“Tina, you’ve changed,” Khloe said with a faint smile. “Looks like life’s been treating you well these past few years.”
Back in school, Tina had been small and shy, soft-spoken to a fault. Now she was radiant, confident-her energy filled the room.
“Of course! Your girl’s seen the world now,” Tina said, laughing as she pulled Khloe into a seat.
Then she gave her an exaggerated once-over. “And look at you-more beautiful than ever. Must be that glow from being in love, huh?”
At the mention of love, Khloe’s expression faltered for just a moment. She wasn’t sure how to answer.
Word of her arrival spread quickly. Classmates, some familiar, some not, gathered around her.
Back in university, Khloe had been both top of the class and one of the prettiest on campus-everyone had known her name.
Seeing her at the reunion tonight was a small event in itself.
“Yeah, Khloe, tell us about your perfect life! Must be nice being Mrs. Fox,” someone teased.
Their romance had been legendary back then-Trey’s pursuit of her had been so open, so dramatic, that their marriage after graduation became the talk of the finance department.
“By the way, where’s Trey? You didn’t bring your husband along? Come on, call him-get him over here!”
“Yeah, we all want to meet him!”
The voices grew louder, half-joking, half-prying.
Khloe was already beginning to regret coming. She was trying to think of a polite way to deflect when another voice cut through the chatter.
“I don’t know. Being a rich man’s wife doesn’t sound so easy. I heard the Fox family’s never even made their daughter-in-law public. Love between people from different worlds usually ends up in pieces, doesn’t it?”
The voice carried a sharp edge. Khloe turned toward it and saw a face that felt vaguely familiar.
She couldn’t recall the woman’s name, but she remembered she’d once been Angela’s student-someone from the same class as Trey.
“Denise, you’re just bitter,” Tina shot back without hesitation. “You haven’t had a boyfriend in years. Maybe try a blind date before running your mouth.”
“Please, Tina, you don’t understand anything, so stay out of it,” Denise Parker sneered. “Everyone knows Trey only married Khloe because he couldn’t have the woman he really wanted.”
The moment those words left her mouth, the room fell silent. The laughter, the chatter-all of it evaporated like mist.
One by one, the smiles vanished from people’s faces. The classmates who’d been so eager to talk to Khloe just moments ago suddenly found their drinks or their phones very interesting.
The air turned cold.
Khloe froze for a moment. She didn’t need Denise to tell her Trey had someone else in his heart-she had always known that much.
What caught her off guard was everyone else’s reaction.
Normally, people would gossip, act surprised, deny it, or at least laugh it off
But this… this quiet acceptance-it was as if they all already knew.
So everyone but her knew about Trey and Angela’s relationship.
???
She thought of the blessings, the envy, the congratulations she’d once received, and for a second, it all struck her as absurd.”
How funny-how pathetic-that she had once believed she was the happiest woman alive.
Tina’s face flushed bright red. “Denise, watch your mouth! If you’re jealous, at least have the decency to admit it!”
“I’m just telling the truth,” Denise said coolly. “Whether there’s love or not, I think the person involved know best.”
Her lips curved into a thin smile as she cast a deliberately provoking glance at Khloe.
“Besides,” she added, her tone dripping with disdain, “what’s there to be jealous of now?”
“You’re jealous of her beauty, her success, and the fact that someone actually loves her,” Tina snapped. “You’ve been competing with her since our university days, and everyone knows it.”
Tina wasn’t wrong.
Back in university, Denise had been quite the star herself. She’d been photographed during her freshman year- long legs, perfect figure, dressed impeccably-and had gone semi-viral online as the “Finance Goddess” of their department.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.