Genevieve POV
He guided Everleigh into the car as if she were made of spun glass. She kept wailing-a performance aimed at an audience of one.
Ignatz slammed the car door shut, severing the invisible connection between us. He didn't look back. With a roar of the engine, the black sedan sped away, leaving me choking in a cloud of exhaust fumes.
Silence rushed back in to fill the space they left.
It started to snow. Tiny, icy flakes landed on my cheeks, melting instantly against the feverish heat of my skin.
I should have felt angry. I should have been screaming. But instead, a strange, heavy calm settled over me. It was the hollow calm of a patient who finally accepts the terminal diagnosis. The hope was dead. The tumor had been excised.
I was free.
I turned and walked back into the building, trudging up the stairs that smelled of damp carpet and old cooking oil.
My apartment was empty. Just a mattress on the floor and a few scattered boxes. I sat by the window. From here, if I craned my neck, I could see the distant lights of the Foley estate on the hill. My father's house. Ignatz and Meredith were living in the guest villa now.
I imagined them there. Meredith fawning over Everleigh, bringing her tea, praising her for being the perfect match for her son. They were celebrating.
I remembered being ten years old, scraping my knee in the garden. My father had been too busy with a merger to notice the blood running down my shin. I had run to the housekeeper for a bandage. I had spent my whole life looking for someone to choose me.
I chose Ignatz because I thought he saw me. But he only saw what I could give him.
My phone buzzed against the floorboards. A text from Ignatz's assistant.
Mr. Turner expects you at the Christmas gala tonight. He says bring the spare keys to the lake house. Do not be late.
Of course. I wasn't a person to them. I was an errand girl.
"Tomorrow," I whispered to the empty room. "Tomorrow, everything ends."
I slipped into the only formal dress I hadn't packed-a simple black slip dress. I didn't put on makeup. I didn't try to hide the dark circles under my eyes. I looked like a ghost, and that felt appropriate.
I took a cab to the venue. The ballroom was dripping in gold and red velvet. Champagne flowed like water.
I stood in the shadows near the entrance, unnoticed. Ignatz stood in the center of the room, holding a microphone. Everleigh was seated on a velvet chair next to him, looking triumphant.
"We're going to play a game!" Everleigh announced, her voice amplified by the speakers. "Truth or Dare!"
The crowd cheered. These were people I used to know. People who used to bow to my father. Now they laughed as Everleigh preened.
"Ignatz," Everleigh giggled into the mic. "Truth or Dare?"
"Truth," he said, smiling down at her.
"Who is the most important person in your life?" she asked.
The room went quiet. Ignatz scanned the crowd. His eyes glossed over the corner where I stood. He didn't see me. Or maybe he did, and it didn't matter.
"You, Everleigh," he said smoothly. "And my mother. You two are my world."
A cheer went up. Meredith wiped a tear from her eye in the front row.
I felt a physical snap in my chest. The last thread holding me to him broke.
It wasn't painful. It was just... over.
I walked up to the assistant, who was standing by the bar. I dropped the heavy set of keys into her hand.
"Tell him he won't need me to open doors for him anymore," I said.
She looked confused. "What?"
I didn't answer. Instead, I turned my back on the laughter, the applause, the warmth. I walked out into the snow.
Behind me, Ignatz pulled Everleigh into a kiss while the crowd roared.
"I don't need anyone's love to prove I exist," I said to the night air.
The snow fell harder, covering my tracks as I walked away.
