The One My Heart Craves

Marti

an umbrella. The September storm soaked through my Chanel suit, but I was beyond caring. After twenty-two hours of travel from ou

ago with my father and twin brother to spearhead Martinez Beauty Empire's Silicon Valley expansion, completing my MBA at Stanford while remotely managing our digital transformation. Now, at twenty-three,

hat's what

practiced deference in the marble lobby of our exclusive

graced magazine covers emerging despite bone-deep exhaustion.

ike a military operation, convincing my father to approve my transfer, coordinating with our PR team to keep my early return under wrap

, walls that held the ghosts of our laughter and whispered promises. I keyed in the security code (his birthday: 04-15-1999

ed light spilled from beneath the door. The scene felt

king off my rain-soaked Lo

le

or someone who regularly pulled all-nighters trading crypto. Maybe he was taking

t magical weekend in Italy two summers ago. As I approached our bedroom, a sound froze the blood in my v

ok as I pressed again

ton sheets twisted in abandon, two empty Dom Pérignon flutes catching lamplight, and my fian

l calm that belied the nuclear explosion detonat

his face draining to the color of bone china. "Sophia? Je

ty that graced Vogue covers, didn't even flinch. Instead, she appraised me

ccent placing her somewhere between the Hamptons and Swiss finishing s

olden boy I'd surrendered five years of my life to. The same man whose ring, a f

stion emerged as tw

Ralph Lauren sheets around his waist like a toga

yllable dropped lik

as she reached for her scattered La Perla lingerie. "Though we didn't become exc

tine's Day, when Ethan had proposed on one knee in Central Park as snow fell around us like a fa

the guilt radiating from Ethan's f

an begged, reaching for me with hands that

feeling like a burial shroud. These walls, these floors

was warming your bed? Explain how you whispered 'I love you' during our FaceTime calls while planning

n prince had dominated gossip columns last year, slid from beneath our defiled sheets without an ounce of shame.

r Louboutin heels as if we were discussing the weather. "That you were building a permanent life in Califo

oward Ethan, amber eyes blazing with the fury of a woman scorned. "Is that what you

ng Victoria a look that could have mel

how her your phone then, darling. Show her our texts from

ollowed could have

confirmed every h

of love and dreams and promises reduced to expensive carbon. I hurled it at Ethan

lines. "I convinced Daddy to approve my New York transfer permanently, for you. I even de

. "You... you turned down McK

nally spilling down my cheeks in rivers of mascara. "Because I thought we were

sperately, lunging toward me. "This was

A mistake is forgetting to pick up my dry cleaning. Conducting a year-long affair while pla

ining my dignity despite looking like a

desperate fingers. "Where will you go? This

it burned, my trademark dimples flas

enough to draw blood. "Darling, you se

g the expensive luggage scattered like abandoned dreams. At the threshold, I tu

from Daddy, remember? Expect Martinez family lawyers to co

andle, and delivered the killin

re might have quite a history with overlapping relationships. y

n lid, sealing away five years of my life and every na

the storm, but since I saw them tangled tog