Chap­ter 3 begins with Monique wak­ing up ahead of her alarm, the qui­et still­ness of the ear­ly morn­ing pro­vid­ing a brief moment of soli­tude before the rush of the day begins. She checks her emails, quick­ly scan­ning through mes­sages until one from her boss, Frankie, demands her atten­tion. The sub­ject line, “KEEP ME UPDATED,” in bold caps, feels like a com­mand, remind­ing Monique of the pres­sure she’s under. As she pre­pares for the day ahead, Monique finds her­self bal­anc­ing a mix of emotions—confidence, uncer­tain­ty, and the weight of expec­ta­tions from both her job and the assign­ment she’s about to under­take.

Monique’s morn­ing rou­tine is sim­ple but delib­er­ate. She dress­es care­ful­ly, choos­ing an out­fit that reflects a sense of pro­fes­sion­al­ism while still being com­fort­able enough for a long day ahead. Look­ing at her reflec­tion in the mir­ror, she notices the sub­tle changes in her appear­ance since her rela­tion­ship with David end­ed. While always slen­der, Monique has shed a few extra pounds, par­tic­u­lar­ly around her face, a side effect of the emo­tion­al toll of her past rela­tion­ship. She feels a sense of empow­er­ment as she rec­og­nizes her renewed confidence—physically and men­tal­ly. It’s as if this new phase of her life has final­ly begun, and she’s ready to embrace it ful­ly.

After mak­ing her­self break­fast and hav­ing a brief moment of reflec­tion, Monique picks up her phone to call Frankie. She care­ful­ly crafts her response to her boss, main­tain­ing a calm and even tone despite the ten­sion run­ning beneath the sur­face. She knows that Frankie expects results, but Monique isn’t ready to share the com­plex­i­ties of her sit­u­a­tion with Eve­lyn just yet. The truth is, Monique is still fig­ur­ing out how to nav­i­gate this assign­ment, and the more she inter­acts with Eve­lyn, the more she real­izes just how com­pli­cat­ed and fas­ci­nat­ing the woman real­ly is. But she puts on a facade for Frankie, promis­ing that every­thing is going smooth­ly, even if it’s not quite the real­i­ty.

As Monique makes her way to Evelyn’s lux­u­ri­ous apart­ment, she’s once again remind­ed of the vast divide between their worlds. Evelyn’s building—an archi­tec­tur­al mar­vel over­look­ing Cen­tral Park—is a state­ment of both ele­gance and pow­er. The door­man, a warm and gra­cious pres­ence, greets Monique as if she’s a long-await­ed guest, lead­ing her to the ele­va­tor with­out a sec­ond thought. As Monique enters the apart­ment, she’s struck by the rich­ness of the space—every detail care­ful­ly curat­ed to reflect Evelyn’s wealth and sta­tus. She’s about to step into the life of one of the most icon­ic fig­ures in Hol­ly­wood his­to­ry, and despite her nerves, Monique is deter­mined to rise to the occa­sion.

Inside, Monique meets Grace, Evelyn’s assis­tant, who imme­di­ate­ly puts her at ease with her friend­ly and approach­able demeanor. Grace, who seems gen­uine­ly delight­ed to meet Monique, offers her a warm wel­come despite the for­mal­i­ty of the sit­u­a­tion. Monique is keen­ly aware of her own inse­cu­ri­ties, but Grace’s warmth helps her shake off some of the ner­vous­ness that’s been build­ing up. As Grace leads her to Evelyn’s study, Monique is struck by the beau­ty and tran­quil­i­ty of the space—so dif­fer­ent from her own mod­est apart­ment. It’s a reminder that she’s about to engage with some­one who has lived a life of immense priv­i­lege and glam­our, yet Monique is deter­mined to remain focused on the task at hand.

Eve­lyn enters the room with all the poise and con­fi­dence of a woman who knows her worth. Her pres­ence is magnetic—her beau­ty time­less, and her aura one of qui­et strength. Monique watch­es as Eve­lyn moves with grace, her every action seem­ing­ly delib­er­ate and con­trolled. The casu­al ele­gance Eve­lyn exudes is both dis­arm­ing and empow­er­ing, and Monique can’t help but feel a sense of awe as they sit down to talk. Eve­lyn, how­ev­er, doesn’t waste any time before sur­pris­ing Monique with a bold declaration—she’s not here to dis­cuss the gowns she’s auc­tion­ing off; instead, she wants to tell Monique her life sto­ry. This rev­e­la­tion catch­es Monique off guard, but as Eve­lyn begins to out­line the terms of their con­ver­sa­tion, it’s clear that this will be far more than just a sim­ple inter­view. Eve­lyn wants to share the truth behind her mar­riages, her career, and her image—a sto­ry of both tri­umphs and regrets.

Monique’s ini­tial shock gives way to intrigue as Eve­lyn sets the stage for what promis­es to be an unfor­get­table jour­ney. The weight of what Eve­lyn is offer­ing Monique—the chance to tell the full, unvar­nished truth of her life—becomes clear. This isn’t just anoth­er celebri­ty pro­file. It’s an oppor­tu­ni­ty for Monique to cap­ture the essence of a woman who has been at the cen­ter of Hollywood’s most glam­orous and scan­dalous moments. Monique real­izes that she’s not just inter­view­ing Eve­lyn; she’s being entrust­ed with a part of his­to­ry, and this is a chance that could shape her entire career.

Evelyn’s propo­si­tion to Monique is bold—she wants to tell her life sto­ry, but not for the typ­i­cal glossy mag­a­zine spread. Instead, she’s offer­ing a deep­er, more inti­mate account, one that will reveal the raw truths of her life behind the fame and beau­ty. Monique is hes­i­tant, uncer­tain about the con­se­quences of accept­ing such an offer, but the allure of this once-in-a-life­time oppor­tu­ni­ty is too great to ignore. Evelyn’s con­fi­dence and con­trol over the sit­u­a­tion are pal­pa­ble, and Monique knows that from this moment for­ward, her life will nev­er be the same. The deci­sion to take Evelyn’s offer isn’t an easy one, but Monique is start­ing to under­stand the pow­er that lies in the sto­ry Eve­lyn is about to unfold.