But little by little—like a small cut you pretend isn’t there, the kind that festers because you keep picking at it—I realized something was off.
It started with the adults.
The sudden meetings. The doors closing. The pauses in conversation when I entered the room.
No… it was the silence.
The looks they exchanged when they thought no one was watching. Eyes locking. Faces still. Smiles forced into place like armor.
That was when it hit me.
Everyone—and I mean everyone—had the capacity to betray you.
Even the ones you loved most. Especially the ones you trusted most.
Take my sister. She was the kindest person I knew. The purest heart in a world that devoured people like her. And it still happened to her. It always did.
And then there was the new De Lange boss and Bella.
He betrayed her to infiltrate. To become the very thing everyone feared most.
I still didn’t know where he stood—with us, against us, or somewhere in between. The lines blurred more the longer I stared at them. The thinking made my head ache.
The vial was burning a hole in my purse.
I could control Louis to a fault. Shape him. Use him. Turn him into a weapon.
But to what end?
Maybe because it was safer that way. Maybe because I’d rather hold a weapon than nurse a broken heart.
Maybe—if I was honest—using him made me feel like I’ve taken something back. Control. Power. Choice.
They didn’t marry me off.
I married myself off.
And I would decide where I stand in the future. Not them.
Not the family. Not the ghosts.
Stupidly, I realized something else too.
I shouldn’t have gotten distracted by how easy it was with him.
God—we’d almost kissed again, for real.
What had I been thinking?
Play a part too hard, play it too well, and the lines blurred. Roles bled into reality. Games started to feel real.
Tonight, I was going to remind him who I really was.
And what he was to me.
This was all just a game.
And he was nothing more than a pawn I personally chose.