LIORA

The silence at the dinner table was so thick I could barely breathe. Everyone stared at me like I'd just confessed to murder. Zyler's face was red. Nuala looked like someone had slapped her. Diella sat there with a satisfied smile playing on her lips.

"Is this true?" Zyler demanded. His voice cut through the quiet like a knife. "You proposed to my son in a public lobby after catching your boyfriend cheating?"

I opened my mouth but nothing came out. What could I even say? Yes, I did that. Yes, I'm exactly as pathetic as it sounds.

Everett's hand found mine under the table. He squeezed once.

"It's true," he said. His voice was calm. Too calm. "Liora proposed to me in the lobby of Montague Tech. And I said yes."

Nuala made a small sound in her throat. "Everett, please tell me this is some kind of joke."

"It's not a joke." Everett looked at me when he said it. His gray eyes held mine. "The way we met was unconventional. I'll admit that. But my feelings for her are real."

My heart stopped. Was he acting? He had to be acting. This was all part of the deal. But the way he looked at me made my chest tight.

"Real?" Zyler stood up so fast his chair scraped against the floor. "You expect me to believe you fell in love with a woman you met five minutes ago? A woman who was clearly using you to get revenge on her ex boyfriend?"

"I wasn't using him," I said. My voice came out smaller than I wanted. "I was upset and I wasn't thinking clearly but I wouldn't—"

"Wouldn't what?" Zyler cut me off. "Wouldn't see an opportunity and take it? My son is one of the richest men in the city. You proposed to him in front of witnesses so he couldn't say no without causing a scene. That sounds like manipulation to me."

"Dad, that's enough." Everett's voice had an edge to it now.

"No, it's not enough." Zyler walked around the table. He stood over me. "This engagement is an embarrassment to our family. You will end this circus immediately and marry Diella like you were supposed to."

The room spun. I gripped the edge of the table.

"Like I was supposed to?" Everett stood up. He was taller than his father. "I never agreed to marry Diella. You and Mom decided that for me."

"Because Diella is appropriate," Nuala said. Her voice was quiet but it hit harder than Zyler's shouting. "She understands our world, Everett. She knows how to handle the media and the society functions and the expectations that come with being a Montague."

She looked at me. Not with anger. With sadness.

"I thought when you finally settled down, you'd choose someone who could stand beside you as an equal. Someone from our circle who understands the pressure and the responsibility."

The words hurt worse than anything Zyler had said. She wasn't calling me trash. She was saying I wasn't good enough. That I'd never be good enough.

Diella reached across the table. She put her hand on mine. "Liora, I know this must be overwhelming for you. Being thrust into our world so suddenly with no preparation. No one would blame you if you wanted to step back from all this."

Her voice was so sweet. So concerned. But her eyes were ice cold.

"You don't belong here," she said softly. "And you know it."

Something inside me cracked. I pulled my hand away. "Excuse me. I need to use the restroom."

I didn't wait for permission. I just walked. My heels clicked on the marble floor. I found the bathroom down the hall and locked myself inside.

The tears came immediately. I braced myself against the sink and let them fall. My mascara ran down my cheeks in black streaks. My hands shook so badly I could barely turn on the faucet.

What was I doing? These people were right. I didn't belong in their world. I was a girl from a state university with student loans and a cheating ex boyfriend. I had no business sitting at that table pretending I could fit in.

Diella was right. I should step back. Take whatever settlement Everett offered and disappear before I got hurt worse.

The bathroom door opened. I hadn't heard a knock.

Everett stepped inside. He closed the door behind him.

"I didn't say you could come in," I said. My voice was thick from crying.

"I know." He leaned against the door. "Are you okay?"

"Do I look okay?" I gestured at my tear stained face.

He didn't answer. He just watched me with those gray eyes.

"I can't do this," I said. The words tumbled out. "They hate me, Everett. Your parents, Diella, probably everyone at that table. They think I'm a gold digger who trapped you."

"I don't care what they think."

"Well I do." I grabbed a tissue and tried to fix my makeup. It was useless. "Maybe they're right. Maybe I should just end this now before it gets worse."

Everett crossed the bathroom in two steps. He took the tissue from my hand. "Look at me."

I didn't want to. But I did.

"My parents' marriage ended because my mother left my father for someone she thought was more suitable," he said. "Someone from the right family with the right connections. Someone appropriate."

He said the word like it tasted bad.

"It destroyed my father. He loved her completely and she threw it away for someone who looked better on paper. That's what they want for me. A marriage that looks perfect from the outside but means nothing on the inside."

His hands were on my shoulders now. Warm and steady.

"I don't want to live like that," he said. "I don't want to marry someone because she went to the right schools or knows the right people. I want to marry someone real."

My breath caught. "Everett—"

"They think love is about matching tax brackets. But that's not love. That's a business transaction."

