*Loveth's POV*
I didn't knock when I stepped into the back office.
Miracle looked up, calm as ever, sipping tea like she hadn't been tossing grenades behind my back.
"You're running out of secrets," I said flatly.
She arched a brow. "You've been busy."
"I know you contacted someone. I saw the post. What is it that Ethan's hiding?"
Silence.
Then a slow, cruel smile.
"You want the truth so bad?" she whispered. "Then ask your precious Ethan why he *really* walked away from my life. It wasn't love, dear. It was guilt."
My stomach dropped.
"What guilt?"
She leaned in close, her voice almost soft.
"He was engaged when we met. And I didn't find out until after he left me — and her."
My world spun.
---
*Ethan's POV*
I knew she'd come.
The moment Loveth texted *"We need to talk. Now."*
I felt the floor beneath me shift.
When she showed up, eyes blazing and voice shaking, I didn't run.
"Miracle said you were engaged. That you left two women behind."
I exhaled slowly.
"Yes. I was engaged. A year before I met Miracle."
Loveth flinched.
"You never told me."
"I ended it long before I met you," I said. "But Miracle knew. She used it against me. Said she'd expose me to the press if I didn't help with the salon."
"And you still stayed quiet?"
"I didn't want you to see me through her lies. I wanted you to see me for who I am now."
Her silence felt worse than any slap.
"I don't know who you are right now, Ethan."
---
*Miracle's POV*
The pieces were falling.
The cracks widening.
I could taste it — the distance, the doubt.
The war I started wasn't over.
It was just getting personal.
---
*Loveth's POV*
I walked out of Ethan's lounge and into the night air, numb.
Betrayal comes in layers.
And sometimes… the last one cuts the deepest.
But one thing was clear:
*I couldn't trust either of them.*
And the next move?
Would be mine.
__