Chapter 38 :
**Cossette POV**
His ex.
Pretty. Intelligent. Popular.
The one and only Nathalie Sterling.
And her sister—
Emily Irkinz.
My ex bully.
I stood there for a moment, waiting for reality to correct itself.
It didn't.
I'd spent years trying to forget that name. The way she used to say it — *Cossette* — like it was something small and embarrassing. Like I was something small and embarrassing. And now here she was, standing in Nathalie Sterling's living room, smiling like we were old friends reuniting at a café.
Was this destiny?
Or was life just laughing at me again?
I glanced at Betha.
Betha was not laughing.
Betha looked like every pleasant thought she'd ever had was leaving her body simultaneously.
Before I could say anything, Emily closed the distance between us in three easy steps and wrapped her arms around me like she'd been waiting to do it.
"Well," she said softly against my shoulder, "I guess this means we're supposed to be friends."
I didn't hug her back.
I also didn't push her away.
Because somewhere behind me, Nathalie Sterling was watching. And Nathalie Sterling was the only reason we were in this house. The only thread connecting me to the advertisement that would connect me to the distribution network that would eventually help me bury Frost and Anika alive — professionally speaking.
So I smiled.
"What a surprise," I said pleasantly.
Emily pulled back and looked at me, satisfied. Then her gaze drifted — slowly, deliberately — to Betha.
The atmosphere shifted.
Betha hadn't moved. Hadn't spoken. But the way she was looking at Emily said everything that words would've been too polite to say.
Emily's lips curved.
"Wow." She tilted her head, something dancing in her eyes. "You still love me that much, Betha?"
The silence that followed was genuinely dangerous.
It was Nathalie who broke it, her voice soft and curious.
"You know each other, sis?"
"We studied together." Emily answered without missing a beat. She glanced between us both, unhurried, thoroughly entertained. "Let's just say we were meant to be friends."
Betha and I exchanged a look.
A full conversation happened in that look.
*Are you okay?*
*I'm fine.*
*You're not fine.*
*I said I'm fine, Cossette.*
*Betha—*
*I SAID I'M FINE.*
On the other side of the room, Alex had gone completely still. Which made sense. He knew Emily. He knew our history with her. He knew exactly what her presence in this room meant for Betha specifically.
Unlike Alaric and Ray, who knew nothing and were therefore free to be quietly, insufferably entertained by all of it.
I could feel Alaric watching from the corner of my eye. Not intervening. Just watching, in that particular way he had — like he was filing everything away for later use.
Infuriating.
Emily turned toward Alex suddenly, as if just noticing him.
"Alex?" Her eyes widened in exaggerated surprise. "You're here too?" She pressed a hand to her chest. "Don't tell me you and Bethany Kelman are still—"
"There is nothing."
Betha's voice came out sharp and flat.
"We're friends. Just friends."
She aimed the last part directly at Alex like a warning flare.
Alex opened his mouth. Closed it. Looked at the floor. Then, very quietly — quietly enough that only I caught it —
"You didn't say that at the cafeteria."
I turned to look at him.
Then at Betha.
Betha's face had gone the specific shade of red that meant she was approximately three seconds from saying something she couldn't take back.
"Cafeteria?" I asked.
"Nothing," Betha said immediately.
"We never said anything happened at a cafeteria," I said reasonably. "But now that you've brought it up—"
"I didn't bring it up."
"You brought up that nothing happened."
"Because nothing happened."
"Betha."
"Cossette."
"You're doing the nervous laugh."
"I'm not laughing."
She was not laughing. She was doing something significantly more suspicious than laughing. Her eyes were moving to three different corners of the room and her hand had found her own elbow, which she only ever grabbed when she was trying very hard not to grab something else.
Emily watched all of this with undisguised delight.
"So you two are still the lovebirds," she said.
That was the moment Betha's expression stopped being embarrassed and became something else entirely.
I stood up.
Quickly.
"So," I said, the word landing like a gavel, "when do we start filming the advertisement?"
It worked. Barely.
Ray straightened, refocusing. "Today works. The sooner we move the better." He glanced at the window, calculating something. "The light's good this afternoon."
Alaric nodded once. Then turned to Nathalie with the easy confidence of someone who had never once been uncomfortable in a room.
"Now that Emily knows everyone — it should make things simpler. Are you ready to begin?"
Nathalie smiled.
"Of course." She rose from the sofa in one graceful movement, smoothing her sleeve. "Emily," she said, glancing back at her sister, "come help me choose something to wear?"
Emily nodded, already moving.
But before she followed Nathalie out —
Nathalie turned.
Not to the room.
Not to me.
Not to Ray.
To Alaric.
And she smiled.
Not the polished smile she'd been wearing since we arrived. Something different. Something smaller. Something that had been waiting behind all the other smiles for the right moment to appear.
"I need to look perfect," she said.
The room didn't change.
The light didn't shift.
Nobody else seemed to notice.
But I noticed.
And I stood there watching her walk away, that smile still hanging in the air like something she'd left there on purpose.
*Why was she smiling at him like that?*
I already knew the answer.
I just didn't like it.
**Author's note:**
Things are getting complicated 😭
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