The dress they put me in is black and too tight, like it’s daring me to breathe wrong.
“Smile,” the event manager whispers as she hands me a tray of champagne flutes. “Rich people hate nervous servers.”
Good thing I’m not nervous.
I’m furious.
The champion’s banquet hall glows gold and glass, chandeliers dripping light onto polished shoes and surgically perfect smiles. Bianca’s laugh cuts through the noise—bright, rehearsed, weaponized. She’s in white tonight, of course. Innocence has always been her favorite costume.
At the center of the room, under a spotlight, sits it.
The trophy.
Silver Peak Resort — Business Leader of the Year.
Rule two on Tyler’s list.
Steal the damn cup.
My pulse pounds in my ears as I weave through tables, head down, posture submissive. Nobody really looks at servers. That’s the point. We’re furniture. Invisible until we spill something.
I reach the stage, pretending to adjust the floral arrangement beside the trophy. My fingers brush the cold metal, and for a second I hesitate.
Then I tilt it, just enough to see the base.
There are words carved into the silver. Small. Almost hidden.
In memory of the seven workers lost during development.
My stomach drops.
Seven.
They told the town it was two. An “unfortunate accident.” Settled quietly. Forgotten loudly.
I swallow hard. “Tyler,” I whisper under my breath. “What did you find?”
My earpiece crackles softly. Kai’s voice slides into my ear, low and calm. “You’re shaking.”
“Because it’s worse than we thought,” I murmur. “The trophy is a gravestone.”
“Then take it,” he says. “Let’s show them what they’re celebrating.”
I slide the trophy into the empty catering cart behind the stage and replace it with a weighted decoy Kai rigged earlier. My hands are steady now. Too steady.
Bianca’s father steps up to the podium, clapping for himself before anyone else does.
“Tonight,” he booms, “we honor progress. Growth. The future of this town.”
The lights flicker.
Then the screen behind him turns black.
And Kai hits play.
Static crackles. A man’s voice fills the room—too close, too clear.
“…we can’t let them slow construction. If they keep asking questions, make them stop. Money, threats—whatever it takes.”
A second voice answers, smooth and familiar.
My father.
“Just make sure it looks clean. Accidents happen on mountains.”
Gasps ripple through the crowd like a shockwave.
Bianca’s father freezes. “This is outrageous—”
The screen flashes images now. Contracts. Emails. Names blurred but unmistakable.
Chaos erupts.
I shove the cart toward the service elevator, heart hammering, when someone grabs my arm.
Bianca.
Her nails dig into my wrist. “You think I didn’t notice you?” she hisses. “You’ve always wanted to ruin me.”
“I didn’t do this for you,” I snap, wrenching free. “I did it for my brother.”
Her face crumples—not into guilt, but rage. “Tyler was going to destroy my family,” she spits. “He threatened to tell my mother about my father’s affair. About the kid he hid away.”
My breath catches. “You knew.”
“I begged him to stop,” she says, eyes wild. “And then he died. Funny how that works, right?”
Kai drops from the ventilation hatch above us, landing hard. “Chloe. Roof. Now.”
We sprint up the maintenance stairs, the trophy heavy in my arms, alarms blaring behind us. Cold night air slams into my lungs as we burst onto the roof, snow swirling like static.
For one perfect second, it’s just us. The mountains. The truth in our hands.
Then Bianca follows.
She steps onto the slick surface in heels, breathless, mascara smudged. “You don’t get to win,” she says. “Not you. Not him.”
She lunges at me.
I stumble, the trophy slipping—
Kai grabs me around the waist and yanks me back.
Bianca’s hand flails for purchase. Her heel slides.
She screams.
Her body hits the snow hard, rolling until she slams into the safety barrier. People are already pouring out below, shouting, pointing.
Bianca scrambles upright, hair wild, eyes burning.
She points straight at Kai.
“He pushed me!” she screams. “He killed Tyler too! They were fighting over stolen gear the night he died—everyone knows that!”
The crowd goes silent.
All eyes swing to Kai.
To the boy they already decided was guilty long before tonight.
My grip tightens on the trophy.
And for the first time since this started, doubt creeps into my chest like frost.
Because Kai is the only witness.
And everyone is ready for a scapegoat.