The next morning came without sleep.
Ellie sat at the edge of her bed in her old apartment — the one she hadn't lived in since the engagement was announced. It smelled of dust and lavender-scented linens. Familiar. Empty.
She hadn't cried.
Not because she wasn't hurt — but because it wasn't heartbreak. It was humiliation. It was the weight of knowing this had happened again.
Lily hadn't even seen her last night.
She was too busy performing. Laughing. Purring.
Just loud enough to make sure someone would hear.
And Ellie had.
For the first time, she realized something: her silence was the thread Lily kept pulling.
And now that thread had snapped.
----
By 9:00 a.m., she was at her father's office. Her blazer was pressed. Her heels steady. Her expression unreadable.
"Ellie," he said, looking up from his desk, surprised. "Shouldn't you be with Jake? You're supposed to finalize the guest list—"
"I'm calling off the engagement."
Her father blinked. "What?"
"Effective immediately."
She dropped the folder on his desk, contracts, guest list, printed emails. The meticulous details of a deal that was never hers to begin with.
"Is this about what Lily did?" he asked warily, eyes narrowing.
There it was.
Even he knew.
"You knew she couldn't stand not having it first," Ellie said softly. "Even when she didn't want it."
"She didn't mean any harm," he started.
Ellie smiled, but it was the kind that didn't quite reach her eyes. "She never does. Until she does."
---
That afternoon, Lily called.
"Ellie," her voice cracked through the speaker, soft and tearful. "Dad just called. I just… I didn't know you were coming over last night, and I never meant—oh God, I never meant for this to happen."
Ellie stared out her apartment window as rain tapped gently against the glass.
"I was drunk," Lily continued. "We both were. It just—he said things. I thought he didn't even care about you. I was trying to protect you, in a way. I was scared you'd get hurt."
Ellie's voice was calm when she finally spoke.
"You always say that, Lily. That you were trying to protect me."
"I was!" her sister insisted. "I just thought—maybe you didn't love him. So what's the harm? You always get over things so fast, Ellie."
Ellie let the silence stretch long.
Then, with a coolness that surprised even her, she said,"You're right. I never loved him. But you did this because you needed to win. Even when there was nothing worth winning."
"I didn't mean to—"
"You never do," Ellie said, then ended the call.
---
That evening, Ellie opened a drawer she hadn't touched in years.
Inside: old notebooks, business cards, invitations from events she'd politely declined in favor of family obligations. At the bottom, a name card.
Caden Hale.
Founder & CEO, Moonstorm— Fashion Capital & Designer Platform.
Lily once gushed about him over wine — a single evening, years ago. How he was the one man who made her feel like she wasn't the smartest person in the room. How he didn't even look at her twice.
How she hated that.
Ellie ran her thumb over the raised print.
It wasn't love. It wasn't even about Caden yet.
But it was a door. And this time, she'd walk through it first.
"Let's see what happens," she whispered.