Power Play With My Fake Boyfriend のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 21 - チャプター 30

CHAPTER 21: NO ANSWERIvy's POVThe message sat there all morning. Read. Nothing after it.I checked at breakfast, pretending to scroll something else while Marcus talked about the day's schedule. I checked during hair and makeup, phone hidden under a towel while the stylist worked around me. I checked between takes, in the bathroom, walking down the hallway, every single time telling myself I wouldn't and doing it anyway.Still nothing.By noon I'd cycled through anger twice. Fine. Don't answer. See if I care. By one, embarrassment had taken over instead, hot and humiliating, the realization that I'd spent weeks pouring my life out to someone who might not even be who he claimed. By two, it had settled into something quieter and worse a dread sitting low in my stomach that didn't have a clean name."You're quiet again," Nate said, catching me between scenes."Just tired.""You keep saying that.""It keeps being true."He studied me a beat too long, the way he always did when he knew

CHAPTER 23: THE EX'S LAST MOVEIvy's POVNate didn't come back. Not after twenty minutes, not after an hour, not after I'd paced the length of the hallway so many times a crew member asked if I needed water.I texted him twice. No reply. I told myself it was the meeting, whatever legal thing had pulled him away so urgently, and not something worse.I sat outside the production offices for a while, watching the door, half expecting him to walk out any second with some easy explanation that would make the last two hours feel ridiculous. He didn't. Crew members came and went, none of them looking at me long enough to answer any of the questions building up in my chest."You waiting for someone?" a passing sound tech asked, not unkindly."Nate.""Big meeting in there. Legal, execs, the works. Could be a while.""Do you know what it's about?"He shrugged, already moving past me. "Above my pay grade."By early afternoon, unable to sit still any longer, I gave up on waiting and went looking

CHAPTER 25: THE NIGHT BEFOREIvy's POVThe night before the finale, I sat on the porch with Nate and couldn't make myself ask the one question that mattered."You're quiet," he said, settling beside me, close enough our shoulders touched."Big day tomorrow.""That's not what I meant.""I know."He didn't push. He never pushed anymore, and some nights I hated that about him, because it meant I had to be the one to decide when we finally talked about the things sitting unsaid between us."Can I say something?" he asked instead."Always.""These months changed something in me I didn't expect." He looked out at the dark yard instead of at me, voice low and unguarded. "I used to think I knew exactly who I was. Captain. Reliable. The guy who shows up and doesn't ask for anything back. Then this whole disaster happened, and somewhere in the middle of flour fights and handcuffs and live television, I stopped being sure of anything except one thing.""What's that.""You." He finally looked at

CHAPTER 27: THE REVEALIvy's POVThe host's voice cut through the studio lights. "Before our couples make their final choice, we have something special for you tonight. Footage never before seen until now."The screen behind us lit up.I recognized it instantly. The handcuff challenge, week one, the twenty-four-hour stunt that had turned our hostility into something else entirely. But this wasn't footage from the broadcast. This was raw, unedited, a static shot from a hallway camera nobody had told us was rolling.Nate stood alone in the frame, handcuff still on one wrist, the chain hanging loose where I must have stepped out of shot. He was talking to someone off camera, a producer, voice low but clear enough for the studio mic to catch every word."I don't care what storyline you're building," Nate's recorded voice said. "I don't want her hurt by any of this. No matter what happens after the show ends, no matter how this plays out on camera she doesn't get hurt because of a stunt

CHAPTER 29: HIS ANSWERIvy's POVThe broadcast came back to life mid-breath, the studio lights flooding back over us both, the host's voice cutting through the silence like he'd never stopped talking at all."Nate. We're back live. Your answer?"He turned from the crowd back to me, and whatever had pulled his attention away a moment ago seemed to settle, some decision locking into place behind his eyes."Yes," he said, clear enough to carry to every microphone in the building. "This is real. It's been real for a while now. And yes when this show ends, when the contract's up, when there's no more cameras telling either of us what we're supposed to feel I choose Ivy. Not for ratings. Not for a storyline. Because I want to."The crowd exploded.It was the moment the entire season had been building toward, the payoff every producer in that building had been chasing since the night we got ambushed at a charity event neither of us asked to attend. Applause rolled through the studio in wav