Chapter 72

“I’ve been in love with her since secondary school,” she said. “Not the kind of love where you just want to be friends forever The real kind. The kind that hurts every time she talks about some guy she’s dating Every time she posts pictures with Darrell, smiling like he’s the one. I watched it for years, Bella. Years of pretending it didn’t kill me a little every day”

She paused, picked up the soda again, and took another sip like it was liquid courage

“When Gina started complaining about him… how distant he was, how the spark was gone, how she was thinking of ending it -I saw an opening. Not for me. Not yet. But if Darrell cheated… if he proved he wasn’t worth r maybe she’d finally verhe deserved better. Maybe she’d leave him, and maybe, just maybe, she’d look at me differently.”

My hands clenched into fists in my lap. Nails dug into my palms. “So you used me.”

Lara’s gaze dropped for the first time. “I thought if you got close to him, if something happened…. Gina would find out. She d be furious. She’d end it for good. And you’d get your A, your money, your scholarship. Everyone wins. Except me. I guess. I was just trying to… push things along.”

I stood up so fast the bed creaked. My voice came out louder than I meant. “You pushed me into sleeping with him. You told me what to wear and what to say. You laughed about it. And the whole time you were hoping Gina would get hurt enough to dump him-so you could swoop in?”

Lara winced, but she didn’t deny it. “I didn’t think it would go this far. I didn’t think you’d actually… do it. Multiple times. I thought one meet-up, maybe some flirting, and that would be enough to make her suspicious.”