Page 111 of Fake it for Keeps

33

COLT

Iwas reviewing the final seating chart for the wedding when my office door burst open. Frankie stormed in, her face flushed, her eyes bright with anger. And right behind her, trying to keep up, was Hallie.

“Frankie, please,” Hallie was saying. “Just let me talk.”

“No.” Frankie turned to face her, and the fury on my sister’s face made me stand up from my desk. “He needs to hear this. Now.”

“Hear what?” I looked between them, confusion mixing with the first tendrils of dread. They had been friends five minutes ago. Now, Frankie looked like she was going to rip Hallie’s arms off. I had never seen my sister so angry. “What’s going on?”

“Tell him,” Frankie demanded, turning back to Hallie. “Tell him why you really signed the contract.”

Hallie’s face had gone pale. “Frankie, I was going to tell him.”

“When? After the wedding? After you’d gotten all your money and broken his heart?” Frankie’s voice rose. “Tell him, Hallie. Or I will.”

My chest tightened. “Someone tell me what the fuck is happening.”

Frankie turned to me. I saw genuine hurt in her eyes. For me. I knew that look. My little sister would slay dragons for me, and right now, that was exactly what she looked like she was trying to do.

Dread and fear churned in my stomach. All my senses suddenly felt more alive. Like I was standing in the forest facing down a grizzly that would tear me apart. For some reason, I just knew I was about to be shredded to pieces.

I tried to brace myself. But it was coming too fast. I didn’t have time to lock up my heart and steel my nerves for the onslaught coming straight for me.

“Hallie didn’t sign the contract to help you clean up your reputation!” Frankie’s words were half-shouting, half-sobbing. “She signed it to get revenge on you. She was planning to make you fall in love with her and then publicly dump you at the end of the contract. Break your heart the way you apparently broke hers in high school.”

The words didn’t make sense at first. They just hung in the air, disconnected from reality.

“That’s not true.” I looked at Hallie. “Right?”

Hallie’s eyes were filled with tears, but she didn’t deny it.

She didn’t fucking deny it.

“Tell me it’s not true,” I said, my voice rough. “Hallie. Tell me.”

“It was true,” she whispered. “At first. That was my original plan.”

The floor dropped out from under me.

It was true.

Everything—the lunch she’d brought me, the dinner she’d cooked, the way she’d looked at me, the way she’d let me hold her—all of it had been part of some elaborate revenge scheme. She had manipulated me.

I almost laughed. I was the Casanova that wooed hundreds of women. I was the one that made them feel like they were special just long enough for me to get laid.

And holy fuck, now Hallie had done it to me.

But I never, ever let any of my conquests believe I loved them. I played them and they knew damn well I was turning on the charm.

Hallie set out to purposely destroy me.

What. The. Fuck.

“You were planning to hurt me,” I said flatly. “This whole time.”

“No. Not this whole time. I changed my mind.”