"The Sanchez family has no shortage of options for alliances. Why would they bother with someone like Glenda Cox?"
"Unless she got handsy with the Sanchez heir during one of those debutante parties and decided to tell everyone she slept with him?"
Every person in this room was family—relatives who had watched me grow up. And now they stood on their moral high ground, passing judgment, tearing me apart without a shred of shame.
My father produced a feather duster from God knows where and brought it down hard across my back.
"Glenda Cox! Have you no shame? It's bad enough you're making dirty money, but now you're lying through your teeth!"
I dodged the duster, trying to explain. "Every word I said is the truth!"
He swung harder. Pain bloomed across my body, and I curled into myself.
Eric snatched my phone from my hands. "If Jarvis Sanchez is really your boyfriend, why don't we give him a call and find out?"
Before I could stop him, he'd already dialed the number and put it on speaker.
The voice on the other end was cool and detached.
"Hello? I thought we agreed—only I call you."
The expressions around the room shifted immediately, a flicker of uncertainty crossing their faces.
My sister pinned me down, refusing to let me grab the phone back.
Eric spoke into the receiver. "Is this Mr. Sanchez? I'm a suitor of Glenda Cox's. I just want to know—what's your relationship with her?"
Jarvis scoffed. "I don't have time for games. Hanging up."
"Wait—Mr. Sanchez, this is important to us," Eric pressed.
Jarvis's voice turned cold and clipped. "A fling. Nothing more. Satisfied?"
The line went dead.
Eric tossed the phone back to me. He never saw the barrage of texts that came flooding in the moment after Jarvis hung up.
Getting bold, are we? You just turned me down, and now you're flirting with another man?
What exactly am I to you? A booty call?
Send me your location. I'm coming right now.
Ignoring my messages again? You think that means I can't find you?
Glenda Cox, you can't run from me.
They weren't wrong about one thing—how Jarvis and I met was nothing to be proud of.
A year ago, I'd just failed the civil service exam. My best friend dragged me to a bar to drown my sorrows. She drank too much and got picked up by her boyfriend.
I stumbled through the wrong door, straight into Jarvis Sanchez's private booth. Something reckless seized me—maybe the alcohol, maybe the ruin of all my plans—and I pushed him back against the couch and kissed him.
His eyes were red-rimmed. He didn't push me away.
After that night, he stared at the scarlet stain on the sheets, a crease forming between his brows.
From then on, we were tangled in something neither of us should have started.
I knew the gulf between us. I knew I was just a stand-in for the woman he truly loved—his idealized love, the one he could never have. So I kept my feelings on a tight leash every time we were together.
He confessed to me more than once. I turned him down every time and told him that whenever he found someone worth being with, he could end things with me. No hard feelings.
Jarvis was generous—extravagantly so. Sometimes it felt less like a relationship and more like being kept.
I'd never breathed a word of this to my conservative parents. I never imagined the only person who knew—my own sister—would weaponize it against me.
Eric's mocking grew louder. "I can say with absolute certainty—that was not the Sanchez heir."
"Jarvis Sanchez is the chairman of the multinational corporation where I work. I just cross-referenced the number. It doesn't even match!"
"Besides, everyone knows Mr. Sanchez has zero interest in women. The only one he's ever cared about is his first love—the one who married overseas."
Eric's gaze crawled down to my chest, lingering there with an ugly smirk. "With that innocent little face of yours, what makes you think you'd even register on his radar?"
My sister sneered. "Maybe someone tricked you out of your virginity, sis."
The laughter from the relatives swelled, each voice piling on louder than the last.
"That stupid girl was so desperate to climb the social ladder, she got played like a fool!"
