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Chapter 11: Headlines and Crossfire
Last Updated:
2025-09-28 04:11:27
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Pretend to Be Mine Chapter 16: Shattered Goodbyes
I hadn’t felt this hollow in years. By morning, my bag sat by the door like a gravestone to everything I’d tried to build here. My decision sat heavy in my chest, an immovable stone. I told myself it was the only way—the only way to keep Maya safe. But every time I thought of Adrian—his steady hand, his impossible gaze—my resolve wavered, cracking like thin glass.Maya sat cross-legged on the couch, arms folded tight, glaring at me like she could burn holes through my choices. “You don’t have to do this,” she said for what felt like the hundredth time.I forced a smile, though it felt brittle. “I do. This isn’t about me, Maya. It’s about you. Clara won’t stop until she destroys one of us, and I won’t let that be you.”Her eyes shimmered, tears she refused to let fall glistening under the morning light. “You think disappearing will save me? She’ll just find another way. That’s what people like her do. They feed on fear.”The words stung. I swallowed hard. “Then I’ll give her mine.”I
Pretend to Be Mine Chapter 15: Choices
I didn’t sleep.All night I sat awake, my phone clutched in my hand, replaying Maya’s trembling voice: “Someone’s been following me.” The words echoed in my chest like a curse I couldn’t shake.By dawn, I was pacing the living room, every creak in the floorboards making my heart slam against my ribs. My nerves were frayed raw, like live wires sparking in the dark.When Maya shuffled out of her room, hair messy, eyes still heavy with sleep, I nearly broke down. I rushed to her before she could even say good morning.“Don’t go to school today,” I blurted.She froze in the doorway. “What? Why?”“Because Clara’s watching you,” I whispered, my voice splintering. “And I won’t let her use you to hurt me.”For a second, her sleepy confusion gave way to something sharper. Her expression hardened, stubborn in a way that was terrifyingly familiar. “Elena, you can’t lock me in the apartment forever. That’s not living.”“This isn’t about living,” I said, gripping her shoulders so tightly my hands
Pretend to Be Mine Chapter 14: A War Without Rules
Adrian Harrington wasn’t a man who reacted—he calculated. But tonight, calculation had teeth.I stood across the polished table from him in his penthouse office, the city glittering like a million unblinking eyes behind the glass. Marcus lounged at my side, but even his usual smirk felt sharpened. A folder lay open between us, spilling photographs and documents across the wood.Adrian’s voice cut through the quiet. “This,” he said, each word precise, “is Clara Vance.”I leaned forward. The dossier read like a confession: shell companies, charity accounts quietly siphoned, investments buried under fake names.“She’s been stealing?” I asked, disbelief and a strange thrill tangling in my chest.“Skimming,” Marcus corrected, tapping a page with the edge of his pen. “Enough to ruin her if the right people see it.”Adrian’s jaw flexed. “The board doesn’t know yet. She’s been careful. But if we leak this—her credibility vanishes. She loses her leverage.”I tasted metal, part fear, part fury.
Pretend to Be Mine Chapter 13: Lines I Refuse to Cross
The week after the rooftop confrontation, I clung to routine like a lifeline.I still clocked in at Harrington Enterprises every morning, still triple-checked reports, still brewed the same bitter coffee at my desk—as though the ground beneath me wasn’t shifting. But beneath that careful rhythm, my nerves hummed like a live wire.Every elevator ding made me flinch. Every whisper in the hallway felt like a dart aimed at my back.And I wasn’t imagining it.The whispers were louder than ever. Eyes followed me into the breakroom, conversations dipping into silence the moment I poured my coffee.“Contract girl,” someone muttered just loud enough for me to hear.My stomach twisted. Every polite smile felt fake, every handshake weighted with judgment. I wasn’t the invisible intern anymore. I was a headline—one people wanted to watch burn.When I returned to my desk, an unmarked envelope sat waiting. My pulse spiked as I tore it open. Inside was a single sheet of paper with bold, blocky type:
Pretend to Be Mine Chapter 12: Fire on the Roof
The city lights streak past the car window like blurred warnings, neon flashing across my lap as if the city itself is whispering: turn back. My nerves buzz, but beside me Adrian sits like carved stone—silent, controlled, unreadable. Every flicker of a passing streetlight glances off his profile and leaves it harder to read.Finally, I can’t stand the quiet.“Why bring me?” I whisper. “You could’ve handled Clara yourself.”His gaze cuts to me—sharp but soft at the edges. “Because this isn’t just about me anymore. She came after you. That makes it our fight.”The words are simple, but they wrap around my chest like a net. Dangerous in their weight. For a moment I forget how to breathe.Clara Vance is too calm.She’s waiting at a corner table in one of Manhattan’s sleekest rooftop lounges, wine glass in hand, legs crossed like a queen surveying her court. The city glows beneath her—skyscrapers glittering like jewels—but all I see is the woman who tore my life apart.As we approach, Adri
Pretend to Be Mine Chapter 11: Headlines and Crossfire
The headline spread like wildfire.Exclusive: Adrian Harrington’s Love Contract Exposed—Romance or Business Deal?Screens everywhere blazed with the leaked document—clauses about appearances, timelines, even acceptable hand-holding durations. Proof, undeniable and humiliating, that everything between us had been staged.At Harrington Tower, the board meeting was brutal. I wasn’t there, but the reports reached me in real time. Directors slammed newspapers on the table, their voices sharp enough to slice through glass.“You’ve jeopardized this company’s reputation.”“You lied to us—and to the public.”“What kind of CEO runs his personal life like a business transaction?”I could almost see the older director jabbing a finger at Adrian. You expect us to believe in your leadership when your judgment is compromised by a… contract mistress?The phrase burned when I read it. Contract mistress. Like that was all I’d ever been.Later, Marcus told me Adrian rose slowly, a shadow cutting across
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