Part 2The Perfect Substitute

That night, I called Damian non-stop.

Eventually, I got a text back. Not from him.

"He’s asleep. What do you want?"

Attached was a photo.

Heather, with her dark hair splayed over her shoulders, her neck covered in hickeys, a post-coital flush on her cheeks.

And Damian, sound asleep in her arms.

It was obvious what they had been doing.

My heart gave a little jump. I typed back:

"Where is he?"

A voice memo came back instantly: "Still haven't given up? Come see for yourself then."

Then came the address. It was Heather’s penthouse.

When I arrived, Heather opened the door.

She was wearing flimsy lingerie. She looked me up and down and scoffed. "You really do look like me. No wonder Damian kept you around."

"But now that the real thing is back, it’s time for the cheap knockoff to exit the stage."

Her tone was pure arrogance.

I frowned slightly. "Where is he..."

Before I could finish, Damian walked out from behind her. He was holding his suit jacket, which he draped naturally and intimately over Heather’s shoulders.

"Heather, you're barely wearing anything. You'll catch a cold..."

When he saw me, he froze. "Sierra? What are you doing here?"

Damian was fully dressed. He didn't look like he’d just woken up at all.

Whatever was in that photo was staged.

It hit me instantly.

This was a setup by Heather.

She wanted to provoke me, make me lose my cool so she could play the victim and gain Damian's sympathy.

But she underestimated how calm I could be.

I looked up and saw the flash of disappointment in Heather’s eyes.

Damian noticed me staring at her and stepped in front of me, his voice hard. "Sierra, I'm taking you home."

I glanced at him and turned to leave.

But Heather grabbed Damian’s hand, looking up at him with wide, teary eyes. "You aren't staying? I'm scared to be alone."

I looked back.

Damian looked at me, then at Heather.

Finally, he peeled her hand off his arm. "I need to take Sierra home first."

In that moment, he chose me.

It seemed that to him, I was more important than Heather.

But on the drive back, he was distracted. The silence was heavy until a piercing ringtone shattered it.

"Damian! Get to the hospital! Heather just tried to kill herself!"