The love we lied about
When a leaked single threatens to end her career, pop star Rhea Santiago is forced into a PR-engineered relationship with Cole, a guarded ghostwriter secretly paying off a debt he refuses to explain. Their contract has strict rules, no real feelings, cameras only, an end date, but forced proximity turns performance into something neither of them planned for. Behind it all is Evelyn Cross, the label president’s wife, who discovered Rhea years ago and believes she still owns her success; Cole’s carefully buried past turns out to be tangled in Evelyn’s control too, and unraveling it costs both of them dearly before they can trust each other for real.
What follows is decades, not months: marriage, children shaped by the wounds Rhea and Cole carry from their own childhoods, the identity crisis of loving someone whose fame or usefulness threatens to swallow you whole, and the slow work of becoming parents neither of them had. When Cole is finally diagnosed with a terminal illness, the book’s real question comes due, not whether love can defeat death, but whether Rhea can survive losing him and still call her own life whole. She does. Not because he saved her, but because he helped her discover she could save herself.
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Chapter: Chapter Forty-Eight: Our Story, Our WordsThe interview was scheduled for a Tuesday morning, a respected outlet Gerald's former assistant had vouched for personally, a journalist named Daniel Okafor who'd built a career on fairness rather than sensationalism. "You nervous," Cole asked, adjusting his collar in the mirror while I finished my makeup beside him. "Terrified. In a good way, I think." I met his eyes in the reflection. "We're finally the ones deciding what gets said. That should feel more comfortable than it does." "It will, once we're actually sitting there." He turned to face me properly, steadying me with a hand on my shoulder. "We've survived worse than one honest conversation." Daniel met us at the studio with a warmth that put me at ease almost immediately, no hidden agenda in his questions, no attempt to trap us into something sensational. We told it plainly, the fake contract, the real feelings that had grown underneath it, Evelyn's obsession and everything it had cost both of us to survive her. "Why tel
Last Updated: 2026-10-24
Chapter: Chapter Forty-Nine: Who Told Her"The venue," I repeated, my voice flat with disbelief. "She's already found the venue. Before we've even booked it.""Someone close to you is talking," Gerald's former assistant said carefully. "I don't say that to alarm you further. I say it because it's the only explanation that makes sense."Cole took the phone from me gently, his jaw set in the hard line I'd come to recognize whenever Evelyn's reach extended somewhere it shouldn't have been able to go."Who inquired exactly," he asked. "A name, anything.""A paralegal from her old legal team. Professional, polite, asked about availability for three specific dates, all within the window you two have been discussing privately.""We haven't discussed specific dates with anyone outside this apartment," I said slowly. "Not even Marissa knows the exact dates we're considering.""Then someone overheard something, or something's been compromised electronically." The assistant's voice carried genuine concern now. "I'd suggest treating ever
Last Updated: 2026-10-23
Chapter: Chapter Forty-Seven: The Reporter"Who sent this," Cole asked, reading over my shoulder, jaw already tight before he finished the first line."A freelancer. Name's Patricia Vance. Says she's working on a feature about our relationship, implying there's a story behind the story." I scrolled further down, my stomach tightening with every paragraph. "She's asking specific questions, Cole. About the contract. About the eight weeks. Things that were never public.""Someone's feeding her information.""Someone who knows details only a handful of people ever had access to." I set the phone down, meeting his eyes. "Evelyn mentioned reading about the engagement in the paper. What if this is connected.""She's in prison. She can't exactly schedule interviews.""She doesn't need to do it herself. She just needs someone willing to do it for her." I thought of Marissa's warning, the storage unit, the narrative Evelyn had built in case the trial didn't go her way. "This feels like the same plan, Cole. Different delivery method."We
Last Updated: 2026-10-09
Chapter: Chapter Forty-Six: The Letter“She what,” Cole said, sitting up fast enough that the blanket slid off his shoulder, my phone screen glowing between us in the dark.“Requested to write to me. Through the facility’s correspondence system. It says here it’s already been approved.”“Approved by who? Since when does she get to just request contact with her victims?”“I don’t know. I’m calling Reyes first thing tomorrow.” I set the phone face-down, though the words stayed lit up behind my eyes regardless. “I didn’t want this tonight, Cole. Not tonight of all nights.”“I know.” He pulled me close, some of his own tension easing slightly at the reminder of what the evening had actually been about before this arrived to ruin it. “We don’t have to deal with it right now. It can wait until morning.”It couldn’t, not really, not with both of us lying awake until the sky started lightening, but we let each other pretend otherwise until exhaustion finally won.Reyes called before either of us had finished coffee. “I looked into
Last Updated: 2026-09-25
Chapter: Chapter Forty-Five: The Question“You’ve been weird all day,” I said, watching Cole pace the kitchen for the third time in ten minutes, phone in his pocket he kept checking without pulling out.“I’m not weird. I’m thinking.”“About what.”“Things.” He caught himself, stopping mid-step, running a hand through his hair. “The album drops next week. I’m proud of you. That’s all.”“You’re a terrible liar for someone who used to write for a living.”“I wrote true things, mostly. Lying was never my strong suit.” He crossed the kitchen, kissing my forehead quick before grabbing his jacket off the hook. “I have an errand. Back in an hour.”“An errand.”“Yes. A normal, boring errand that has nothing to do with anything.” He was already halfway out the door, and I laughed at his back, deciding not to push further, some instinct telling me whatever he was planning deserved the space to unfold on its own.He came back an hour later exactly as promised, calmer, something settled in his expression that hadn’t been there when he lef
Last Updated: 2026-09-21
Chapter: Chapter Forty-Four: The WaitingThree days passed with no word from Reyes beyond brief updates confirming the search was ongoing, and the not-knowing settled into a low, constant hum beneath everything Cole and I tried to do to keep some semblance of normal life going.“You’ve checked your email four times in the last hour,” Cole said, glancing over from where he sat with his laptop open, a blank document staring back at him that he’d been trying to fill for days.“I keep thinking something’s going to show up. A leak. A message. Something.”“Maybe nothing does show up. Maybe Marissa’s fear got ahead of the actual facts.”“You don’t believe that.”He set the laptop aside, rubbing a hand over his face. “No. I don’t. But I also don’t know what good it does either of us to sit here waiting for a disaster that might not even be real.”My phone rang before I could answer him, Reyes’s name on the screen, and both of us went still at the same instant.“We found something,” she said, without preamble. “A storage unit, regist
Last Updated: 2026-09-17
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