POV: Evelyn Hart
Present – Late Night | The Cross Estate
The world was quiet again.
Too quiet.
I sat curled on the window seat of the guest bedroom — my bedroom, they called it — legs tucked beneath me, wrapped in a thin shawl that didn't help much against the chill that had settled in since the gathering.
The lights of the city blinked in the distance, like stars that had lost their way.
A notebook rested on my lap. The only thing I owned here that didn't belong to the Crosses. I opened it carefully, flipping past blank pages. It still smelled faintly of paper and hope.
I hadn't written in years.
But tonight, there was no one else to speak to.
Not my parents.
Not Selena.
Not Zyden.
Just me.
And the words I never got to say out loud.
---
Entry 01
Day 6, Post-Wedding
They left a chair out tonight. Not by mistake. I think it was a warning.
You don't belong here.
And yet, they ask me to smile. To dress up. To show up beside him, hand on his sleeve, eyes lowered. "The picture of elegance."
I wish they'd just say it: that I ruined something I never touched.
Zyden won't look at me unless it's to blame me. But I used to look at him differently once. I used to believe in him. In us.
He doesn't remember, I think. Or maybe he remembers something else. Something twisted.
Something she told him.
---
I paused, pen hovering, heart throbbing.
Back then, I had been the girl with trembling hands and stars in her eyes. The girl who watched him during class from behind her book. The girl who had memorized his walk, his frown, the way he laced his fingers when he was lost in thought.
And the girl who confessed — not knowing it would be the beginning of everything burning down.
I pressed the pen harder against the paper.
---
Entry 01 — continued
I confessed because I thought he was kind.
He looked at me and didn't flinch when others rolled their eyes. He shared his umbrella when my books were soaked. He helped carry Selena's bag once when her heel broke. He seemed like the kind of boy who would listen.
But when I told him I liked him…
He looked at me like I was a joke.
Like I had done something cruel.
Like I didn't deserve to even say his name.
And he never looked at me again.
---
The page was stained now. My eyes were blurry, but I blinked the tears back. Not tonight.
Outside, somewhere far in the mansion, a door shut.
Zyden. Probably returning from his study. Or another meeting. Or another hour spent not speaking to his wife.
I closed the journal and whispered to the night, "I didn't lie, Zyden."
But no one answered.
Not even the stars.
---
ZYDEN CROSS
Present – Midnight | The Cross Estate, Study
The cufflinks were still on the desk.
Gold. Polished. Cold.
I didn't bother removing them before unbuttoning my sleeves. I leaned back in the leather chair, staring at nothing, letting the silence stretch long.
The dinner hadn't gone as expected. Not because of the families — they behaved as they always did. But because of Evelyn.
Her presence was too quiet.
Too heavy.
Too… haunting.
I didn't want to see her.
But somehow, in that moment when she looked down at her plate after her own mother cut her off — I did.
And something in me itched.
It shouldn't have.
I should've been used to the sight of her by now. The one who walked down the aisle instead of Selena. The one who said "I do" to a man she was never meant to love.
The one who ruined everything.
At least, that's what I always told myself.
But part of me hated the way her eyes looked empty tonight.
I should've felt nothing.
But I remembered.
---
Flashback – 5 years ago | High School
She stood beneath the staircase near the art room. Clutching her notebook like a shield, her fingers trembling slightly. Her uniform blazer was buttoned all wrong — like she'd rushed here, like it mattered.
I didn't know what she wanted.
I didn't expect anything from her.
Until she said it.
> "I like you. I know it's not something you expected to hear, but I do. I have for a while."
I stared.
And for a second — just one — I almost smiled.
But I didn't.
Because just two days earlier, I'd seen the photos.
My friend Felix had shown them to me.
Photos of Evelyn.
Laughing with a boy behind the school.
Holding his hand.
Another photo — a blurry one — of her texting late at night, supposedly bragging about "getting close to the rich heir."
It was fake. Now I know that.
But back then, I was seventeen. Proud. And Felix said:
> "She's playing you, man. Wants your name, your connections. Ask anyone. She's got a boyfriend already."
So when she said she liked me… all I heard was manipulation.
I didn't believe her tears.
I didn't believe her blush.
I believed the lies.
> "I don't have time for this," I told her coldly, and walked past.
Her face fell like a window slamming shut.
And from that day forward… she stopped looking at me in the hallway.
She stopped coming to family events where the Crosses and Harts met.
She vanished into her own world.
Good, I thought then.
Now? I'm not sure what I feel.
---
Present
She said nothing during the dinner tonight.
Not when Selena was praised.
Not when Caelan laughed.
Not when Evelyn's own name was swallowed in favor of her sister's glow.
She just sat there, spine straight, hands in her lap, like a statue they couldn't move but didn't want to look at.
And I realized—
She didn't fight for attention.
Because she never believed she had the right to it.
Not anymore.
---
I stood up.
Walked slowly down the corridor toward her room.
I wasn't sure what I was going to say. Maybe nothing.
Maybe everything.
But just as I raised my hand to knock, I heard her voice through the door. Soft. Barely a whisper.
"I didn't lie, Zyden."
My breath caught.
I didn't move.
Didn't knock.
Just… stood there.
She was speaking to herself.
Or maybe to someone she still hoped I could become.
Either way — I wasn't ready.
I turned, walked back down the hall, and told myself it didn't mean anything.
But her voice stayed with me all night.
---