I was alone.
I didn’t notice Sydney approach until her perfume hit me first, something floral and expensive and suffocating.
“You look exhausted,” she said softly behind me.
I turned slowly. “Thirty-seven weeks pregnant tends to do that.”
Her eyes dropped to my stomach, scanning it slowly, clinically. “You’re carrying really low. Must be uncomfortable.”
“It is.”
A small silence settled between us, tense but outwardly polite. Around us, guests continued laughing, glasses clinking, music humming quietly through hidden speakers.
Sydney tilted her head slightly. “So… after the baby. What’s next? Back to Vegas?”
My shoulders stiffened automatically.
“No. I’m focusing on motherhood.”
She hummed thoughtfully, lips pursing like she was considering something delicate. “That’s… admirable. Motherhood is hard though. Especially without stability.”
“I have stability.”
“With Cal touring?” she asked mildly. “And your… history?”
Heat climbed up my neck. “My history?”
She shrugged elegantly. “You know. Foster care. Dancing. The constant moving. That kind of instability doesn’t just disappear because you marry into money.”
Zariah’s chair scraped loudly behind us as she leaned forward. “Watch it.”
Sydney didn’t even glance at her.
“You rushed into marriage,” she continued, voice calm, conversational, which somehow made it sharper. “Accidentalpregnancy. It’s a lot at once. I just worry you don’t fully understand the reality of Cal’s life.”
“I understand enough,” I said quietly, gripping the edge of the table to steady myself as a wave of pressure rolled through my pelvis.
“Do you?” Sydney leaned closer, her voice lowering so it felt private. Intimate. “Because Cal doesn’t need someone playing house. He needs someone who understands trauma. Real trauma.”
My chest tightened painfully.
“I have never dismissed what happened to you guys,” I said carefully.
"So you know about what happened to us then"
"Yes. Eleanor and Kei told me. But that doesn't excuse your behavior Syd. You manipulate them and that isn't right"
Her smile faltered.
“You made him push me away like I’m disposable!” she snapped suddenly, voice cracking as tears filled her eyes with terrifying speed. “After everything we survived in Mexico? Do you know what they did to us? How we had to survive each other just to stay alive?”
Guests nearby turned, conversation faltering.
“I never said....”
“You act like I’m interfering!” she continued, louder now. “Like I’m some clingy ex or groupie hanging around! But I was there when they were starving! Bleeding! I held Cal together when he couldn’t even remember his own name!”
My heart slammed against my ribs.
