Author | L.R. Ashcroft

If the HTX prologue is about big dreams and golden futures, Chapter 2 is about what happens when those dreams start to unravel.

This chapter drops Emily into a glittery, curated kind of chaos—an exclusive River Oaks party where everyone seems to know the rules but her. It’s loud, performative, expensive in a way that doesn’t feel generous. She’s floating through it all, trying to keep up, trying to feel something, trying to forget.

The house? Grand and cold.
The outfits? Ironic and expensive.
The drinks? Questionable at best.
And Bobby? Of course he’s there—casually magnetic, impossible to ignore.

This is the chapter where the cracks begin to show. Where Emily is no longer sure if she’s pretending… or becoming someone else entirely.

I wanted the mood board to capture that swirl of tension and temptation:

• The impossibly luxe backdrop
• The ache of being overlooked
• The blurry magic of a high that won’t last
• And that strange, beautiful pull toward self-destruction

Not love. Not yet.
Just the sharp, fleeting relief of being wanted.

👉 Watch the Chapter 2 mood board here.

✨ Unfolding HTX one scene at a time—stay tuned.