LOGINLila's POV I ran to my room and slammed the door shut behind me, my back pressing against it like that alone could keep the whole mansion from crashing in on me.My hands were shaking so badly I could barely unlock my phone.I scrolled to Jojo's name and hit call, pacing back and forth across the room while it rang.He picked up on the second ring. "Lilly? It's late, are you okay?""Jojo," I said, my voice cracking immediately. "I need to tell you something and I need you to not freak out on me....""You're already scaring me," he said. "Talk!"I sat down on the edge of my bed, my knees pulled up to my chest, and I just let it out."Serena is dead," I said. "I killed her..."Silence hung on the line for a long moment."You what??" he finally said, his voice barely above a whisper."She came to the mansion," I said, the words tumbling out faster now that I'd started. "She was pretending to be me, she had Ethan believing she was me, and when I got there she pulled a gun on him. I didn'
Lila's POV The moment I and Ethan climbed out of the pool, I couldn't shake the feeling crawling under my skin.Damian had been watching us.I didn't need anyone to confirm it, I had felt his eyes on us the entire time, and now something about it sat wrong in my chest, heavy and sour in a way I didn't fully understand."I think we should go inside," I told Ethan, forcing my voice to stay light. "I want to rest a bit."He didn't ask questions, he just scooped me up without warning and carried me toward the mansion, laughing the whole way, completely unaware of the storm building behind my ribs.I smiled along with him, playing the part, even though deep down none of it felt right anymore.It wasn't like it should have mattered that Damian saw us.He knew about the plan, he had agreed to it, he was the one who suggested it in the first place.But knowing that didn't stop the feeling creeping up my spine, the sense that I had somehow turned into something dirty in his eyes, something wi
Damian's POVI stood by my window with a glass of wine in my hand, watching them down there in the pool, and I told myself over and over that I didn't care.I sipped slowly, letting the wine sit on my tongue longer than it needed to, trying to convince myself that whatever was happening between Lilly and Ethan meant nothing to me.But my eyes kept drifting back to the window anyway, back to the two of them laughing in the rain like the rest of the world didn't exist.I already knew she was easy.I had known that from the moment my father brought her into this family.But this, watching her throw herself at Ethan barely hours after our engagement made the front page, felt like a new kind of low, even for her.Yes, we had a plan.She was supposed to sleep with Ethan eventually, get pregnant, and give us something believable to point to when the divorce came.I knew that.I had agreed to it myself.I just hadn't expected it to happen this fast, this easily, like she'd been waiting for th
Lila's POV The water lapped warmly against my skin as Ethan’s mouth claimed mine deeper.His tongue slid past my lips with slow, hungry intent, and I tasted chlorine mixed with the faint salt of his skin.My arms wound around his neck, fingers digging into the wet strands of his hair, while my legs floated up and locked around his waist.The pool lights painted everything in soft blue, turning his shoulders and chest into shadowed planes of muscle that flexed under my palms.He pressed me back against the tiled wall of the shallow end.His hands slid down my sides, thumbs brushing the underside of my breasts through the thin fabric of my bikini top. lI arched into the touch, a soft moan escaping into his mouth.He swallowed it, kissing me harder, teeth grazing my lower lip before he tugged the string at the back of my neck.The top loosened and floated free.Cool water kissed my bare nipples, making them tighten instantly.Ethan broke the kiss only long enough to look down at me.Hi
Lila's POV The car ride home was silent.I stared out the window the whole way, watching the streetlights blur past one after another, my mind still stuck on that ring, that stage and the pregnancy condition Damian had thrown at me like it was nothing at all.I kept replaying it over and over in my head, trying to make sense of a plan that made no sense, trying to figure out how I had gone from a girl just trying to survive under one roof to a pawn in some scheme involving marriage, divorce, and now apparently a baby that was never supposed to be real.We pulled into the driveway and I didn't wait for Damian to open my door.I stepped out fast, needing distance, needing air that didn't smell like his cologne, needing a second away from the man who had just knelt in front of hundreds of strangers and asked me to marry him like it meant nothing at all."Lilly, wait," Damian said, grabbing my hand."Calm down," he added, but I yanked my hand free before he could finish the sentence.Tha
Lila's POVI stared at the man kneeling in front of me, waiting for him to stand up and tell me this was a joke, that none of this was real.But he stayed down there, staring back at me, and I could see it in his eyes.He wasn't joking.He was actually hoping I wouldn't ruin whatever game his father had built around us.My mind went straight to Ethan.How was I supposed to explain this to him? Even if I told him the whole thing was fake, saying yes to a public proposal from Damian would put a target on us that I wasn't ready to deal with.I wasn't willing to fake-date Damian and let the world think we were getting married, not when it meant putting Ethan in a position he didn't deserve to be in.My heart pounded so hard I could feel it in my throat.Then something settled in my chest.After all, this whole thing was about the brand deal.Once we signed it, whatever mess Mr Blackwood had cooked up would be over.It wasn't his business whether Damian and I ended up loving each other or
Damien’s POV“Is everything okay, miss?” I asked, though the words didn’t come out kind, they came out sharp, annoyed, like I had already wasted too much time watching her fumble with herself.The girl... Lila...sat there on the damn chair, struggling with a pair of heels as if it was rocket scienc
Lila's POV “Look who called today, pussyyy!” JoJo’s voice blasted from the screen before his face even popped up.I burst into laughter. He was leaning against some neon-lit wall, the strobes from a club bouncing across his dark shades like he thought he was a celebrity. “JoJo!” I grinned, instant
Lila's POV “Hey, Lila, wakey-dokey! You’re late!” Ethan’s voice roared up the stairs, exaggerated and playful, like he was a stand-up comedian trying to get the audience to clap.I groaned into my pillow, smiling despite myself. Only Ethan could make laziness feel like an event. By the time I drag
Lila Sinclair's POV I stared at my reflection in the mirror, hardly recognizing the girl in front of me. The soft curls Ethan had fixed in my hair bounced over my shoulders, my dress hugged my body in all the right places, and the light makeup made me look like I belonged to this mansion, like I’d







