Chapter 5 The Anatomy of a Lie

Evelyn's Pov

I pulled the door shut behind me and locked it immediately because I needed to be alone. I slid down onto the floor, leaning against the wood, and everything felt cold even though I was sweating.

The video was still on my phone. The screen was black, but I didn’t want to open it again because I knew what I would see, Daniel and Piper, my fiancé and my best friend, their bodies tangled up and laughing like they shared some big secret only they knew. It was the worst thing I had ever seen, and it felt like my stomach was eating itself from the inside.

Finally, I reached for the phone. My hands were still shaking so much that when I hit play one more time, I needed to see if I was wrong, or maybe if the video was fake but it wasn’t. It was definitely them, kissing and touching, and it was disgusting.

I watched Daniel’s face up close as he said something to Piper. Then Piper smiled that big, fake smile she always used when she wanted something. I remembered all the times she used that same smile on me, when she was asking for money or borrowing my clothes.

“How could you?” I whispered to the phone because it felt like talking to them both, but obviously, they couldn’t hear me. I just felt sick.

I started thinking back over the past few months, trying to find out when it started. Suddenly, everything clicked all at once, and I felt so stupid because the signs had always been there, I just didn’t want to see them.

Remember last Thanksgiving when Daniel said he had to work late, and Piper said she was visiting her aunt in the next state? That was a lie. They were probably together then. I remembered another time when I was trying on wedding dresses and asked Piper if Daniel would like the lace one. She gave me this weird look and just said, “Oh, he’ll love whatever you pick.” Now I knew why she didn’t care, because she was already sleeping with him.

It was all a giant joke played on me, and I was the punchline. My perfect life in the city, with my perfect fiancé and my perfect best friend, was all fake. I was the dumbest person alive for never seeing any of it coming.

My chest felt so tight I couldn’t breathe right, so I put the phone down and tried to stop shaking because I knew someone would hear me if I started screaming.

I looked down at my left hand, I was still wearing the engagement ring. Daniel had given it to me last Christmas, it was a big diamond everyone said was beautiful, but now it just looked like a cheap piece of glass. It felt heavy, like a weight dragging me down.

I tried to pull it off, but my finger was sweaty, and the ring wouldn’t move. I started pulling harder and twisting my finger until it was red and sore, but I just wanted it gone right now.

“You are not going to keep this,” I mumbled. Finally, with one hard tug, the ring popped off and flew across the floor, hitting the wall with a tiny clink.

I crawled over to where it landed and picked it up. It felt cold and sharp in my palm. I stared at it for a long time, because this one small thing represented my whole past and my whole future and now that future was gone.

I stood up and went to the window, which was high up and looked out over the ruins of the Junkies estate. I saw Gyran and some other men walking in the distance, but I didn’t care what they were doing. I just opened the window and, with one final thought that this was no longer my life, I threw the ring as hard as I could.

It sailed out into the darkness and disappeared, hitting something with a dull thud. I didn’t even watch it go because I didn’t want to remember it.

Then I remembered the few boxes I had brought from the city, I had packed some clothes and a few pictures. Daniel was in some of them, and Piper was in almost all of them, because we were best friends.

I went to the closet and pulled out a small box. Inside were photos of us at the beach and at parties, and one really big one of me and Daniel kissing on New Year’s Eve. I hated seeing his face, it was the face of a liar.

I pulled out the pictures and started tearing them into tiny pieces. I didn’t feel sad, I just felt empty and cold. I ripped up the one with Daniel first, then the ones with Piper smiling and laughing. I hated her so much because she knew how much I loved him, and she still did this to me.

I found a picture of just me and Piper from college, where she was holding a sign that said, “Best Friends Forever.” I ripped that one in half, then quarters, and kept tearing it until it was dust.

After all the pictures were gone, I stood in the middle of the room and looked around. The room was still dark and cold, and I was still shaking, but everything from my old life was destroyed and thrown away. At last, I felt like I could breathe a little more.

I walked to the corner and sat down again, wrapping my arms around my knees. I stayed there a long time, trying to understand that everything I knew was a complete lie. The only things I had left were this dangerous place, my brother, and this new mission to survive. I had nothing to go back to, so I needed to fight here and be stronger than ever before because the city life was gone and the mafia life was all that was left.