Chapter 2 – A Smell of Betrayal

POV: Seraphina Marcell

Headlights sweep across the window, cutting through the rain.

Alex is here.

I rise from the bed, legs stiff, heart still hammering from the silence below. The house hasn’t made another sound since the vase shattered. No footsteps. No voices. Just stillness, the kind that feels too deliberate, like the air itself is holding its breath.

I grab my coat from the chair, my phone, my purse. My fingers tremble when they touch the brass doorknob. I hesitate, listening one more time. Nothing. Not even the hum of the central air.

“Mom?” I whisper.

No answer.

The word dies in my throat.

Screw this.

I slip into the hallway, closing the door behind me as quietly as I can. The marble floor feels cold beneath my bare feet. The smell of wine lingers faintly in the air, rich, sharp, and wrong. My pulse races as I descend the staircase, each step creaking like it wants to give me away.

At the bottom, something glints under the chandelier light.

The shards of the vase.

They glitter like small, dangerous stars across the floor. Red wine, or maybe something else, stains the white rug beneath them.

My breath catches.

“Mom?”

Still nothing.

My throat tightens. I force myself to look away, to keep moving. Alex’s car idles at the end of the long drive, headlights washing over the front doors.

I tell myself it’s fine. They’re fine. Just another fight. Another broken thing to replace in the morning.

I open the door and step into the night air.

Cold rain brushes my cheeks, sharp as needles. The smell of wet asphalt and pine fills my lungs, grounding me just enough to move.

Through the windshield, I see him.

Alex leans against the hood of his car, scrolling through his phone, the streetlight cutting along his jawline. His dark hair curls slightly at the ends, damp from the mist. His jacket clings to his shoulders, perfectly tailored, a little rebellious against the posh quiet of my world.

For a moment, the tension in my chest loosens.

He looks up and smiles. That easy, careless smile that used to melt me without effort.

“Hey, angel,” he says as I approach.

His voice is warm, but there’s something rushed beneath it. His eyes dart briefly past me toward the house.

“You, okay?”

I nod, even though I’m not. “Yeah. Just needed to get out.”

“Rough night?”

I huff a laugh; more air than sound. “Is there any other kind in that house?”

He grins, brushing his hand through his hair. “Come on. Let’s get you somewhere less haunted.”

The rain starts again, soft but steady. I glance back at the mansion, the tall windows glowing faintly, the outline of a perfect life. But the stain on the rug flashes in my mind again. Dark. Spreading.

“Hey,” Alex says gently, breaking my stare. “You don’t have to go back tonight, you know.”

I nod again, forcing a smile. “That’s kind of the plan.”

He opens the passenger door for me, ever the gentleman when it suits him. I step closer, and that’s when I see it, on his wrist, faint but visible in the glow of the dashboard light.

A streak.

Dark red.

I blink. “Is that blood?”

He glances down, startled, then laughs quickly. “Oh uh, no. Paint. I helped Jack move his art supplies earlier. He spilled something.”

The lie is smooth, almost lazy. But it lands wrong in my chest.

I study him for a second. The easy smile. The shift of his weight. The faint scent of spearmint gum and rain on his jacket.

He’s lying. I can’t prove it but I can feel it.

Still, I nod. Because pretending feels easier than believing the alternative.

I slide into the car, the leather seat cold against my skin. He rounds the hood and gets in beside me. The engine hums softly as he starts it, headlights illuminating the long drive out of the estate.

The silence between us feels too heavy. Too full.

“You’re quiet tonight,” he says after a while.

“Just tired.”

He glances at me, smirking. “Tired of them or tired of me?”

“Don’t make me choose,” I say, half-laughing, half-serious.

He chuckles and reaches over to squeeze my hand. His palm is warm, calloused in a way that used to make me feel safe. But as his thumb brushes over my skin, something shifts.

A scent rises, faint but distinct. Sweet. Expensive. Familiar.

It clings to his sleeve, subtle beneath the cologne.

Jasmine. Vanilla. Amber.

My pulse stutters.

No.

That scent…

It’s Lys Éternel.

The perfume my roommate, Avery, wears.

The one I borrowed once and never forgot because she told me it was a limited edition from Paris, impossible to find here.

And now it’s on him.

I freeze, hand still in his, forcing a smile I don’t feel.

He doesn’t notice. Or maybe he pretends not to. His other hand rests casually on the steering wheel, tapping to a rhythm only he hears.

The car rolls through the gates, and for the first time tonight, I wish it wouldn’t.

Because as the mansion fades behind us, the ache in my chest shifts into something colder.

“Everything okay?” he asks, glancing over.

I nod, swallowing the taste of bitterness. “Yeah.”

But the scent lingers.

Thick. Heavy. Unmistakable.

Every breath reminds me of it, her perfume, his jacket, their lie wrapped between the two of them.

And suddenly, I’m not thinking about the vase or the silence or the blood on the rug.

I’m thinking about Avery laughing at her phone last week, texting someone she refused to name. About Alex showing up late, his excuses always soft enough to soothe me.

I should say something. Ask. Accuse. Anything.

Instead, I look out the window. The rain streaks the glass, city lights bleeding into one another, everything beautiful and blurred.

Because that’s what I am, isn’t it?

Blurred.

Caught somewhere between believing and breaking.

He squeezes my hand again. “You’re really quiet tonight,” he says, smiling.

“Just tired,” I repeat.

But in my head, I hear another voice, the one whispering that sometimes betrayal doesn’t come crashing like a vase.

Sometimes it just smells like someone else’s perfume.

The car slows at a red light. The scent swells again, stronger now that the air is still.

Jasmine. Vanilla.

Her.

My heart beats once. Twice. Harder.