Chapter 4

One day, I received a DM on Instagram from Sophia—Liam's girlfriend. We had met a few times at parties; she was a gentle jewelry designer who didn't talk much.

"Hey, Olivia. It's Sophie. Let's get coffee."

I guessed she wanted to talk to me about Chloe.

We met at a secluded independent café. Sophia looked much more haggard than the last time I saw her, with deep dark circles under her eyes.

"I'm about to break down," Sophia cut straight to the chase without pleasantries. "Last week was our third anniversary. We booked a restaurant, and then Chloe called crying, saying a water pipe in her house burst. Liam actually abandoned me to go help her fix the pipe! And the result? The pipe wasn't broken at all; she just wanted someone to help her install a new showerhead."

My hand tightened around my coffee cup. "She did it on purpose."

"Of course she did it on purpose," Sophia’s voice trembled. "But Liam thinks I'm making a mountain out of a molehill. He said, 'Chloe is just like that, happy-go-lucky, no bad intentions.'"

"Until I looked at his phone." Sophia closed her eyes. "The messages Chloe sent him... 'Are you asleep?' at 2 AM, selfies after drinking, and one that read, 'If I had met you before Sophia, would there have been a chance for us?'"

I took a deep breath. "How did Liam reply?"

"He said 'Stop messing around,' but added three smiley faces." Sophia smiled bitterly. "What's scarier is that I found out Chloe isn't just like this with Liam. Last week was Noah's birthday, and she gave him a hand-knitted scarf—while Noah's girlfriend, Ava, was standing right there. Noah actually put it on right then and there, saying 'Chloe really understands me, I was just missing a scarf.'"

Just then, the door pushed open and Ava walked in. She was Noah's girlfriend, a senior manager at a well-known PR firm. Usually capable and imposing, her eyes were currently red-rimmed.

Ava slammed her Hermès bag onto the chair. "That bitch told Noah that I got promoted because I had an improper relationship with my boss. And Noah actually asked me 'if it was true.'"

The air solidified.

The three of us looked at each other.

She didn't love Ethan, nor did she love Liam or Noah. What she loved was the authority of being "worshipped by the stars." She enjoyed being the sole female core of this small group; the intervention of any other woman was a threat to her throne.

She used "brotherhood" as cover and "happy-go-lucky" as camouflage to execute the most precise, gender-based bullying. And those men—led by Liam and Noah—were her most loyal and stupid guards.

"I have something here." Ava took a tablet out of her bag and opened a surveillance video.

The screen showed the Starbucks downstairs from her company. Chloe was sitting with a woman—Ava's colleague and main rival for the promotion. Chloe handed the woman a USB drive, and after a whispered conversation, the woman gave Chloe an envelope.

"She sold my company's internal information to my competitor," Ava said coldly. "Just for some pocket money, and to destroy my career while she was at it."

Sophia also took out her phone. "This is a photo I secretly took of Chloe's laptop screen. She has a folder full of photos from our social media—what we wear, where we eat, even photos of our shopping receipts."

I felt a chill run through me.

"We can't go on like this," I took a deep breath. "Since she wants to play, let's play a game with her. But this time, we're going to make sure everyone turns their back on her."

"How do we do it?" Sophia asked, the fire of revenge flickering in her eyes.

"Ethan's birthday is coming up." The corners of my mouth curled up. "That is an opportunity she absolutely won't miss. But what we need is evidence."

"I have an idea," Ava said, her gaze sharpening. "Chloe's boss is the wife of a friend of my client. I heard that Chloe and her married boss are a little... too close."

"Also," Sophia added, "Liam accidentally mentioned that Chloe has been asking around about how to recover deleted data from phones recently. I suspect she wants to find something in Ethan's phone."

We formulated a plan to expose Chloe's true face.