Fake It Real: A Billionaire Fake Marriage Romance Page 16

  “I’d like that,” she says. But there’s something behind her voice that makes me feel like this seems like just an idle fantasy to her. Like she’s already preparing herself to say goodbye.

  “I won’t lose you, Melody,” I say, kissing her on the cheek and wrapping her in my arms. Having a partner like her — someone I can love and trust without reservations, someone I can open up every part of myself to, someone who’s opened themselves up to me — is worth any cost.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Melody

  Julian and I spend a week together, waiting for the fateful day that he’ll step before the board, and he’ll be officially given the title that he’s worked so hard for. Generally, I’m happy for him — it’s hard not to be, he’s practically effusive the whole time.

  He showers me in everything I could ever want for a week straight. Fancy dinners, new clothes, some super-flashy phone to replace the one I lost, a new purse, and more kisses than I can count, everything he says I deserve as his fiance and the woman that, when he’s CEO, he’ll move heaven and earth to keep by his side.

  With every gift, I have to work a little harder to force a smile.

  Every kiss leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.

  When I was a freshman in college trying to determine where I wanted my place to be in this big wide world, I had this class on Classic Greek culture. Mainly because I needed some elective credits, and needed a class I could comfortably skip from time to time to catch up on sleep or studying.

  I never thought I’d use that class in real life, but right now, I feel like I’ve got Damocles’ sword dangling over my head and, as the week drags on, that single hair that’s holding it up is starting to fray.

  It’s only a matter of time before it snaps.

  The more I think about it, the more I know that fight in the bar wasn’t a mistake. Even the few words I had with Victoria before I punched her smug face were enough to tell me that she’s the kind of person that would be happy to ruin someone’s life just out of spite.

  I punched her, and know, she knows my secret. I’m sure of it.

  I go through the lead up to the day of the board meeting trying to be happy, forcing myself to hide my fear, but waking up in the middle of every night worried sick

  I know I should leave. I know that I’m just a liability to him, now, even if he doesn’t know it. But I’m too damn paralyzed to do the right thing and leave.

  I wake up the morning of Julian’s meeting to a beep from my phone. Dread descends over me.

  It’s from a number I don’t recognize, but I already know what it’s about.

  I glance over at Julian.

  He’s asleep beside me, a small smile on his face. He looks so peaceful it makes my heart hurt.

  Been a long time, it reads. It’ll be good to see you again. I’ve missed you.

  My body goes numb.

  I hold my phone in my clenched fist and make a dash for the bathroom. On my knees, my face leaning over the rim of the toilet, fear empties my guts into the bowl.

  My stomach heaves and I feel tears streaming down my face.

  My phone buzzes again.

  A different number this time. Her.

  You’re done. This is just the start. I will tear you and my son to pieces.

  I puke again until I’m empty, until I all I can do is huddle on the floor and hate myself for not having the guts to leave.

  Julian’s alarm goes off in the other room.

  I can hear him shuffling, shutting it off and moving around on the bed as he starts to wake up. I flush the toilet, wipe everything down, and flush it again to get rid of every trace. Then I furiously try to clean myself up.

  I must do an ok job at it, because when I leave the bathroom, Julian smiles at me.

  “Have I told you how beautiful you look when you have crazy bedhead?” he says.

  He’s already halfway dressed and looking incredible, as usual. Despite just getting out of bed. I swear, that man could live a month as a hobo and still be the hottest thing I’ve ever seen. Sexiness and confidence are just ingrained into him.

  “Thanks,” I smile weakly.

  He looks so proud, my heart is breaking.

  I know I should tell him about my past, but I can’t. It’ll complicate things, it’ll distract him, and it’ll tear us apart. But more than that, I’m ashamed.

  I’d like to be by his side when he finally gets what he’s been working so hard for.

  I want to feel like his queen for a little while longer.

  I want to enjoy this impossibly perfect thing that is our life together.

  His love is unlike anything I’m every going to find again. Even though I’m sure I’ll lose it, and soon, I have to hold on a little longer.

  I’m in a daze as I get ready, but Julian hardly notices. He’s alive with energy and confidence. He’s every bit a man about to realize his dreams and it tears me up inside. I can already see him slipping away from me, rising higher.

  I’m cursing fate, impotently screaming at it in the depths of my heart.

  “You ready?” he says, putting the finishing touches on his tie.

  He looks like a dream, and I’m about to wake up.

  “I’m ready.”

  * * * * *

  It’s raining. Grey skies dumping a torrent of tepid water on us drive into the city. The closer we get, the harder it rains, the worse I feel.

  The lobby of Stone Capital is cavernous. A wide, gaping maw, packed with pillars. If I shut my eyes, I can picture the generations of Stone men who built this place, relentless in their pursuit to consume the competition.

  At the end of the lobby, there’s an elaborate reception desk. Ornately carved and worn with years. A bright-smiled young woman sits there. She stands and waves as she sees us, walking in arm-in-arm.

  The walk across the hall feels like a funeral procession.

