Veronica
I’m staring at the array of beautiful dresses Miles bought for me.
No red dresses. The fact that he caught that detail makes me feel exposed, yet strangely cherished.
It’s a detail I’ve never spoken aloud; I don’t complain about the color; I simply avoid it.
He noticed something everyone else missed.
I’m heading to the hospital alone. Mom is getting discharged today. She doesn't want to ring in New Year’s at the hospital. Miles had an emergency with his aunt again. I worry about him. She seems to often be sick. I’m making my way toward Mom's room when I bump into Tomas in the hall.
“I’m good, just worried about Miles.”
He gives me an inquisitive look. “What’s wrong with him?”
Doesn’t he know about the aunt? “Well, not about him, his aunt,” I clarify, my voice wavering as I watch his expression. “She called him earlier. She hasn’t been feeling well, and he was worried, so he flew out to Colombia.”
The silence that follows is heavy and wrong. I watch Tomas’s jaw clench, the muscles tight and rigid. He looks away, his hand coming up to rub at his temple as if a sudden headache just bloomed there.
“I see,” he says.
The words are hollow. He just stands there in the middle of the hall. Maybe Miles is lying, and Tomas knows.
“Tomas, did Miles lie to me?”
“No, god, no,” he says, answering quickly.
“I-I just worry that she may be lying to him about all this. I went with him to Colombia weeks ago, and she was perfectly healthy. I’ve wondered lately if she uses these episodes just to get his attention.
” He looks at the floor, then back at me, his gaze softening into something heavy and somber.
“He’s all she has, Veronica. I can’t say the same thing about her for him. Well, not anymore.”
“Veronica!” I hear my name and turn to see Gabe walking toward me, his familiar stride breaking the tension of the hallway.
“Thanks for the information, Tomas. And thank you for helping my mom.”
“You’re welcome, Veronica.” Tomas offers me a stiff, professional nod. “I have surgery in a few. Please don’t hesitate to call me if you need anything.”
He heads for the double doors, leaving me with the unsettling theory that Miles is being manipulated by the only family he has left.
I turn to Gabe, and he looks better than he did a couple of days ago.
He seems to have gotten some rest. I'm shocked to see Yuri following him.
My gaze snaps back to my brother. He answers the question before I can even voice it.
“She’s here with Serena. They’re visiting Mom.” I can see he’s hiding something, but isn’t he always? All of my family hides secrets. They don’t think I notice, but I do. “Let’s go.” He hangs his arm around my shoulder and steers me toward my mother’s room.
I hug Serena and offer Yuri a brief, polite greeting before going straight to my mother.
I spend the rest of the afternoon with her, sending Miles updates on her progress, but my thoughts drift to Tomas’s comment.
Once Mom is safely home and settled, I head back to my building to change for class.
As Kai pulls the car toward the entrance, I spot a familiar figure pacing the sidewalk. It’s Tabitha.
I open the door before the car even comes to a full stop.
Kai anticipates the sudden movement, but his training kicks in; he’s out of the driver’s seat in a heartbeat, his eyes scanning the street for security measures as he shadows me.
I approach the person I considered to be my closest friend until she ghosted me.
Not a single text. Not a single word. Now she’s standing on my doorstep.
She looks as beautiful as ever; she reeks of wealth.
One thing about Tabitha is that she comes from money, and she has no problem flaunting it.
“Tabitha? What are you doing here?” I stop several feet away, the distance between us feeling like a physical barrier. “And how do you even know where I live?”
Part of me wants to reach for the familiar comfort of our friendship, but a larger part of me is guarded, my skin prickling with suspicion.
“Vee,” she says, her voice cautious, searching my face. “You don’t seem happy to see me.”
“I’m surprised,” I counter, unable to hide my annoyance in my voice.
I can’t just flip a switch and be "happy." I need to know why she ghosted me. The pain of her absence was a quiet ache for so long, and seeing her now just makes it throb like a fresh wound. Behind me, I can feel Kai’s presence, a silent, lethal shadow. He doesn’t move, but his focus is locked on her, his instincts sensing the friction crackling between us.
“I’m so sorry, Vee. I’d like to explain everything if you’ll give me the chance.”
I look at her, then back to Kai. I nod, giving him the okay to stand down. My curiosity is getting the best of me. “Do you want to come in?”
“Yes,” she says, her face brightening with relief. “That would be lovely.”
I move past her. Will, the doorman, already has the elevator held open for me.
“Thank you, Will.”
He looks at Tabitha, his eyes lingering on her a second too long, before shifting back to me with a protective look. “You’re very welcome, Ms. Veronica.”
The ride up is suffocatingly silent. As the doors open, my gaze instinctively drifts to Miles’s closed door across the hall. I wish he were here. She follows me into my apartment, her eyes darting around the space.
“Vee, this is beautiful.” Her compliment seems genuine.
I walk straight to the kitchen and grab a cold bottle of water. I offer her one, but she declines with a dismissive wave of her hand. I don’t sit down. I don’t offer for her to make herself comfortable.
“You can start talking now,” I say, cutting straight to the point.
