Chapter 20 Saturday, 13 June 2026 #2
Oliver shrugged. ‘A little. Henry is one of Morgan Row’s many high-end clients, has been for ages.
My mother assisted him in the purchase of a new condo a few years back, and he guested on my channel.
This was before he and Madison began seeing each other, of course.
Anyway, I recorded a couple of campaign events for Henry, then I found him a full-time videographer.
I really don’t have the time for gig work these days – and I certainly don’t need the money. ’
Hannah stifled a smirk in her ginger ale. Oliver’s bluster was clearly for Ethan’s benefit, but it was still extremely cringe.
‘Excuse me.’ She pushed back her barstool and slid down to the floor.
‘Ethan, lovely catching up, but I’m afraid I need to visit the ladies’ room.
’ Leaving her shoes where they were, beneath the bar, she headed in the direction of the open bathrooms off the dining room.
She did need to use the facilities, but mostly, she’d gotten all she was going to get out of Ethan Astor with Oliver there ‘helping’.
On her way out of the restroom, Hannah ran almost headlong into Bruno Alvarez, who was exiting the men’s room directly opposite.
‘Oh!’ he said, startled. ‘Hannah.’
‘Bruno.’
‘I’ll just be…’ He made a vague gesture towards the bar.
‘Actually.’ She reached out and snagged his sleeve.
Bruno was dressed in a navy tux, although the jacket had been long since discarded.
His collar was unbuttoned, and he’d rolled his sleeves halfway up his forearms. Hannah noticed he’d also ditched his dress shoes for a pair of Lenox Club slippers.
His hair was still long – longer, actually, than it had been in high school – and his face was dusted with carefully manicured scruff.
He was more handsome than Hannah had remembered, and a good six inches taller.
He looked down at her, something she couldn’t quite read in his eyes.
‘Can we talk for a moment?’ she asked. ‘About Ethan?’
Bruno’s eyes travelled to the bar, where Ethan was still sitting, sipping his bourbon. Oliver had gone, and she wondered where to.
‘I don’t know…’ He was leaning almost imperceptibly away from her.
‘Sorry,’ she said, removing her fingers from his sleeve. ‘Let me start over. Nice to see you, I know it’s been ages. Also, I didn’t kill Madison. Now, can we talk?’
Bruno’s shoulders relaxed, and a smile tugged at his lips.
‘Fine.’ He motioned her to a long table at the back of the dining room, far from the platters that had been laid out.
A plaque hung on the wall above, designating this table as the Augustus Willem Lenox Honorary Table, and Hannah wondered idly what Bash’s great-great-grandfather would think of a murder in his supper club.
‘I was just catching up with Ethan,’ she began, ‘and he mentioned you’d fallen out of touch.’
‘Is that how he put it?’ Bruno gave a sharp laugh.
‘When Will and I got engaged, Ethan completely stopped speaking to me. We hadn’t been together in seven or eight years at that point, but he was jealous.
We’d stayed friends, but I had no idea he still thought about me that way.
We’d both been in other relationships. Honestly, it weirded me out a bit. ’
Almost imperceptibly, he shivered.
‘You’re sure it was jealousy? Maybe he just doesn’t like Will.’
‘No.’ Bruno shook his head. ‘I’d been with Will for years at this point. They’d hung out. Everything was fine until we got engaged. I think… deep down, I think Ethan always thought we’d find our way back to each other someday. Did you know he blamed Madison for our breakup?’
Hannah swallowed, throat dry and scratchy. She wished she still had her ginger ale. Or Ethan’s bourbon. ‘I didn’t know. Why?’
‘By the end of junior year, we were constantly at each other’s throats. Madison was drunk on power, and Ethan and I were both over it.’
‘Remind me what all went down?’
Bruno sighed. ‘It wasn’t just the errand boy bullshit you all saw.
I nearly failed physics because I was at her place so much, entertaining her when she was feuding with Elle.
And she’d purposely exclude Ethan, just to get between us.
Then there was The Upper Edge stuff. She had us posting her nasty comments, under our accounts.
Ethan almost got suspended over some The Upper Edge drama – remember that? ’
Hannah shook her head. She didn’t, but it sounded just like Madison.
‘Anyway, you can’t quit Madison DuPont. So we fought. A lot. It got ugly.’
Hannah nodded. ‘I remember you guys didn’t seem very happy.’
‘To say the least. One night senior year, we got drunk together and Ethan told me that if it wasn’t for Madison, he thought we would still be together.
’ Bruno shrugged. ‘Maybe we would have been, but it’s not like she forced me to cheat.
I should have ended things before they got out of hand, but…
What can I say, I was sixteen years old. I fucked up a lot of things back then.’
Hannah gave Bruno a quick smile. If he’d ever suspected her of playing a part in their breakup, he was doing a good job of hiding it.
‘And Madison…’ she said, redirecting, ‘do you ever see her? I mean, did you?’
‘Huh-uh. We were at Columbia together, but it’s a big school.
I steered clear of her for the three years we were both on campus.
Which wasn’t hard. She majored in creative writing, which was kind of random because I don’t remember her, like, writing poetry at Prescott…
But anyway, I was in environmental chem. No overlap.’
‘Did she and Ethan keep in touch?’