He was so close I could see the small scar above his left eyebrow. I'd never noticed it before.

"We should get back," I whispered.

"Do you want to go back?"

No. I wanted to stay here in this bathroom where it was just us. Where I didn't have to pretend or perform or worry about being good enough.

"They're waiting," I said instead.

Everett's thumb brushed my cheek. Wiping away a tear I didn't know was still there. "Let them wait."

Then he kissed me.

It wasn't like the kiss in the conference room that was for show. It wasn't like the kiss in front of Flynn. This was different. This was desperate and real and it made my whole body feel like it was on fire.

My hands went to his chest. I could feel his heart beating fast under my palms. He pulled me closer and I let him. I forgot about the dinner. I forgot about Diella and Zyler and Nuala. I forgot about everything except the way his lips felt on mine.

When we broke apart we were both breathing hard. His forehead rested against mine.

"We should get back," I said again. My voice was shaky.

"Yeah." But he didn't move.

Neither did I.

Finally he stepped back. He fixed his tie. I tried to fix my makeup again but gave up. There was no hiding that I'd been crying.

"Ready?" he asked.

I nodded. I wasn't ready. But I followed him anyway.

We walked back to the dining room together. Everyone looked up when we entered. Zyler's face was still red. Nuala looked tired. Diella's smile was gone.

"We're leaving," Everett said.

Zyler stood up. "If you walk out that door with her, there will be consequences. I'll block the Ashford merger. I'll make sure the board questions every decision you make. I'll—"

"Then I'll deal with it." Everett's voice was final. "I'm not ending my engagement because you don't approve."

"You're choosing her over your family?" Nuala's voice broke.

"I'm choosing myself," Everett said. "For the first time in my life, I'm choosing what I want instead of what you think I should want."

He took my hand. We walked toward the door.

"This isn't over, Everett," Zyler called after us.

Everett didn't turn around. "I know."

Diella's voice followed us into the hallway. "See you soon, Liora."

It sounded like a threat.

The drive home was quiet. I leaned my head against Everett's shoulder. He didn't pull away. His arm came around me and held me close.

"Thank you," I whispered.

"For what?"

"For not making me feel small."

His arm tightened around me. We didn't talk about the kiss. We didn't talk about the boundaries we were crossing. We just sat there in the back of the car as the city lights blurred past the windows.

Something had shifted tonight. I could feel it in the way he held me. In the way neither of us wanted to let go.

The contract said three months. No real feelings. Separate lives.

But sitting there with his arm around me and my head on his shoulder, I knew we were already breaking every rule we'd made.

And I didn't care anymore.

LIORA

My phone wouldn't stop buzzing. I woke up to the sound of notifications going off like fireworks. One after another after another. I grabbed it from the nightstand and squinted at the screen.

Four hundred and seventy two I*******m notifications.

My stomach dropped.

I opened the app. The first thing I saw was a photo of me and Everett leaving his parents' house last night. Someone had taken it from across the street. My makeup was smudged from crying. Everett's hand was on my back. We looked like we were running away.

The caption read: Billionaire's Mystery Fiancée: Gold Digger or True Love?

I scrolled through the comments. My hands started shaking.

She's so pretty! This is like a real life Cinderella story!

Are you kidding? She proposed to him after catching her boyfriend cheating. Total gold digger move.

I'd do the same thing if I had the chance lol

She doesn't even look like she belongs in his world. This won't last.

Someone had posted side by side photos of me and Diella. The comparison was brutal. Diella looked perfect in every shot. Designer clothes, professional makeup, confident smile. I looked like I'd borrowed someone else's life.

My phone buzzed with a text. Flynn.

You're making a mistake. Call me.

I threw my phone across the bed. I couldn't deal with this right now. I couldn't deal with any of this.

There was a knock on my door.

"Come in," I said. My voice sounded hollow.

Margaret walked in. She wasn't alone. Three people followed her. A woman with a camera. A man with a tablet. Another woman with a rolling rack of clothes.

"Good morning, Miss Jovan," Margaret said. "Mr. Montague has asked me to prepare you for the media attention."

I pulled the blanket up to my chin. "What?"

"The story has gone viral. We need to control the narrative before it controls you." Margaret gestured to the others. "This is Simone, our publicist. Marcus handles social media. And Claire is our stylist."

Not the Claire. A different Claire. I needed to stop being paranoid.

"I don't understand," I said.

Simone stepped forward. She had sharp eyes that reminded me of a hawk. "The public is very interested in you, Liora. We need to give them a version of you that supports the love story. Right now you're just a blank space they're filling with their own assumptions."

"So we're going to analyze your current social media presence," Marcus said. He was already scrolling through something on his tablet. "Then we'll create a strategy for what you post, when you post, and how you engage."

