hard to breathe.

As I was standing by the refreshment table, a man bumped into me, hard, sloshing his champagne.

"Hey, watch where you're going," he said, his voice dripping with arrogance. He was handsome in a sharp, pointy way, dressed in an expensive-looking suit that seemed a size too tight.

"You bumped into me," I said calmly.

He looked me up and down, his eyes lingering on my simple black sweater and jeans. It wasn't the designer suit I usually wore to business meetings. I had dressed for comfort on the flight.

"Right," he sneered. "People like you usually don't have tickets this good. Did you sneak in?"

Before I could respond, Chloe's voice cut through the air.

"Leo! Ethan!"

She was walking toward us, a radiant smile on her face. Leo' s expression immediately softened when he saw her.

I watched her approach. For a split second, when her eyes met mine, I saw a flash of pure panic. It was there and gone in an instant, replaced by a mask of perfect, charming composure. She was a performer, on stage and off.

"Ethan! I can't believe you're here!" she exclaimed, rushing over to hug me. It was a theatrical hug, all for show. "What a wonderful surprise!"

She pulled back and looped her arm through mine, turning to the man she called Leo.

"Leo, this is my dear friend, Ethan Miller. I was just telling him I wished my friends could be here!"

She emphasized the word "friend," her grip on my arm a subtle warning.

My heart felt like a lead weight in my chest. I wanted to pull my arm away, to call her out on her lies right there in the crowded lobby. But I looked at her face, her beautiful, pleading eyes, and the fight went out of me. I was still caught in her web.

"It's good to meet you," I said, my voice flat.

"Leo Sterling," he said, shaking my hand with a limp, disinterested grip. "So, you're the 'friend'. Chloe talks about you sometimes."

He said "friend" with the same dismissive tone she had used. It was clear they had discussed me.

"Ethan is an old friend from back home," Chloe chimed in, her voice unnaturally bright. "He's been so supportive of my career."

She was rewriting our history in real-time, reducing our years together into a casual, supportive friendship. And I, like a fool, was letting her. I just nodded, a silent accomplice to my own humiliation.

Leo Sterling looked at me again, a smirk playing on his lips.

"Supportive, huh?" he said, his eyes flicking over my clothes again. "That's nice. It must be tough to keep up with Chloe's world. This sort of thing," he gestured vaguely at the opulent lobby, "doesn't come cheap."

The implication was clear. He thought I was poor. He thought I couldn't possibly afford to be in the same room as them. The irony was so thick it was suffocating.