Chapter 5
The pool party was Chloe’s idea.
Of course it was.
An upscale eighteenth-birthday party in Southern California with a DJ, balloons, catered food, pink mocktails, floating candles, and nearly two hundred people gathered around the pool.
Our parents paid for it.
Chloe designed it.
I endured it.
She chose the bikinis too.
She sent me a blue one in a shopping bag two days before the party.
No note.
Just the bikini and a white robe.
My stomach twisted when I saw it.
I had spent ten years covering my skin.
Chloe knew that.
That was why she chose it.
Mom told me I could wear something else.
Her voice was gentle.
Too gentle.
The kind of gentle people use when they are already preparing to accept the harm.
I asked, “Would you stop her if she made a scene?”
Mom looked down.
That answered me.
Dad heard from the hallway.
He said, “I would.”
I believed him this time.
Not because he sounded angry.
Because he sounded finished.
On the night of the party, Chloe greeted guests like a celebrity.
Yellow bikini.
White birthday sash.
Perfect hair.
Perfect smile.
She stood beneath the gazebo and let people cheer when the DJ announced us.
Us.
But the lights stayed on her.
I wore the blue bikini under the robe and told myself I could leave anytime.
Then Chloe found me near the side gate.
“You’re not swimming?”
“No.”
“It’s our pool party.”
“It’s your show.”
Her smile sharpened.
“You always do this.”
“Do what?”
“Make people feel guilty.”
I looked at her.
“I’m standing by a gate.”
“You’re standing there like a tragedy.”
I should have walked away.
But before I could, Chloe grabbed the microphone from the DJ table.
She called my name through the speakers.
The crowd turned.
“Maya’s been hiding all night,” she said, laughing.
“Come on, birthday twin.”
People clapped.
Chanted.
Phones lifted.
Dad stepped forward from the crowd, but Chloe moved faster.
She came to me, smiling wide.
“Don’t be dramatic.”
Then she tugged the robe tie loose.
I caught the fabric, but not in time.
It slipped from my shoulders and fell to the stone deck.
Gasps moved around the pool.
Chloe’s smile widened.
For one second, I was eight again.
Hot.
Exposed.
Unable to breathe.
Then Chloe handed me the microphone like a knife.
“Go ahead, Maya.”
“Let everyone see the monster.”
The crowd waited for me to break.
Instead, I finally understood what Dad had been carrying under his arm.
The file.
May you like
The truth.
Read the full story 👉 Chloe designed the pool party and bikini reveal to humiliate Maya publicly, never expecting Maya and David to be ready.
