Chapter 15

Elena Cruz

Elena fell asleep without meaning to. One minute she was working on the assignment, the next she was waking up disoriented with her laptop still open beside her and drool on her pillow. She blinked at her phone.

9:47 PM.

She’d been asleep for almost three hours. Drifted to sleep the moment Lila left . Elena sat up, groggy and confused about what had woken her. Then she heard it.

Music. Laughter. Voices carrying up from downstairs.

She got out of bed and opened her door. The sounds were clearer now. Multiple people talking over each other. Glass clinking. The unmistakable buzz of a party happening somewhere below.

She walked to the top of the stairs and looked down.

The entire first floor had been transformed. People filled the living room and spilled out onto the back patio. Well-dressed adults with wine glasses and cocktails, laughing and talking in clusters. The furniture had been rearranged. Catering staff moved through the crowd with trays of appetizers. Someone had set up a bar in the corner. Outside, she could see the glow of a barbecue and more people gathered around it.

What the hell?

Elena descended the stairs slowly, still half-asleep and completely confused. When had this started? How had she slept through people setting all of this up?

She reached the bottom and stood there awkwardly, suddenly very aware that she was in leggings and an oversized t-shirt while everyone else looked like they’d stepped out of a magazine.

“Elena!”

Vivian appeared from the crowd, wine glass in hand, smiling that perfect hostess smile. She was in a silk dress that probably cost more than Elena’s entire wardrobe, her makeup flawless, her hair styled in soft waves.

“I didn’t know you were home,” Vivian said, already taking Elena’s arm. “Come. Join us.”

“I was just…I fell asleep. I didn’t know there was…”

“It’s just a small gathering. Some friends. Nothing formal.” Vivian guided her toward a group of people standing by the fireplace. “Everyone, this is Elena. She’s staying with us for a while.”

The group turned. Friendly smiles. Polite hellos. Questions about where she was from and what she was studying.

Elena answered on autopilot, still trying to wake up fully and figure out what was happening.

Were these Alex and Vivian’s friends? Was this a party? It didn’t feel like a party. It felt like something else. Something casual but expensive. Something people with money just did on a random weeknight.

Someone handed her a glass of wine.

Elena took it without thinking, more to have something to hold than because she wanted it.

The conversation flowed around her. Someone was talking about a vacation in the Mediterranean. Someone else was complaining about real estate prices. Vivian laughed at something a man said and touched his arm in that way that meant nothing but looked like everything.

Elena stood there feeling like an imposter.

She lifted the wine glass to her lips, not really planning to drink it, when someone bumped into her from behind.

The wine sloshed forward and splashed across the front of her shirt.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry,” a woman said, turning around with wide apologetic eyes.

“It’s fine. It’s fine.” Elena looked down at her shirt. Red wine soaking through the gray fabric. “I just need to… I’ll go clean this up.”

She excused herself and headed for the downstairs bathroom, but when she got there, someone was already inside. The door was closed. She could hear water running.

Elena stood there for a moment, pressing paper towels against her shirt and making it worse. The wine wasn’t coming out. It was just spreading.

She gave up and headed for the stairs.

She’d just go to her room, change her shirt, and come back down. Five minutes.

Upstairs was quieter. The party noise faded to a dull hum as she climbed. Elena walked down the hallway toward her room, already pulling her stained shirt over her head.

Then she heard voices.

Coming from the master bedroom. The door wasn’t fully closed. Just cracked open enough that sound carried through.

Elena froze.

“…that girl is trouble. I don’t want her here.”

Vivian’s voice. Sharp and angry in a way Elena had never heard before.

“She can’t leave. She needs me to protect her.”

Alex was firm and unyielding.

Elena’s heart started pounding. She shouldn’t be listening to this. Shouldn’t be standing here in the hallway eavesdropping on a private conversation.

But she couldn’t move.

“Protect her from what, Alexander? Or protect yourself from what you’re feeling?”

“This isn’t about that.”

“Isn’t it? Because from where I’m standing…”

“Vivian, stop.”

“No. I’ve been quiet long enough. I’ve watched you look at her. I’ve watched you buy her things. I’ve watched you act like she’s…”

“She’s Miguel’s daughter. That’s all.”

“That’s all?” Vivian’s laugh was bitter. “You really expect me to believe that?”

Then a ilence.

Elena’s hands were shaking. She should leave. She should walk away right now before they heard her.

But her feet wouldn’t move.

“I’m not having this conversation.”

“Of course you’re not. Because having it would mean admitting the truth. And you’ve never been good at that, have you?”

The voices faded and she heard footsteps. Elena’s heart jumped into her throat.She turned and walked quickly toward her room, her stained shirt clutched in her hand. She made it inside and closed the door just as she heard the master bedroom door open fully.

Elena pressed her back against her door, breathing hard.

Vivian had been talking about her.

“That girl is trouble. I don’t want her here.”Vivian didn’t want her here. Had never wanted her here. And now Elena knew for sure.

But why?Why did Vivian see her as a threat? What had Elena done except exist in a house that wasn’t hers, accept help she didn’t ask for, and try to stay out of everyone’s way?

Elena pushed off the door and grabbed a clean shirt from her closet. Her hands were still shaking as she pulled it on.

She didn’t understand.

Didn’t understand what Vivian had meant by “protect yourself from what you’re feeling.”

Did that mean Dr. Hale had feelings for her?She struggled to understand the conversation

She sat on the edge of her bed and pressed her hands against her face didn’t want to be trouble. Didn’t want to be the reason Alex and Vivian were fighting. Didn’t want to be here at all.

But she also had nowhere else to go. Her father had sent her here. Had trusted Alex to keep her safe. Had told her to stay and not ask questions.

Vivian wanted her gone. But why? What had Elena done? And what had Vivian meant about Alex protecting himself from what he was feeling?

Elena lay back and stared at the ceiling.

Vivian saw her as a threat. But a threat to what?​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​