Smoke and Mirrors

"Think he knows?" Blair's voice, barely a whisper above the hum of the hairdryer, was laced with a tension that betrayed her carefully crafted facade of calm. She watched as Claudia expertly applied a layer of ruby red lipstick, her reflection in the vanity mirror a study in contrasts – the fiery passion of the lipstick against the cool, calculating glint in her eyes.

Claudia blotted her lips with a tissue, her signature crimson smile blooming in the mirror. "Darling, please. My acting skills are Oscar-worthy. He'd never suspect a thing."