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I should have known something was wrong the second I lost the game. At the party, the bottle spun, wobbled, and finally pointed right at me. “Dare!” everyone chanted. “We pick dare! Send a flirty text to your pinned contact, asking if he’s with another girl.” I smiled and unlocked my phone. There was only one name pinned to the top of my messages. Judson Ricci. My fiancé. I didn’t think anything of it. I just typed. [What are you up to? Are you secretly with some other girl?] I hit send. A few seconds later, my phone buzzed, and it didn’t stop. It wasn’t a reply from him. It was a flood of screenshots from our mutual friends. Judson had posted on his Instagram Story. There was no caption. Just a picture of our chat. He’d circled the message I just sent in bright red. And underneath it was his reply. [Checking up on me? You don’t have the right. Learn your place, Selena. What do you have left besides me?] The post was already flooded with likes and mocking comments. At the very top was one from his secretary, Chloe. [That’s our Judson. Some people need a wake-up call. Hugs, J.] I stared at the screen, my fingers going numb. … I called him. It rang four times before he answered. Soft jazz drifted through the line, punctuated by the faint sound of a woman’s laugh. “Judson,” I said, my voice tight, “what the hell was that on Instagram?” He paused, then chuckled. “Oh, that. Chloe posted it from my phone. I’m with a client, so I didn’t see. She’s young, just messing around. Isn’t it April Fools’? It was a joke.” His tone was breezy, as if it was nothing. “Don’t make a big deal out of it. I’ll have her apologize to you.” The moment he said it, my phone chimed. Another notification. Chloe had posted to her own Story. [Oops. I think I made the future Mrs. Ricci mad. Good thing Judson isn’t holding it against me, or I’d be stuck working late again tonight.] [Sorry, Selena. Happy April Fools’.] The post was a selfie. She was in a chic Manhattan restaurant, smiling, perfectly at ease. In the corner of the frame, the cuff of Judson’s suit was clearly visible. The message was loud and clear. I didn’t cry. I didn’t raise my voice. I just said, “The engagement is off. Go marry her, Judson.” The other end of the line went dead silent. The music, the laughter—everything stopped. His voice dropped, turning flat and cold. “Say that again, Selena.” I enunciated every word. “I said, the engagement is off. Go marry her.” “Judson!” Chloe’s voice cut in, flustered, but unable to hide the note of triumph. “It’s April Fools’ Day. Selena has to be joking, too. Everyone knows she can’t live without you. She’s just mad. Don’t take her seriously.” After she spoke, I heard it—the soft exhale of Judson’s relief. “Selena.” His tone relaxed, shifting back to the familiar sound of a man in control. “Since when do you make jokes like this? It’s childish.” “Enough. Don’t make a scene. I’m still with clients. Go on, have fun. I’ll cover your tab for the night.”There was a time when hearing him say something like that would have made me the envy of the room. They’d say Judson Ricci spoiled me rotten, that he never blinked at picking up my tab. But now, the party around me had gone quiet. Everyone knew that after my family’s fall from grace, the one thing Judson hated most was the suggestion that I was living off him. Once, at a business dinner, a man had joked that I was his kept woman. The next day, that man’s company lost a major contract. He was quietly blacklisted from the industry. I’d asked Judson why he’d gone so far. He had held me, his chin resting on my head, and his voice was a low rumble. “Selena, I want everyone to know that we are together because we choose to be. Not because of money, not because of obligation.” “When you stand beside me, I never want you to feel an ounce of pressure.” I had held onto those words for a very long time. But now he was the one posting things like *she can’t live without me* and *she has no right*. He’d even let Chloe use his phone. His phone, which used to be something only I was allowed to touch. In that moment, I knew with a chilling certainty that something between us was broken beyond repair. But Judson and I hadn’t just been together for a few months. We’d met in college. We had been through so much. The worst was in Norway. The small yacht we’d chartered capsized in the frigid water. The sea was sharp as knives. He’d held onto me, shoving me onto the life raft first, nearly getting swept away by the current himself. After we were rescued, I clung to him, crying so hard I couldn’t breathe. I’d made him a promise then. “Judson, you saved my life. No matter what happens, I will always give you one chance to explain.” Because of that promise, I decided to give him one last chance. And to give our relationship one last chance, too. I left the party and went back to our apartment. I needed to talk to him, face to face. When I pushed open the door, the lights were on. All the way home, I’d rehearsed what I would say. But the moment I stepped inside, the words evaporated. Chloe was in the living room. She was wearing my silk robe, one of my custom Swiss face masks plastered on her skin, lounging on the sofa we had picked out together. She didn’t even get up when she saw me, just tilted her head. “Selena. You’re back.” Blood rushed to my head. Judson walked out of the kitchen holding two mugs of hot milk. He saw me and froze for a beat before his brow furrowed. “Why are you home so early?” He glanced from my face to Chloe on the sofa, his tone flat. “Chloe lost a dare with her friends. The punishment was to spend the night at a guy’s place. It was too late for her to go home alone, so I brought her here.”My mind went blank. Then a memory from three years ago surfaced. My best friend from college had just gone through a nasty breakup and a family crisis. She had nowhere to go. I had asked Judson if she could stay with us for a few days. He refused on the spot. “I don’t like other people in my home.” We’d had a massive fight about it. I ended up putting my friend up in a hotel, and Judson and I didn’t speak for a week. He finally showed up outside the hotel, his eyes bloodshot. He’d pulled me into his arms and held me so tight I could barely breathe. “Selena, I know I was too harsh,” he’d said. “But we built that apartment together, piece by piece. It’s our home. I don’t want anyone else there. I can’t stand the thought of someone else in our space.” “That place is supposed to be for us. Only us.” After that, I never brought another person to the apartment again. Not even my parents. I closed my eyes, taking a slow, deep breath. When I opened them, I stared straight at Judson. “I don’t want strangers in my home. Tell her to leave. Now.” I paused. “If she doesn’t, I will.” Judson was clearly taken aback. He set the mugs down, starting toward me as if to take my hand. “Selena…” “Selena!” Chloe cut in, her voice suddenly thick with tears. She ripped the mask from her face and looked from me to Judson, her eyes wide and red. “Don’t be mad. This is all my fault. I know things are hard for you, and you need this place more than I do. Don’t make Judson choose. I’ll go. I’ll leave right now.” As she spoke, she made a show of getting up, and the robe fell open, revealing a wide expanse of her chest. Judson’s hand shot out, pressing her back onto the sofa by her shoulder. “Sit down.” He turned to me, his eyes flashing with impatience. “Selena, I know you’re still angry about Instagram, but this is a petty way to take it out on her.” “Chloe and I are just colleagues. There’s nothing going on. You don’t need to prove your importance to me like this.” He paused, his voice hardening. “If you really can’t stand having her here, if you’re determined to make a scene, then you can be the one to go cool off somewhere else. No one’s stopping you.”

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