CHAPTER 2 - THE THINGS YOU DON'T SAY
718 Words
The café was exactly the same, but for Lily, the air felt different. Something invisible had shifted, and the silence across the table was no longer comfortable, it was heavy.
Ethan didn't look up from his phone. He wasn't casually scrolling; he was absorbed, his thumb moving with a frantic energy that suggested Lily was the furthest thing from his mind.
Lily wrapped her hands around her cup, letting the heat sting her palms. She didn't rush to fill the void. She studied it.
“You’ve been busy,” she said eventually, her tone light but testing.
“Mhm.” No eye contact. No smile. Just a sound.
Lily tilted her head. This was the man who used to narrate his every thought to her. “Startup finally taking off?”
“Something like that.”
Something like that. Lily felt a small, bitter laugh bubble in her throat. “You’ve been saying that a lot lately, Ethan. It’s getting a bit mysterious.”
He finally looked up, his eyes settling on her face with a flicker of irritation. “I’ll tell you when it’s finalized.”
Lily nodded slowly. She had been there since the beginning, before the startup even had a name. She had funded his late-night coffee and his early-morning doubts. Now, she was being managed. She was being given just enough information to stay quiet, but not enough to understand.
“I’m glad things are working out,” she said softly. And she meant it. Even now, her loyalty was her greatest weakness.
Ethan studied her for a moment, his expression unreadable. “You always believe in me.”
It didn’t sound like a compliment. It sounded like an expectation. Like he was counting on her blind devotion to keep her from asking the wrong questions.
Later, as they stepped out into the cool night air, Lily stopped. She couldn't let it go. Not this time.
“Ethan… are we okay?”
The question hung between them, dangerous and exposed. Ethan frowned, his jaw tightening. “What do you mean?”
“You’ve been… different. Distant.”
For a split second, something dark flickered in his eyes - guilt, or perhaps annoyance that she had noticed. Then, he stepped closer, pulling her into a hug.
“You’re overthinking, Lily,” he murmured into her hair. “I’m not going anywhere.”
The words should have been a relief. Lily leaned into him, breathing in the familiar scent of his cologne. But as she listened to his steady heartbeat, a cold thought slipped through her mind.
Then why does it feel like you already have?
Ethan’s POV
Ethan watched Lily disappear behind the grand doors of the Smith mansion before he climbed into his car. He didn’t start the engine. He sat in the darkness, his hands gripping the steering wheel until his knuckles turned white.
“You should’ve just told her,” a voice crackled from his phone.
He hadn't been alone. The call had been active the entire time, muted while he held Lily in his arms.
“Not yet,” Ethan snapped, leaning his head back against the leather seat.
“Because you can’t?” The voice on the other end chuckled, a low, mocking sound. “She’s going to find out, Ethan. The gala is in two days.”
Ethan’s grip tightened. He thought of Lily’s unwavering smile, her constant support, and the way she looked at him like he was the center of her world. Then he thought of the deal he had just made—the one that required him to step over her to reach the top.
“She’ll find out soon enough,” Ethan said, his voice turning cold.
“And when she realizes you’ve traded her in for her sister?”
Ethan stared out at the dark silhouette of the mansion. The guilt was there, but it was being drowned out by a much louder sound: ambition.
“It won’t matter,” he whispered, finally turning the key. “By then, it’ll be too late for her to do anything about it.”
- Writer
