Her breathing caught.
Then she said something unexpected.
“Brendan never actually did any of this for my sake.”
I sat upright.
“What do you mean by that?”
“When I lost that competition four years ago, I cried for one night and moved on with my life, but Brendan couldn’t let it go,” she explained.
“Then why did he do it?” I demanded.
“Because you won,” Scarlett answered with a heavy sigh. “Brendan was obsessed with the idea that someone like you should never beat me.”
A chill moved through me.
“Someone like me?”
“You had no wealthy family name, no high-society connections, and no elite tutors,” Scarlett clarified. “You came from a humble background, yet you danced better and forced the people he considered superior into second place.”
Silence filled the line.
“So it was never about defending your honor,” I whispered.
“No,” Scarlett confirmed quietly. “It was entirely about Brendan’s fragile ego. And Chloe, there’s something much worse you need to know.”
“What is it?” I asked, my heart racing.
“The ninety-nine acts of revenge were not just verbal jokes among his friends,” she warned. “Brendan has been meticulously documenting every single one for years.”
“Documenting them how?”
“He keeps a secured digital folder filled with exact dates, hidden photographs, screenshots, and videos,” Scarlett revealed.
“Why would he keep all of that?” I asked in horror.
“Because they planned to unveil the entire file to you tomorrow night,” Scarlett admitted. “Number ninety-nine was showing you the whole archive in front of everyone at a party, telling you that your entire three-year relationship was just an experiment to see how much humiliation you would tolerate for love.”
I looked toward the adjoining room where my parents were sleeping.
Brendan hadn’t just planned to leave me.
He wanted to break me completely.
“Chloe,” Scarlett whispered nervously before hanging up, “you need to know who helped Brendan organize this nightmare from the very start.”
PART 3
“It was Liam,” Scarlett confessed right before the line went completely dead.
I stared at the hotel wall in disbelief.
Liam was Brendan’s cousin, but he had also been the first person to make me feel welcome when Brendan and I started dating.
He attended my birthdays, shared holidays with my family, and once sat beside my mother in a hospital waiting room when Brendan claimed he was too busy.
A moment later, Scarlett sent me dozens of screenshots.