"We'll also update your wardrobe," Claire added. She looked at my pajamas like they were covered in dirt. "You're going to be photographed everywhere you go now. We need to make sure you always look the part."

I felt sick. "You want to turn me into a different person."

"We want to turn you into the best version of yourself," Simone corrected. "Think of it as packaging. The product is already good. We're just making sure people see that."

Margaret's expression softened just a little. "Mr. Montague wants you to feel prepared. Not ambushed."

I nodded slowly. What choice did I have?

They spent the next two hours taking photos of me, going through my Instagram, picking apart every outfit I owned. Simone told me to delete half my posts. Marcus created a content calendar. Claire measured me for new clothes.

By the time they left, I felt like I'd been put through a machine and spit out the other side.

I was still sitting on my bed staring at nothing when Everett knocked.

"Can I come in?" he asked.

"Sure."

He walked in and sat on the edge of my bed. He was already dressed for work. Suit, tie, perfect hair. He looked like he belonged on a magazine cover.

"How are you holding up?" he asked.

"Your team just spent two hours turning me into a product." I picked at the blanket. "So that's fun."

"I'm sorry. I should have warned you." He rubbed the back of his neck. "The media attention is only going to get worse. I wanted you to have support."

"I feel like I'm disappearing," I said quietly. "Like I'm becoming whoever you need me to be instead of just being me."

Everett was quiet for a moment. Then he said, "I have a proposition."

"Another one?"

A small smile tugged at his mouth. "I want to offer you a job. A real job. Not as my assistant. As the head of marketing for our new consumer division."

I stared at him. "What?"

"I've seen your work. The campaigns Flynn stole. You're talented, Liora. Really talented." He pulled out his phone and showed me something. "This is the pitch Flynn presented six months ago for our smart home launch. And this is your original deck that I found in the archives."

I looked at the screens. My throat got tight. Flynn had taken my entire concept. He'd just polished it and removed all the parts that made it special.

"You have a gift for emotional storytelling," Everett said. "For making people feel something about products they didn't know they needed. I want that for Montague Tech."

"This is pity," I said. "You're giving me a job because you feel bad."

"This is business." His gray eyes met mine. "Prove me right or prove me wrong. I'm betting you'll prove me right."

I wanted to say no. I wanted to tell him I didn't need his charity. But the truth was I did need this. I needed to prove I was more than just the girl who proposed in a lobby.

"Okay," I said. "I'll do it."

"Good. You start Monday."

That was three days away. Three days to prepare for walking into Montague Tech as Everett's fiancée and his new marketing director.

I was going to throw up.

Monday morning came too fast. I wore one of the outfits Claire had picked out. A navy blue dress that was professional but not boring. Heels that made me two inches taller. Makeup that took me forty minutes to do.

I looked like I belonged. I felt like a fraud.

The car dropped me off at the front entrance. I walked through the lobby where I'd proposed to Everett just weeks ago. People stared. Some smiled. Others whispered.

I kept my head up and walked to the elevator.

The fifteenth floor looked different now. I wasn't visiting Flynn anymore. I was walking to my own office. My own team. My own job that I hadn't earned yet.

Margaret met me at the elevator. "Your office is this way."

She led me down a hallway. The office had glass walls and a view of the city. There was a desk, a computer, a coffee maker. My name was already on the door.

Liora Jovan, Director of Consumer Marketing.

"Your team is waiting in the conference room," Margaret said. "Good luck."

I walked to the conference room. Six people sat around the table. They all looked up when I entered.

"Good morning," I said. My voice only shook a little. "I'm Liora Jovan. I'm excited to work with all of you."

A man in his forties leaned back in his chair. He had gray hair and a look on his face that said he'd already decided he didn't like me.

"Derek Harris," he said. "I've been in marketing for fifteen years. Just so we're clear, I'm only here because HR said I had to be. I don't report to people who sleep their way to the top."

The room went silent.

My face got hot. "I didn't sleep my way anywhere."

"Sure." Derek's smile was mean. "You just happened to propose to the CEO and coincidentally got promoted to director. That's totally normal."

"I got this job because I'm good at what I do," I said. My hands were shaking so I put them in my lap. "And I'm going to prove that to all of you."

"Looking forward to it," Derek said. He didn't sound like he meant it.

The rest of the meeting was terrible. I tried to introduce myself and my vision for the department. Derek interrupted me three times. The others just looked uncomfortable.

By the time it ended I wanted to hide in my office and never come out.

But I had work to do. Everett's new product launch was in six weeks. The previous marketing campaign had been safe and boring. I needed to pitch something better.

I spent the whole day building a presentation. I researched emotional marketing, user generated content, viral campaigns. I found case studies and data to back up my ideas.

By five o'clock I was ready. I called a team meeting.