This was bound to happen.
I laughed a hollow, bitter sound echoing in the stunned silence around me.
“You finally got me.”
I glanced around the room, Damian's narrowed eyes, Vivian’s triumphant smirk, Arianna’s parents frozen mid-gasp.
“I wondered how long it would take…”
I stood, slow and deliberate.
“That’s right,” I said. “I’m not Arianna.”
Their faces contorted.
“I’m Ashley Rivera. And all of you? Just characters in a story I never asked to be part of.”
Silence crashed into the room like thunder.
You think I’d actually say that?
Please. I like having a pulse.
That kind of confession gets you locked in an asylum, arrested, or in worse case scenarios asked to bring out the real Arianna.
So instead...
I took a shaky breath, then lowered my head into my hands just like I prac
