Chapter 3

I didn't let Ava's mockery bother me. I took Luke's hand and pulled him upstairs.

"My sister always talks like that. Don't take it personally."

He was looking around my small, bare room, and when he heard me, something like pain crossed his face.

"Is this how it always is here? You always the one giving way?"

I smiled, and it came out bitter.

"I wouldn't call it giving way. Mom and Dad just like Ava better. Even when I fight, I don't win much."

The ache in his eyes deepened.

"Why didn't you ever tell me?"

I didn't answer.

The comments answered for me.

[Oh, come on. Now the villain's playing the victim. Don't fall for it, she's just working you!]

[When does this awful woman finally get written out? I'm losing my mind. Can he please figure out she isn't his girlfriend and tear her apart already?]

They were going to be disappointed.

Over the next few days, Luke didn't tear me apart. If anything, we got closer.

The account he'd been chatting with had already been handed down to me, along with everything else Ava didn't want.

He came to see me every day and took me out on his little electric scooter.

Ava laughed at that scooter every time she saw it.

Today was no exception.

She stood in the doorway watching Luke hand me the helmet, rolled her eyes where she thought I couldn't see, and then raised her voice.

"You two are so in love, Sophie. Romance on the back of a scooter. How sweet.

"You're not planning to turn up to your engagement on that thing too, are you?"

Then she turned to Miles and made a point of it.

"Miles, I'm not as boy-crazy as my sister. If you're picking me up, it had better be a Maybach at minimum, or I'm not getting in."

She didn't notice the very strange expression that crossed his face.

I couldn't be bothered to answer her. I climbed onto the back of the scooter and wrapped my arms around Luke's lean waist.

I leaned against his back and said it quietly.

"You don't have to come get me every time. I can meet you somewhere."

He was silent for a moment.

"Sophie. Am I embarrassing you?"

The comments went eerily quiet.

[Why is the hero asking her that like he's begging? That was so weird.]

[Okay, I'm scared to say this out loud, but doesn't it feel like he's actually falling for the villain?]

[No. No. He belongs with our girl. It's only because he doesn't know she got swapped out!]

I wasn't reading them. I shook my head against his back.

"I just think it's hard on you, coming all this way every day. I don't want you exhausted, and I don't want you sitting there while my family laughs at you."

The dullness in his eyes lit up all at once.

He looked at me and made the promise one word at a time.

"Sophie, don't worry. Marry me, and I'll never let you lose."

The comments came apart again.

[Wait, what? Did the hero just confess to the villain?]

[Wake up! Our girl is standing right there watching you!]

[I'm a bad person, but I actually ship him with the villain.]

[You'd ship anything. She's a schemer, she doesn't deserve him.]

None of their squabbling touched me.

I was about to answer Luke when Ava let out a sharp little laugh behind us, and I couldn't tell whether it was bitterness or contempt.

"Big words from a broke nobody."