Tabitha sighs, tilting her head in that way she used to. “Vee, I don’t know why you’re so upset.” She must see me losing my patience. “I came to apologize.”
“For what exactly. For ignoring your supposed best friend?” I don’t hold back. “I needed you so much.”
The words hit me like a familiar, nauseating wave. I remember her doing this, gaslighting me. The way she’d promise to pick me up from Tony’s if things got bad, only to vanish and leave me stranded, then act like I was the "dramatic" one for being angry. I’m not that girl anymore.
“Vee, I’m so sorry for so many things. After your brothers found out, I couldn’t bear to face you.” Her voice cracks, a staged sob breaking through. “I’ve been living with this guilt for so long. To know that those photographs were posted because of me…”
The floor doesn’t just fall away; it dissolves. My mouth is suddenly full of ash. I try to draw a breath, but I can’t.
“What the fuck are you talking about, Tabitha?”
Before the sentence even finishes, my body moves on a surge of pure, panicked adrenaline. I lunge forward, my fingers digging into her shoulders, lifting her off the seat, and I shake her. Her head snaps back, her expensive hair disheveled, but I don’t care. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
She looks at me with a wide-eyed stare. “They didn’t tell you?”
I shake her harder. “No. Now tell me what the fuck do you mean?!” I’m screaming, the sound raw and ugly, tearing through the quiet of the room.
“Remember a couple of years ago? The party at my house?” She avoids my eyes, her gaze drifting toward the window, not able to face me. “It was about a year after you and Tony broke up. Someone contacted me. They offered me money to take…compromising pictures of you.”
The air in my lungs escapes me.
“I set up a camera in the guest bathroom when you stayed over.” The words keep coming. “I took photographs of you changing and sent them to an email address I was given.”
I can't breathe. “Wh-why? Why would you do that?”
“I don’t know,” she says. It’s an obvious lie.
“Yes, you do.” The tears I expected don't come. Instead, a white-hot, absolute rage begins in my chest. I feel the adrenaline-fueled clarity of someone who has nothing left to lose. “How much was our friendship worth, Tabitha?”
“Veronica—”
“How much, Tabitha?”
“Two hundred thousand dollars.”
A hysterical laugh breaks from my throat. “That’s it? Your father is a fucking millionaire.”
“Vee, he was going to cut me off!” She’s making excuses where there aren’t any.
I don’t think. I just strike. I slap her. The impact vibrates up my arm, a dull, satisfying throb that centers me. I watch the red bloom across her cheek, the skin splitting just enough to draw blood. The result of my ring.
She wails, clutching her face, the sound high and pathetic. “You fucking hit me!”
“You’re lucky I’m not having you killed.” I say it with a coldness that surprises even me.
That’s when it happens, the moment her mask finally shatters.
The "remorse" vanishes, replaced by a sharpened, predatory sneer. She scoffs, her voice dripping with years of buried resentment. “You always thought you were better than everyone else, didn't you? Seems that’s not the case, Veronica. To think where those photographs have been…and who’s seen them.”
She gets up and runs out the front door.
I’m too shocked to move. The thought of my brothers having seen photographs of me.
The knowledge that they knew about something so big and kept it from me is too much.
I grab my bag, and as I’m heading out the door, I pull out my phone.
My vision tunnels as I open the group thread with my brothers.
I don’t give them context. I don’t give them a choice.
I send them an emergency message letting them know I need to see them at Caleb’s penthouse.
As the elevator descends, I catch my reflection in the mirrored doors. My hair is a mess, and my eyes are wild, but it’s the smear of Tabitha’s blood on my hand that holds my gaze. I don’t wipe it off.
I arrive at my cousin’s penthouse and see that he’s invited himself as well. I know that he’s involved. My brothers and cousins do everything as a unit, for the sake of the family bullshit. I know they can sense something is off. I get straight to it.
“Why?” I ask.
Ian speaks first. “You’ll have to be more specific, little sister.”
“Tabitha, she told me about the photographs.”
“How did she—” Gabe starts, stepping forward.
“Why, goddamn it!” I scream, the sound tearing from my throat and echoing off the floor-to-ceiling glass. I don’t let Gabe speak. “Why do you insist on keeping me in the dark about everything in my life? I’m the one on the screens! I’m the one they’re looking at! I deserve to know!”
“Veronica.” Caleb says my name in such a gentle tone.
“No! Don’t you Veronica me.” I can’t even face them. “How did you find the photographs?” They look at each other. “Tell me!” I demand.
Gabe is the one to speak. “Miles found them online, on the black market.”
I feel like I’ve been punched in my stomach. “Miles knew?”
“Yes, he was protecting you. We were protecting you,” someone says, but I don’t know who.
Ian steps toward me. “We knew that if you found out, it’d be too much for you. You would run from this. From us. None of us wants to see you self-destruct. Because that’s what you do. We can’t bear to see you do that to yourself.”
“You didn’t even give me the benefit of the doubt. None of you!” Miles knew, and he’s been lying to me this whole time. I went to him for help, but he knew all along. My lips tremble. “I don’t want to fucking see any of you. Stay the fuck away from me.” Then I turn and leave.