Chapter 1

I was trending across the entire internet, buried under a wave of hate, at the exact moment I was curled up on the couch catching up on sleep.

My sister Ruby O'Brien's boyfriend, the top-tier celebrity Josh Dawkins, was working out in the living room in a full set of athletic gear.

He stretched, offering a gentle explanation to whichever camera was closest, walking viewers through his secrets for staying in shape, and mentioning, almost as an afterthought, the research papers he'd stayed up late reading the night before.

The live chat scrolled by in a blur.

[Josh is way too disciplined! Up at the crack of dawn to work out and read. No wonder he made it into Layne's grad program!]

[I'm crying, Josh really is the best. Handsome AND hardworking!]

[Where's Blake, by the way? Saw him sprawled on the couch yesterday. Where'd he go today?]

[Where do you think? Still asleep, probably. I genuinely don't know how the O'Briens raised a son like that. Total trust-fund parasite.]

A second later, the camera swung over to me.

I was wrapped in a blanket, my hair a mess, sunk so deep into the soft couch that only my eyes showed.

The camera seemed to have all the patience in the world, holding a three-minute close-up on me. In those three minutes, the only thing I did was decide the living room lights were too bright, and roll over so my back faced the lens.

The chat exploded.

[So this is the real heir who came back from the countryside? An actual embarrassment to the O'Brien name.]

[Somebody get him out of that house! He's not fit to be in the same shot as our Josh!]

Finding them annoying, I frowned and pushed my face deeper into the cushion, trying to block out the noise.

Someone set a cup of warm milk down on the coffee table beside me.

"Blake," my sister Ruby's voice came low and a little helpless. "We're still live. Could you at least put on a show of trying?"

I didn't move. My eyelids didn't even twitch.

Ruby sighed and dropped her voice further. "Mom and Dad just came downstairs. They're clearly displeased. If you keep this up, they'll be on your case the second filming wraps."

I knew that already.

From the very first day I'd been brought back into this family, they'd never once stopped being disappointed in me. They hated that I had no trace of old-money polish, hated how lazily I carried myself, hated that I'd never even properly finished high school, an embarrassment to their name.

What they liked was Josh, the perfect son-in-law-to-be with his flawless smile. Josh was the masterpiece they'd carefully commissioned for the family. I was the defective piece that had accidentally slipped in with the shipment.

"Just look at Josh..." There was a note of pleading in Ruby's voice.

I finally moved, though not to sit up. I only pulled my head out from the cushion far enough to crack an eyelid and glance over.

Josh had finished stretching and was sipping from a glass of vegetable and fruit juice he'd pressed himself, taking small sips. He sat perfectly straight, as if even the act of drinking had been calculated in advance. Catching my eye, he raised his glass toward me from across the room and gave me a warm smile.

The chat erupted into another round of praise for him, and, along the way, took another swing at me.

"Blake," Ruby murmured by my ear again. "I know you don't like any of this, but just do it as a favor to me, okay? Go wash up, eat something, even just sit up and watch some TV, anything."

'Too much trouble.'

That was the only thought left in my head.

A second later, I dragged the blanket up over my head, wrapping myself completely and shutting out every last bit of light and sound from the outside world.

I could feel Ruby standing beside me for a long time. In the end, all that was left was one more barely audible sigh, and the sound of her footsteps walking away.