Chapter 1 — FIFTY

ELLIE'S POV

I did not want a party.

I said it clearly.More than once. But my twins, Maya and Ethan, looked at me the way children do when they have already made up their minds. The party would happen.

So I stood in my living room.I held a glass of champagne I did not ask for. I smiled at people who thought my life was a success story.

“Mom.”

Maya’s voice pulled me back.She walked toward me. She looked perfect. Her smile was bright. Her dress was beautiful. She still believed in good things.

“You are doing it again,”she said softly.

“What?”I asked.

“That smile,”she said. “The one you use when you are not happy.”

“I am fine.”

She did not argue.She sighed. It was the sigh of a daughter who has watched her mother be strong for too long. “Please. Just for tonight. It is your fiftieth birthday.”

“I know how old I am.”

“That is not what I mean,”she said.

Ethan appeared next to her. He had a drink in his hand. “You look great, Mom.”

“I paid a lot to look this calm,”I said.

He laughed.“See? You are having fun.”

I was not having fun.

The house was too full.People from Tulsa I hardly knew. People who knew my name because of my clothing brand. People who thought money meant a happy life.

They smiled at me like I was proof that dreams come true.

If only they knew.

My divorce was fifteen years ago.I learned to survive. I raised my twins alone. I built my business from nothing. I learned to walk into rooms like this one and not break.

But love?Love did not survive.

I moved away from the crowd. I stood by the window. I looked at the quiet street. Tulsa never changes. News travels fast here. Secrets do not last.

“Excuse me.”

I turned.

A man stood there.He held a drink. He looked out of place. He was young. He was tall. His eyes were curious, not judging. He did not belong with people twice his age.

“Yes?”I said.

He paused.Then he spoke. “You know, despite how beautiful the sky is—blue and white—people still get tired of looking at it,” he said. “But do you know one thing people will never get tired of looking at?”

I raised one eyebrow.“What?”

He smiled a slow,easy smile. “You.”

I laughed.I could not stop myself. “That is a bold thing to say.”

“I know,”he said. “I almost did not say it.”

“But you did.”

“Now I hope you do not throw your drink at me.”

“I will not,”I said. “But that line needs work.”

He smiled wider.“That is fair.”

I looked at him closely.“Are you supposed to be here?”

“I was invited.”

“By who?”

“A friend of your son.”

I sighed.I understood now. “That makes sense.”

He leaned a little closer. He lowered his voice. “You look like you want to be somewhere else.”

“I tried to stop this party,”I said, the words escaping me more freely than I’d intended. “I never wanted a room full of people pretending my life is perfect. I’d rather be anywhere else.”

“But here we are,”he said.

“Yes,”I said. “Here we are.”

He held out his hand.“My name is Mike.”

The name was plain and simple.I shook his hand. His hand was warm. A current, faint and startling, traveled up my arm. “I am Ellie.”

“I know,”he said. He did not let go of my hand right away. “You are the woman who did not want a party.”

We began to talk. We talked about small things. The music was too loud. Tulsa could be boring. Parties went on too long. His voice was a low, steady hum that cut through the party’s noise, and I found myself leaning in to catch every word. It had been years—years—since a man’s mere way of speaking made heat pool low in my stomach. The feeling was so foreign, so violently alive, that I had to consciously hold myself still.

“How old are you?” I asked.

“Twenty-four.”

I knew I should walk away.“You should not be talking to me.”

“Why not?”

“I’m twice your age.This is a party for my peers. You’re a child here.”

He looked at me.He really looked. “I’m not talking to the room. I’m talking to you.” He leaned in slightly. “And I have a question for you.”

“What?”

“Why are you letting a stranger see how lonely you are?”

His words were a physical blow.I felt my breath catch.

“That’s incredibly rude,”I managed.

“Maybe,”he said, his voice softening. “But is it wrong? You look like someone who hasn’t been seen in a very long time.”

His words didn’t just hurt. They dismantled me. Because he had seen me. Stripped bare of the brand, the money, the resilient divorcée façade. He saw the quiet, untouched core of me.

I did not answer.

Someone called my name from across the room.I ignored them.

“Do you want to get some air?”he asked.

“It is my party.I cannot leave.”

“Why not?”he said. “It is your house. Your life.”

He held out his hand again.Not to shake, but to take. A decision hovered in the air. I looked at his hand, then back at his face, at the knowing quiet in his eyes. The wanting I’d felt all night crested, overwhelming every cautious bone in my body. I placed my hand in his.

The moment our palms met,something in me loosened, a knot pulled tight for fifteen years. He didn’t lead me toward the patio doors, but toward a side entrance, away from the crowd.

“My car’s out back,”he said, his voice close to my ear.

“This is a terrible idea,”I whispered, even as I let him guide me through the dim hallway.

“Then why are you still holding my hand?”he asked.

I had no answer.My body had chosen. We slipped out into the balmy night, the roar of the party fading to a muffled beat. His car was, as promised, an unremarkable sedan parked in the shadow of the oak tree. It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered except the feeling of his hand on the small of my back as he opened the passenger door.

His apartment was small and clean. It was not fancy. We sat on his couch, and the talking continued, but it had changed. It was softer, deeper. We talked until our words ran out, until the space between us on the couch became an impossible distance. When he finally kissed me, I didn’t think about my age. I didn’t think about the rules. I didn’t think about tomorrow.

I only thought about one thing.It had been so long since someone made me feel wanted. And I wanted him back with a ferocity that scared me.

---

The sun woke me up.

For a moment,I was still. Then I remembered everything.

I sat up.My dress was folded neatly on a chair. Mike was asleep next to me. He looked peaceful and young.

I found my phone.I had missed calls.

Maya had called four times.

I went into the bathroom.I closed the door. I called her back.

“Mom,”she said. Her voice was fast and worried. “Where did you go last night?”

“I left the party early,”I said.

“You did not tell anyone.”

“I am a grown woman.I do not need to ask for permission.”

There was a quiet pause.

“Mom,”Maya said. Her voice changed. It was careful, strained. “Aunt Clara called me.”

My heart beat faster.“Why?”

“She said she saw you leave.You left with a man.”

I closed my eyes.Of course. In Tulsa, everyone sees everything.

“She described him to me,”Maya said.

I did not speak.My chest felt tight.

“Mom,”Maya said. Her voice was very soft now, cracked with a pain I didn’t yet understand. “What is his name?”

I looked at the closed bathroom door.I thought of the man asleep in the next room. Mike. A simple, honest name.

“His name is Mike,”I said.

The silence on the phone was heavy.It lasted too long.

“Mom,”Maya whispered. The whisper was full of a devastation that reached through the line and gripped my heart. “That is not his name.”

The world did not spin.It froze.

“What do you mean?”My own voice sounded far away.

“The man you left with,”Maya said. Her words were slow and clear, each one a shard of glass. “His name is not Mike. His name is Leo.”

I could not breathe.

“He was my boyfriend,”Maya said. The truth was not a knife; it was a cleaver. “For a year. We broke up six months ago. That man is Leo. And he just told you his name was Mike.”

I leaned against the cold bathroom wall.I saw his easy smile in my mind. I heard his voice. My name is Mike.

A lie.A simple, terrible lie.

Why?

The question echoed in the silent,sterile room. Why did he lie? What did he want? And what else, what else, did he lie about?

I knew one thing for sure,with a certainty that turned my blood to ice.

Nothing would ever be the same again.