LOGINEvelyn's POVAfter several rounds, everyone had already put down more than a few fingers, and the crackling of the fire mixed with the distant music drifting through the trees while the kind of cold that only existed in the California mountains late at night slowly turned everyone's cheeks a little red, so when it was finally Maddie's turn and she set her beer bottle on her knee with a smile that immediately made me feel as though something terrible was about to happen, I instinctively braced myself.“I have never been dumped.”The moment the words left her mouth, I silently folded down one finger.Frank folded one down too.Julian also folded one down.Only Maddie remained seated there with all five fingers still raised, looking so serenely untouched by heartbreak that it almost felt offensive.Frank stared at her for a full three seconds.“Wait, Maddie.”“Yeah?”“You've never been dumped?”She actually looked a little hurt by his disbelief.“Why does everyone react like they've just
Evelyn 's POVBefore I even had a chance to decide where I wanted to sit, she was already on her feet, steering me toward an empty camping chair positioned directly beside Julian's with the efficiency of a professional event planner executing a seating chart months in the making, and by the time I realized what was happening, she'd already deposited me into the chair and returned to her own seat with the self-congratulatory confidence of someone who believed she had just improved everyone's life.The entire maneuver happened so smoothly and so quickly that I was genuinely suspicious she had rehearsed it beforehand, because there was no hesitation, no uncertainty, and certainly no room for objections, which left me with the uncomfortable realization that in Maddie's mind, she had apparently already determined exactly where every person belonged tonight, and Julian and I had somehow ended up occupying positions she considered both obvious and inevitable.I opened my mouth to protest.Ma
Evelyn's POVThe name hit me like a physical blow, and suddenly every thought inside my head scattered in different directions while my lungs seemed to forget how to work properly, because Sebastian wasn't just a random name in this story but my husband, my ex-husband, Julian's cousin, the man whose wedding Julian had attended, the man whose relationship Julian had been forced to watch from the sidelines for years, and the man Frank had just identified as the reason for an entire decade of heartbreak. Meanwhile, Frank casually took another sip of his hot chocolate and leaned back against the table with infuriating composure, looking for all the world like someone discussing ordinary facts instead of detonating an emotional bomb in the middle of my life.“Evelyn,” he said at last, and there was now genuine disbelief in his voice, the kind that comes from watching an intelligent person repeatedly miss something obvious, “I honestly don't understand how you've managed to do this, because
Evelyn 's POVThe lantern light flickered.“So naturally we became curious.”A smile touched his face.“And once we became curious, the answer wasn't especially difficult to figure out.”The blood rushed loudly in my ears.“Because people don't voluntarily drive across the city several times a week to sit around at a riding club unless there's a reason.”I swallowed.“Then one day,” Frank continued, his voice softening slightly as though he already knew how the story ended before he reached the ending, “he stopped going.”The campsite suddenly felt very far away.The trees.The wind.The lantern.Everything seemed distant.“He stopped showing up. He stopped making excuses. He stopped finding reasons to be there, and from that point forward it was almost like watching somebody close a door and lock it behind them.”My throat tightened.Painfully.“And after that he changed.”Frank looked down at the dirt beneath his feet.“He started working like a man trying to exhaust himself. He fil
Evelyn's POVFrank's gaze drifted toward the darkness beyond the campsite, toward the endless stretch of trees standing beneath the night sky, and for a moment he seemed less like someone having a conversation and more like someone reopening a memory he hadn't visited in years.“The truth is, a group of us spent an embarrassingly long time trying to figure out who the woman was, because for years she existed in our lives almost like an urban legend, the kind of person nobody had ever seen and yet everybody somehow knew was real.”I frowned.“What do you mean?”Frank laughed softly.“I mean exactly that. None of us had ever met her. None of us knew her name, knew what she looked like, knew where she lived, or even knew whether she had the slightest idea that Julian existed, and yet every single one of us knew there was somebody, because Julian made it impossible not to notice.”The lantern beside the tent swayed gently in the wind.“The first time I realized something was wrong was whe
Evelyn 's POVThe wind moved softly through the trees, carrying with it the scent of pine and distant woodsmoke, while somewhere beyond the campsite the mountains disappeared into darkness so complete that it felt as though the entire world had narrowed to the small circle of lantern light surrounding us.I looked down at the cooling hot chocolate in my hands.For a moment, I wasn't sure how to explain something that sounded so selfish once it was spoken aloud.“On top of everything else, the worst part is that I'm not nearly as selfless as I keep pretending to be.”A humorless smile tugged at my lips.“I spend so much time telling myself that if Julian really has someone he's loved for years, if there's truly a woman who's always been the person he wanted most, then the right thing for me to do would be to wish them happiness, step aside gracefully, and be genuinely happy that he finally got the ending he deserves.”Frank didn't interrupt.Didn't argue.Didn't offer reassurance.So I
Evelyn's POVEvery time I thought Sebastian and Grace had already reached a new low, they somehow managed to push it even further, as if they were quietly competing in some twisted contest to see just how far human decency could be stripped away—and at this point, it was impossible to ignore the co
Evelyn's POVA cold, sharp thought cut through the chaos—I need to get tested. Immediately.Because somehow—unbelievably—every single one of Sebastian’s affairs knew each other.And not only knew—but coexisted.Comfortably.Like this was routine.“Ah—!”Fiona was the first to react properly, grab
Evelyn's POVI don’t remember unlocking the door.I don’t remember stepping inside.Only the sound—the soft electronic click—and then the smell.Heavy and arm.Intimate in a way that didn’t need explanation.The kind of scent that lingered in the air after bodies had been too close, too long, too u
Evelyn's POVThere was a flicker of surprise, then recognition, rippling outward through the room, and I continued without hesitation, allowing the performance to transition seamlessly into something far more intentional.“If that video was what brought you here,” I said, my voice steady, measured,







