Chapter 2

"Chloe, don't be mad , this was seriously just a prank!"

The atmosphere in the massive first-floor living room of the villa had become unbearably strange.

The giant hundred-inch projection screen, which should have been playing a comedy, was now frozen on an image that made everyone's blood run hot.

A dim bedroom. Tangled sheets. A man and a woman, naked, wrapped up in each other.

The man was Diego , my husband of two years, the man I'd been with for five.

The woman was Sophia , my best friend of ten years.

Just half a minute ago, Diego's phone had been mirrored to the screen playing the movie. He'd gotten up to grab the food delivery at the door.

Then his phone buzzed with a notification, and just like that, a video from his hidden photo album played itself out in front of all twenty-something of us , completely unguarded, completely exposed.

Silence. A silence that stretched on for over ten seconds.

Then Wallace , the one who had organized the party, and also Sophia's boyfriend , suddenly lunged forward and yanked the screen-mirroring cable out of the port. He burst into a fit of exaggerated laughter.

"Holy crap! Diego actually got that video made!"

He slapped his thigh hard, laughing, and turned to look at me.

"Chloe, were you scared? We put this together a few days ago using one of those AI face-swap apps! All just to mess with you tonight , we wanted to see your jealous face!"

The moment he spoke, the group of friends who'd been frozen stiff around us snapped back to life, as if someone had pressed play.

"Yeah, yeah! Chloe, don't take it seriously!"

"AI is insane these days , it can even deepfake bodies. But look at that lighting, it's obviously fake!"

"Wallace went way too far with this one. Look at Chloe, she went completely pale!"

Sophia was sitting diagonally across from me. Her face was even whiter than mine.

She bit down hard on her lower lip, her eyes darting away from me.

Her hands twisted nervously at the hem of her shirt, and her voice was trembling:

"Chloe… please don't be upset. It was all Wallace's idea, messing around with mine and Diego's pictures to generate that thing…"

Right then, Diego came through the front door carrying two large bags of takeout.

He glanced at the blank screen, then scanned the faces of everyone in the room. In an instant, he understood.

He crossed the room in two long strides, shoved his phone deep into his pocket, and pulled me tightly into his arms.

"Chloe, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry. They wanted to do this prank thing, and I didn't want to go along with it, I swear."

Diego's voice carried just the right amount of flustered guilt and gentle coaxing.

His warm breath brushed against my ear.

"Don't be mad. I'll delete that stupid app the second we get home."

His arms were tight around me, carrying the familiar faint scent of his cedar cologne.

But all I felt in that moment was my stomach turning violently, a wave of nausea I could barely contain.

I lifted my head and looked around the room.

Wallace's overdone grin. Sophia's pitifully trembling tears.

The faces of our friends , expressions that looked like concern but were really just evasion.

They were all performing flawlessly. Their act was airtight.

If my eyesight weren't so sharp, I might have actually bought the "AI deepfake" story.

In the last frozen frame of that video, I had caught a detail in the background with perfect clarity.

It was our master bedroom.

On the carpet at the foot of the bed, my golden retriever , Toast , was lying there, watching the two people on the bed with curious eyes.

And around Toast's neck was a bright orange custom collar.

That collar was one I had picked up at a pet expo just last Sunday , three days ago , and put on him myself.

Could an AI deepfake accurately generate a dog collar I'd bought three days ago?

I looked at Diego's face, so full of carefully performed sincerity, and suddenly smiled.

I gently pushed him away, let out a long breath, and pressed a hand to my chest , playing the part of someone who'd just barely recovered from a scare.

"Oh my god, you almost gave me a heart attack! You guys are seriously so extra , who pulls a prank like that?"

I grabbed a throw pillow from the couch and lobbed it at Wallace.

"Wallace, that was mean. I'm cutting you off from beer tonight!"

The moment those words left my mouth, the tension in the living room dissolved like air rushing out of a punctured balloon.

Every single person seemed to exhale a mountain of relief.

"I knew Chloe was the most chill one here!"

Wallace immediately played along, raising a can of beer.

"My bad, my bad , I'll take the penalty! Let's get back to having fun!"

Diego visibly relaxed too. He leaned over and pressed a kiss to my forehead.

"You're the best. I'll go grill you some chicken wings , your favorite."

Sophia came over as well, looping her arm warmly through mine, her eyes still red-rimmed.

"Chloe, you're not mad at me, are you? I was terrified."

"Silly, why would I be mad at you?"

I wrapped my hand around hers and smiled at her, soft and warm.

"We're best friends, aren't we?"

I watched the relief wash over her face, and felt something cold spreading through me , slow and quiet, like venom seeping through my veins, inch by inch.

My best friend. My beloved husband. My most trusted people.

All this time, I had been living inside a real-life Truman Show , a perfectly constructed lie, and I was the only one who didn't know.