“I hope you like it,” she said with a deliberately saccharine smile, voice dripping with feigned warmth. “I chose every detail myself. Thought it might suit your… taste.”
I didn’t respond immediately. My eyes flicked to the diamond-encrusted crescent moon necklace resting at her throat. My necklace. The one Leonardo had given me on our fifth anniversary, weeks before it disappeared without explanation.
“A recycled party for a recycled personality,” I said, cold and unyielding. “It’s perfect for you.”
Her confident smile faltered, replaced by a flash of rage. She seized a crystal ornament from the nearby table and hurled it to the floor. Shards scattered, one slicing into her foot. She shrieked, clutching her ankle in exaggerated pain.
Leonardo stormed into the room moments later, his posture tense, eyes scanning the chaos. “What’s happening?” His gaze shifted between the broken ornament, her bleeding foot, and me.
“She—she was helping,” Camila squeaked, eyes wide with feigned terror. “I was just trying to fix things, and she—”
The slap landed before my brain had processed it. My cheek flared with heat, but I didn’t flinch. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of seeing me react.
“Enough!” he bellowed. “Camila spent her day helping you, and this is how you repay her? If you don’t like it, do it yourself!”
He didn’t wait for a response. Scooping her up in his arms, he carried her out, leaving me alone amidst the wreckage of a celebration that was never mine.
That evening, the party never began. No guests arrived—none I would have wanted there anyway. Over the years, Leonardo had replaced my friends with allies, loyal sycophants, and yes, her entourage. No one dared cross him, or her.
I opened the leftover cake, cut a small slice despite knowing I couldn’t eat it, and stuck a single candle into the frosting. I lit it, closed my eyes, and whispered softly,
“I hope I never see either of you again.”
The next morning, I packed the essentials into a single suitcase. On the way to the airport, I sent Leonardo one final message:
This ends here. Do not contact me again. Ever.
As the plane lifted from the tarmac, I powered off my phone, silencing the constant stream of calls and messages from a man who had once promised me the world but chose someone else instead.
