Dinner with the parents

_Jace's Mom: Aria Cole dear, Jace and Ethan's father and I need to see all three of you for dinner tomorrow. 7pm. We saw the LIVE before it was deleted. We need to talk about this arrangement._

I read the text three times.

Aria Cole dear.

She knew my last name.

"Your mom just texted me," I said, holding my phone up. "She said dinner tomorrow. 7pm. She saw Chloe's LIVE."

Jace and Ethan both went silent.

Ethan took my phone, read the text, and his face - for the first time since I met him at age 16 - looked nervous.

"She never texts girls we date," Jace said quietly.

"She never texts at all," Ethan added. "She makes our father text."

Chloe, still sitting on the floor with her blanket, whispered, "Is that bad? That she texted Aria and not you?"

"It's very bad," Ethan said.

Jace sat down hard on the couch. "Our parents saw the LIVE. That means our father saw it too."

"Your father?" I asked. I had only met Mr. Hayes twice. Once when I was 16 and my mom and I moved next door, he looked at me and said "Cute kid." Once when I was 18 and got the scholarship, he said "Smart kid." He never said much.

"My father does not like... arrangements," Jace said carefully.

"He likes business. He likes clean," Ethan said. "He likes, one girl, one contract, one heir. He does not like..."

He looked at me. At Jace's hand on my waist. At his own hoodie on my body.

"He does not like sharing," Ethan finished.

The fire crackled. The lake outside was dark now. It was 6pm and we had been here all day with no signal, and now signal had come back just enough for two texts to ruin everything - one threat from Vanessa, one dinner invitation from hell.

Chloe stood up. "I should go. My car has enough gas to get back. And I need to - I need to fix what I did. I will tell everyone the LIVE was fake. That I was pranking."

"No," I said again. "No more lying."

Ethan looked at me, surprised I would say that twice in one day.

"If we lie now, we will lie forever," I said. "Aria Cole is not a liar. If your parents saw the LIVE, let them see us tomorrow. All three of us. Together. Like we are."

Jace smiled. That soft smile. "You want to walk into our parents' mansion holding both our hands?"

"Yes," I said, even though my knees were shaking. "One day as three. You said one day as three, no hiding. Dinner tomorrow is still inside our one day if we don't go back tonight. One day can be 48 hours if we say it is."

Ethan laughed. Short, surprised laugh. "She is negotiating with us now. Using our own rules against us."

"She learned from the best," Jace said.

Ethan walked to me and pulled the blanket higher around my shoulders. "Aria Cole," he said, saying my full name slowly, like tasting it. "Do you know what happens at Hayes family dinners?"

"No," I whispered.

"Our father asks questions," Ethan said. "He will ask you: What are your intentions with my sons?"

My face went red. "What should I say?"

Jace answered. "You say: I love both your sons. I am not choosing. I am shared. And if you have a problem with it, talk to your sons, not me."

Chloe made a small choking noise. "You cannot say that to Mr. Hayes! He is scary!"

"He is not scary," Ethan said. "He is just... logical. He will want a contract. He will want rules. He will want to know who gets you when, where you live, who pays for what -"

"I pay for myself," I cut in. "I have scholarship."

"Not anymore if Vanessa sends those photos," Jace said quietly.

Silence again.

My phone buzzed. Not UNKNOWN. Not Mom.

Vanessa Park.

A new I*******m DM from *@vanessa.park.official* - her real account now, not the fake truth account.

Photo. No caption. Just a photo.

It was me, last night, in Ethan's elevator. His hand under my dress. My head thrown back. The elevator camera angle is high, so you can see everything.

_Message under photo: See you at dinner tomorrow, Aria. Mrs. Hayes invited me too. 7pm. Can't wait to meet you properly. - V_

"She is invited to the dinner?" I screamed, showing the phone.

Jace took the phone and his hands clenched so tight the phone creaked.

"My mother invited Vanessa?" Ethan's voice was ice. "She would never. Unless -"

"Unless your father invited her," Jace finished. "To show us what a 'proper' girl looks like. One girl, not shared."

Chloe started crying again. "This is all my fault. If I didn't go LIVE, your parents wouldn't have seen, Vanessa wouldn't have -"

"Stop," I said. I was tired of everyone saying sorry. I stood up in the middle of the lake house, wearing Ethan's hoodie, Jace's jacket around my waist, blanket falling off.

"Listen. Both of you. We said one day as three. This is still our day. Vanessa can have her photos. Your parents can have their dinner. The campus can have their gossip. But tonight, here, with no signal, it's still just us. Three."

I looked at the one big bed with three pillows pushed together.

"Are you both still scared to sleep in the same bed as me? Or are you going to keep letting Vanessa and your parents and Chloe's LIVE decide for us?"

Jace and Ethan looked at each other. Then at me. Then at the bed.

Ethan was first. He walked to the bed and pulled the blanket back.

"One bed," he said. "Three pillows. One rule - no leaving tonight."

Jace turned off the big light, leaving only the fire.

Chloe grabbed her keys. "I - I will sleep in my car outside. Give you three privacy. I -"

"Stay," I said to Chloe. "Sleep on the couch. If Vanessa sends the photos tonight, I want you here. You are my best friend. You started this LIVE, you get to see how it ends."

Chloe nodded, tears falling, and curled up on the couch with a blanket.

I walked to the bed.

Ethan on the left. Jace on the right. Space in the middle for me.

The girl who is shared by the brothers.

I lay down in the middle.

Both of them lay down beside me. Slowly. Carefully. Like I would break.

The fire crackled.

My phone, on the nightstand, had one bar of signal again.

And it buzzed.

_UNKNOWN (Vanessa): Sweet dreams, shared girl. Tomorrow at 7pm, everyone will know what you did in that elevator._

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