Chapter 2

Elara felt like the floor was tilting. She was seeing and hearing things that couldn't be real. He called her by her name. Elara, not baby?

"I should leave?" she asked in stark disbelief.

She shook her head, trying to clear the fog in her brain. "Wait... so this party is not for us?" Elara needed clarity.

"No," Vivienne stretched the word out in her annoying valley-girl accent. She stepped closer, to Elara.. "It’s my birthday party," she snarled.

"Your birthday was months ago," Elara fired back. "Why would my boyfriend be throwing you a party now?"

She turned to Alex, but he had already shifted his gaze away, looking at anything but her. The silence from him was like a physical blow. Elara reached out, her fingers trembling as she grabbed his chin and forced his face back toward hers.

"Look me in the eye, you bastard!" she screamed. "Look at me while you’re breaking my heart! It’s the least I deserve!"

Alex finally stared her in the eye. But the man she saw wasn't the Alex who doted on her. These weren't the warm eyes she knew. They were cold, hard, and completely devoid of affection.

"I’m your girlfriend!" she said, hitting her chest with her fist, the sound thudding in the quiet room. "I'm your 'baby'! You told me that every single day!"

He didn't flinch. He looked at her—really looked at her—with a face that showed no mercy.

"Not anymore," he said, his voice flat. "I’m with Vivi now."

The crowd gasped. The whispers turned into laughter and judgment. Elara stood there in her white dress, the dress she thought she would be proposed in, feeling like the world's biggest fool.

"I thought we said forever," Elara whispered, the words trembling. "Was all of it a lie? And of all people... my best friend?"

Vivienne cleared her throat, a smug look on her face, but Elara didn't even glance at her. Her eyes were locked on Alex, searching for a single spark of the man she loved.

"You’re embarrassing yourself," Alex said, his voice dropping to a cold, warning tone. "Lower your voice. We’ll talk later."

He tried to walk away, but Elara reached out and grabbed the hem of his expensive suit jacket. She wouldn't let him go.

"You can't just walk away," she cried, her voice cracking. "Not like you didn't just waste three years of my life. I thought you loved me!"

She closed the distance between them, desperate for him to take it back. "You said you loved me, Alex. You said it every night."

Alex leaned down, his face inches from hers. But there was no kiss coming. "Lara, don't kid yourself," he hissed so only she could hear. "You aren't that delusional."

He straightened up, brushing her hand off his jacket like she was dirt.

Vivienne chimed in, stepping forward to stand right at Alex's side. "Did you really think a bottom-feeder like you was enough for a man like Alexander Sterling?" She laughed. "Look at you, Elara. You’re an orphan with nothing. You were just a distraction until he was ready for a real woman."

Alexander stood there in silence with an unreadable expression.

He didn't try defend her, Hell he didn't even look at her. Elara felt a cold chill run through her. Was that how he truly felt? Was she really just a "delusional" distraction?

Elara turned to Vivienne with her tear-filled eyes. "Vivi... I thought we were friends. We’ve been friends for so long. Since college..."

"Friends?" Vivienne scoffed with a look of pure disgust on her face. "Why would a poor nobody like you think you could ever be friends with someone like me? You were a charity project, Elara. Nothing more."

The room felt like it was shrinking. The judgment from the crowd was suffocating. Elara looked back at Alexander, waiting for him to snap out of it, to tell everyone it was a mistake.

Instead, he looked over her head toward the back of the room.

"Security," Alexander called out, his voice loud and commanding. "Make sure Elara leaves the premises immediately. She’s trespassing."

Elara’s heart didn't just break; it shattered. The man who had doted on her, who had searched for her, was now calling her a trespasser.

Two large men in black suits appeared behind her. They didn't be gentle. They grabbed her by her upper arms, their grip bruising the skin of her white dress.

"Alex, please!" she cried out as they began to drag her backward across the polished floor. "What happened? What did I do?"

He didn't answer. He simply turned his back to her, picked up his wine glass, and leaned in to whisper something in Vivienne’s ear. Vivienne laughed and the sound echoed in Elara's ears as the heavy gold doors swung shut.