Chapter 26: I’ll Be There
Megan shot Cynthia one last withering glance before turning on her heel. She walked toward the door with the confidence of someone who had already won. Carlos lingered for a moment longer, his gaze hard and unyielding.
Without another word, he followed Megan, his steps echoing through the room.
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Cynthia remained on the floor for what felt like an eternity, the cold tiles seeping through her skin and deep into her soul. Her breathing was shallow, uneven, and her chest tightened with a suffocating weight of humiliation. The spatters of Megan’s venomous words still lingered in the air, cutting deeper than she’d care to admit. Forcing herself to move, she pressed her trembling palms against the floor and slowly pushed herself up. Her legs wobbled beneath her as she dragged herself toward the bedroom.
Her heart thudded against her ribs as her reflection in the ornate mirror by the door caught her eye. Mascara streaked down her cheeks, and her eyes were rimmed with red, swollen from unshed tears. Is this what I’ve become? she thought bitterly, brushing a hand against her face. But there was no time to dwell on her crumbling self-image; she needed to distract herself, escape even if only in her mind.
She collapsed onto her bed, her body sinking into the plush mattress as if the weight of the world had finally found a place to rest. She reached for her phone on the nightstand, her fingers hesitant but desperate. Opening WhatsApp, she scrolled mindlessly through the endless chatter of mundane conversations, her thumb moving on autopilot. She paused at her last exchange with Brian.
Cynthia’s thumb hovered over the screen before she finally typed:
"Brian, I need to talk. Something happened. Megan... she spat on me and pushed me to the ground today."
The message lingered on the screen for a moment before she hit send. Her breathing quickened as she typed more:
"She’s pregnant with Carlos’ child. I congratulated her, and that was what I got in return. I don’t know what to do anymore. I love her, Brian. She’s my twin. But this? This feels like war."
She stared at her phone, the three gray dots signaling that Brian was typing... then they vanished. No reply.
Cynthia sighed and dropped the phone onto her chest, her gaze fixed on the ornate ceiling above her. Each swirling design seemed to mock her, whispering silent judgments of her situation. The sting of Megan’s betrayal and Carlos’ cold indifference played on an endless loop in her mind.
Grasping for a lifeline, she reopened her phone and swiped through Instagram, TikTok, anything to drown out the noise in her head. But nothing could fill the void. It was all meaningless. Until a familiar green notification bubble on WhatsApp caught her eye.
Her heart gave a small jolt as she opened the message. It was from Ethan, the man she’d bumped into at the new lounge downtown days ago.
"Hey, I hope I’m not bothering you. Would you still be interested in grabbing a coffee?"
She stared at the message, her fingers hovering over the keyboard. She hesitated, biting her lower lip. Normally, she wouldn’t respond to such messages. Ethan had been polite, charming even, but this was out of character for her.
Yet tonight was different. She needed an escape, a reason to leave the suffocating walls of the Manhattan Grande-State and the toxic energy it harbored. Her thumbs moved before she could second-guess herself.
"Tomorrow evening works for me. Is the offer still on the table?"
The reply was instant.
"Absolutely! I thought you’d never respond. I’m looking forward to it. Where should we meet?"
Cynthia’s lips twitched into the faintest of smiles, the first semblance of relief she’d felt all day. She typed back:
"Let’s meet at the same restaurant where we ran into each other. 7 p.m.?"
"Perfect. I’ll be there. Thank you for giving me a chance."
Cynthia’s chest tightened at the sincerity of his words. For a brief moment, she felt seen, acknowledged, and wanted — feelings she hadn’t experienced in a long time. But the guilt crept in almost immediately. She dropped the phone onto the bed beside her and exhaled deeply, her eyes once again locking onto the ceiling.
As the minutes ticked by, she replayed the day’s events in her head: Megan’s cruel smirk, Carlos’ dismissive glare, the mocking voices that echoed in her mind like a cruel symphony. She pressed her palms against her temples, trying to drown out the noise.
The soft chime of another notification pulled her back to the present. Reaching for her phone, she saw it was Ethan again.
"Looking forward to tomorrow. I’ll be waiting."
She typed a quick response:
"I’ll be there."
The words felt heavier than they should, as though they carried the weight of her desperation and hope for some semblance of normalcy. Dropping the phone again, she curled onto her side, pulling the blanket over her shoulders.
Tomorrow couldn’t come soon enough. For now, all she could do was survive the night.