The Rival I Let In
Sabine Castellane has thirty days to get engaged or lose the family business and the home she has always known. Her grandmother's will leaves her with one impossible condition, she must become engaged to the man her grandmother trusted most. Unfortunately, that man is Julianii Marchetti, Sabine's ruthless business rival and the last person on earth she would ever choose to marry.
With her manipulative uncle ready to seize control of the company the moment she fails, Sabine makes Julianii an offer she is certain he will refuse. Six months as her fake fiancé. In exchange, she secures her inheritance, and when the six months end, they walk away, no strings, no questions, Julianii agrees.
Living together turns their old rivalry into something neither of them expected. Their arguments grow charged. Their staged kisses linger. The man Sabine has spent years despising becomes the one who notices when she is hurting. Soon, pretending feels dangerously real.
But Julianii is hiding something. Years ago, a business deal involving Sabine's family destroyed his own family's future, and Julianii believes her father was responsible. He agreed to this engagement to know the truth. Sabine was never meant to become part of his plan. She was meant to be the woman he investigated. Instead, she became the woman he fell for.
Then Sabine finds his file, proof that Julianii has been studying her from the very beginning. Suddenly every kiss feels fake.
Now, as the truth turns out to be closer to home than either of them imagined, and their six-month arrangement reaches its end, Sabine must decide if she can trust the man she loves.
Six months was supposed to be enough time to secure an inheritance. It was never supposed to be enough to fall in love with the enemy.
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Chapter: The First CrackWe told my family two days later, at a dinner I arranged specifically for that purpose.I expected shouting, Delphine's dramatics, or one of my older cousins demanding an explanation, or at the very least a room full of people talking over each other the way they had at the will reading.Instead, when I said the words, “Julianii and I are engaged,” the table went completely silent.Delphine's fork stopped halfway to her mouth. Even the housekeeper pouring wine at the sideboard paused for a fraction of a second too long, shock spreading across the table like a meal being shared.Vesper didn't react at all.That was what unsettled me more than any amount of noise would have. Everyone else at the table looked like they'd been slapped. Vesper simply set down his glass, folded his hands, and smiled like a man confirming something he already knew."Well……. "Congratulations."I glanced at Julianii beside me. If the silence bothered him, he didn't show it. He simply reached over and rested hi
Last Updated: 2026-09-10
Chapter: Learning To PretendWe met at Castellane House three days later to work out the details neither of us had bothered to discuss in his office.I'd spent most of those three days telling myself this was purely logistical. A business arrangement with a personal cover story. Nothing about it needed to feel complicated.Julianii arrived precisely on time, which I was already starting to expect from him, and I led him into the study. It felt strange having him there, in the one room in the house that still smelled faintly like my grandmother's perfume, but there wasn't anywhere else that felt appropriate for this particular conversation."I've made a list," I said, sitting behind the desk and sliding a sheet of paper across to him.He picked it up, scanning it with the same focused expression he used on contracts. "A list of rules.""If we're going to do this, we need boundaries. Clear ones.""Go on, then. Walk me through them."I folded my hands on the desk. "No unnecessary touching. Whatever is required for a
Last Updated: 2026-09-10
Chapter: The ProposalI spent the better part of a week trying to find a way out.I met with Aldric twice, going through the will line by line, looking for a clause, a loophole, anything that might let me keep the company without keeping the condition attached to it."Can it be challenged?" I asked him the second time, sitting across from his desk with a copy of the will spread between us, sections highlighted like I could argue my way out of my grandmother's handwriting."You could challenge it, "But contesting a will of this size typically takes months, sometimes longer. And during that time""Vesper runs the company.""Would the trust structure be in effect? Yes!I closed the folder. "So the challenge itself hands him exactly what the condition would be.""Essentially."I sat with that for a long moment, staring at the highlighted lines that suddenly felt useless. "There has to be something else.""I've looked, Sabine. I wouldn't say this to you if there were another option." He softened his voice slight
Last Updated: 2026-09-10
Chapter: Three Years Of RivalryMost of the night I lay in bed replaying the will reading in my head, the lawyer's voice, Vesper's carefully hidden satisfaction, my grandmother's handwriting on that envelope. By the time it was morning, I was more exhausted than when I had gone to bed, and that rage in my chest hadn't faded at all. If anything, it had settled into something colder.Nevertheless, I still got dressed for the office. Grief or not, will or not, Castellane Group had a scheduled negotiation session that morning, and I wasn't about to hand Vesper one more reason to say I wasn't ready. I should have guessed who would be sitting across the table. Marchetti Holdings was negotiating a distribution partnership with us, and of course Julianii was there in person, dark suit, sleeves not a millimeter out of place, sitting like he owned whatever room he walked into. He didn't look at me when I came in. That was almost worse than if he had."Miss Castellane." He said it evenly, the way he always did, like my
Last Updated: 2026-09-10
Chapter: The Man She Didn't ExpectThe black dress felt too tight around my ribs, like it had been made for someone who could still breathe without feeling suffocated.I stood in the hallway of Castellane House, watching people I barely knew touch the walls like they already owned them. Distant cousins, Board members, A woman from my grandmother's charity foundation who kept dabbing at eyes that weren't wet."She was so strong," someone said behind me. "You have to be strong too, Sabine."I didn't turn around. I have heard the same version of that sentence eleven times today. Maybe twelve. I had stopped counting after the fourth hour.Strong? As if grief was a task I needed to complete accurately.I found my way to the study, my grandmother's study, though I suppose I would have to stop calling it that now, and closed the door behind me. The silence inside felt different from the silence in the rest of the house. Heavier. Hers.Her reading glasses were still on the desk. Exactly where she'd left them.I didn't get more
Last Updated: 2026-09-10
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