*Chapter 13 — Pieces Don't Lie*
*Loveth's POV*
I couldn't sleep.
The salon, the stares, Miracle's sweet poison… it all looped in my mind like a broken record.
But it was Ethan's silence that echoed loudest.
If she didn't lie, and he didn't speak, then what else had been left unsaid?
I needed clarity. And I knew where to find it.
---
I returned to the salon early the next morning, before anyone else.
Miracle always kept a drawer locked in the backroom — her "business" drawer.
She once joked that it held contracts, licenses, "boring adult stuff."
But Miracle wasn't the type to lock up anything boring.
I picked the lock with a bobby pin and a prayer.
Click. Open.
Inside: papers. Receipts. And a folder with Ethan's name on it.
I swallowed hard.
It was a copy of the original salon registration.
And next to it, a single transfer slip. Six figures. Paid by Ethan.
*One year ago.*
A lump formed in my throat.
So it was true — Ethan helped build this place. Funded it. And never said a word.
I had worked under his money… without ever knowing.
I sank to the floor, the truth crawling over my skin like fire.
This wasn't about Miracle anymore.
It was about me. My pride. My place.
And what else Ethan had kept from me.
---
*Ethan's POV*
I sensed the shift the second Loveth walked into the lounge that night.
She didn't smile.
Didn't sit.
Didn't pretend.
"I saw the receipts," she said flatly.
My heart dropped. I stood up slowly.
"Loveth—"
"You funded the salon. You knew Miracle brought me in. And you didn't say a word."
"I didn't want it to matter."
"But it does," she snapped. "Because now everything feels like a setup."
"It wasn't," I said, voice calm but cracking. "I walked away from her. I stayed for you."
She looked at me then — not with anger, but with something worse.
Disappointment.
"You should've told me," she said. "Because now I don't know if I found this job, or if you handed it to me with strings I didn't see."
She left without letting me explain further.
And I realized…
This wasn't just about feelings anymore.
It was about trust.
And I was losing it.
---
*Miracle's POV*
She found it.
Good.
Let her choke on the truth.
Because this was just the surface.
If she ever found out what Ethan did *after* he funded the salon…
Well, let's just say…
*Flawless wouldn't begin to describe how far she'd fall.*
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