"The Dress and the Lie"
POV: Kate / Prestige
The gala shimmered beneath chandeliers like frozen stars. Velvet drapes swept the marble walls, champagne spilled like gossip, and violins wept their silken notes into the glittering air.
Kate stood beneath the grand staircase, chin high, body wrapped in midnight blue satin that clung like a secret. The dress wasn't obviously new. It was the one Dan had gifted her months before the betrayal💔.
Custom. One of a kind. With a thin silver line coiling around her waist like a whisper.
Tonight, it was war paint.
People passed her in waves of perfume and laughter, but Kate wasn't watching them. Her eyes swept the crowd like a blade.
Then she saw him.
Dan Alexander.
Arm-in-arm with Prestige Belle, the woman whose smile could light entire ballrooms and whose innocence made Kate's chest ache with something close to guilt.
Almost.
He was in black tie. Clean-shaven. Regal. The kind of man who smiled for cameras and lied to hearts.
Their eyes met across the room.
His smile faltered.
Kate turned with immediate effect.
Prestige didn't notice. She was too busy leaning into Dan, whispering something that made her cheeks flush. Her dress was gold. Her heels sparkled. She looked like a promise.
And Kate looked like a threat.
POV: Prestige
"Isn't this just perfect?" Prestige asked, eyes wide with wonder. "This place feels like something out of a dream."
Dan smiled, distracted. "Yeah. It's... Absolutely beautiful."
Prestige followed his gaze and froze.
Kate.
"Oh my God," she breathed. "That dress. She looks... incredible."
Dan didn't reply.
Prestige tilted her head. "Is that new? I feel like I've seen it before."
Dan blinked. "No. Must be a coincidence."
But something about his tone felt off.
POV: Kate
Every camera flash felt like a spotlight.
Dan hadn't looked away since he saw her.
Kate moved through the gala like liquid smoke. Smiling. Toasting. Laughing with investors. But her eyes remained sharp, watching. Measuring.
Flashback:
The dress had arrived in a white box. No note. But she had known.
"I want you to wear this to the Foundation event," Dan had said over the phone. "So everyone knows... you're mine."
It was one of the few times he'd dared to make their love public, even if no one truly knew.
And now?
He stood beside Prestige, pretending she was the one he chose first.
POV: Prestige
Later, in the powder room, Prestige reapplied her lipstick and scrolled through her phone.
Then she froze.
There it was.
A photo buried in her camera roll. Taken last year on her birthday. Someone else had snapped it. She never looked at it twice.
But now she did.
Kate. Dan. On a yacht.
Dan's arm was around Kate's waist. They weren't just smiling. They were glowing.
Prestige zoomed in. The bracelet Dan gave her... it was on Kate's wrist.
No. That couldn't be right.
Her heart thudded.
"Kate?" she whispered into the mirror, as if the reflection might answer.
POV: Kate
Dan caught her by the balcony. Away from the clamor of music and murmurs.
"What game are you playing?" he asked, voice low, jaw tight.
Kate sipped her champagne. "You tell me. This party's yours. I'm just the ghost in the room."
He stepped closer. Too close. His cologne curled around her like a memory.
"You wore the dress," he said.
Kate looked up at him, eyes unreadable.
"I never threw it away."
His jaw clenched. "Why are you here?"
"Because your lies deserve an audience!."
She walked away before he could answer.
POV: Prestige
She sat in the empty lounge, staring at the photo. Her mind raced.
That wasn't a coincidence. That wasn't an old friend. That was love.
"Kate... why didn't you tell me?"
Prestige scrolled back further. More photos. More pieces. And then she remembered something Kate had said once.
"Some dresses aren't just clothes. They're promises."
And tonight, Kate had come wearing a promise Dan once made to her.
POV: Kate
Outside, the gala continued. The music climbed. The lights dimmed.
But Kate stood at the edge of the ballroom, watching Prestige whisper to Dan, her phone clutched in her hand, her eyes... different now.
Dan looked uneasy.
Kate smirked.
Let the unraveling begin.
POV: Prestige (Later that Night)
Back in her apartment, Prestige paced.
She pulled out the velvet bracelet box. Her fingers trembled.
Inside was the tag.
Date of purchase: One day after the date on the photo.
Then she opened the side pocket.
A folded note she had never noticed.
"For the one who lit my night on the yacht. Sunshine always."
Her blood ran cold.
She wasn't there that night.
Kate was.
Prestige stared into her mirror.
Then she whispered:
"What if I was never the first?"
Her phone buzzed.
A message. No name. Just a n
umber.
It read: Ask Dan who he kissed on the yacht. Then ask who he slept with the day before he met you.
She gasped. Her fingers shook.
"Oh Godddd..😭."
Behind her, the door creaked open.