Maggie. The name hit like a slap. Marcus' ex. The girl who shattered him—and yet, clearly, not enough.
Marcus' response was cool, sure. “Always been her. I don’t care what she did. She’s the one.”
I stopped breathing. My fork hung midair.
“And Annette?” Seth asked, barely audible. “Your little secret? She still thinks she’s your future.”
A beat of silence. And then—
“She’s just a game,” Marcus said, his voice tinged with something cruel. “A convenient placeholder.”
The words sliced clean through me.
My heart thundered. My stomach twisted. But I didn’t flinch. I couldn’t. I wouldn’t let them see me fall apart.
Memories surged—his whispered “I love you”s in the dark, the way he held me, like I was something fragile and precious. Lies.
I thought about how we even ended up like this. My mom marrying his dad after a nasty divorce. Two broken families forced into one dysfunctional mess. Somewhere in that chaos, I found him. I thought I loved him. Maybe I still did.
A tremble worked its way into my fingers as I reached for my glass. It slipped. Shattered. Water spilled across my dress.
Their conversation halted.
“Wait,” Seth said, eyes narrowing. “What if she understood?”