  “Mr. Stone, is this your fiance? Congratulations, by the way.”

  “It is. Thank you, Tiffany, I’d like you to meet the love of my life: Melody.”

  She leans across the desk to give me a hug. “So nice to meet you. I am so happy for you both.”

  “I couldn’t be happier,” I lie.

  “Is everything set for the board meeting?” Julian says to Tiffany, anticipation crackling in his voice.

  She nods. “Gordon is here already. He’s up in his office, I think he’s got some call or another going on for his charity. Keith will be here in half an hour. His assistant called to let me know they’ve hit traffic. The others are all upstairs.”

  “Good. Let me know right away if anything changes.”

  Tiffany nods, and we start to head towards the elevators, when she calls out: “Oh, and Mr. Stone… your mother and Pierce Anderson are upstairs, too.”

  Julian’s face goes dark, fists clench, but he doesn’t answer.

  The elevator doors shut on us and we ascend. My stomach sinks with each floor we rise.

  A small ‘ding’ signals our arrival.

  They’re here. Standing right in the hallway, directly in our way. There’s no getting around them.

  She’s dressed like a predator, with a grin that says she’s ready to rend the two of us apart. Pierce is expressionless, his face stony, this is just business to him. Another job, another paycheck.

  All I can see is the manila envelope in his hands.

  I know what’s in there.

  It’s the end to this charade, this beautiful dream I’ve been able to lie myself into living these past couple weeks. I know that A lot of the truth is still buried — sealed by the courts over a year ago when they gave me a new name and a protective order — but there’s enough to raise suspicions. Enough to cause trouble for Julian, the man that I love even though it hurts so much right now, knowing what he’s about to find out.

  It is so unfathomably cruel of her to spring this on Julian, here and now, to ruin him as he’s about to realize the rewards of all his hard work.

  “Wh
at the fuck are you two doing here?” Julian’s voice is an icy knife, bracing and sharp.

  “We need to talk,” Pierce says, then, fixing me with a glare, he adds “alone.”

  I feel hollow inside. My skin numb, my heart beating a funeral dirge in my chest. Shame seeps through my body, filling me, until I want to crawl in a hole and just disappear.

  “What’s this about?” His voice riddled with confusion and hurt.

  I don’t answer.

  My voice fails me.

  All I can muster is this look that stings with guilt, because the truth is, I have been lying to him about who I am. And, whatever my reasons, a lie is a lie; a betrayal of the trust that we built between us. Something that I had opportunity after opportunity to clear up, but I chose to lie about.

  “You need to see this,” Pierce says.

  Julian doesn’t pay him any mind. His eyes are only for me.

  “Melody, talk to me. What is this about?”

  My gaze sinks. I can’t even look at him.

  “I’m sorry,” I say. I fumble for words and what I end up spitting out feels so inelegant and inadequate that I feel even more pathetic than before. “I love you, Julian, but my past is just a lot more complicated than you know. There’s a lot I haven’t told you and… I’m sorry.”

  “Let’s go,” he says to Pierce and Victoria.

  After giving me another look of pained shock, Julian takes them into a nearby empty conference room. Through one of those huge viewing windows that takes up half the wall, I watch them talk. My stomach sinks with each passing second.

  I see pictures and documents spread out on the table in front of them, I see the look of disbelief on Julian’s face, an expression that soon washes away to shock and anger.

  Shouting spills out from the room, and Julian whips out his cellphone. I know he’s calling someone to check up on the information that Pierce is showing him.

  It’s over. I knew it the second I saw the look on Pierce and Victoria’s face. Julian is going to find out just how much I’ve been lying to him this whole time, all while I demanded his honesty and exploited his generosity. I’m such a fucking hypocrite.

  I don’t deserve him.

  He doesn’t deserve the pain my lies will bring into his life.

  This should be his moment to shine. He can’t do that with me around.

  I need to leave, and hope that he’s strong enough to salvage it all after this mess I’ve made. I pull off the ring he gave me. It feels so heavy in my hand. For a moment, I think back to how happy and surprised I felt when he first gave that to me. I’d picked it out, expecting him to flinch at the price, but instead, he’d taken to it wholeheartedly. He made me feel like I deserved it and more.

  But now, I can’t even bear to look at it.

  I place it on the table and turn away.

  My fist slams into the elevator button.

  “Melody,” he calls from me from the doorway to the conference room.

  It’s an invitation to stay, a pea for an explanation.

  “Forget about me,” I answer. “Just forget about me. I’m not worth it. Go claim what you’ve been working for.”

  “How could you do this? Why would you do this?” Anger and hurt roil in his voice.

  “It doesn’t matter,” I say. I need to make him leave. I know I’ve already ruined our relationship. He thought he was building us on a foundation of trust, and I’ve just turned that to quicksand. “I lied to you. That’s all you need to know.”

  My heart feels like it’ll never beat right again.

  The elevator door ‘dings’.

  I step inside, praying he won’t follow me.

  He doesn’t.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Julian

  “She’s a fraud,” Victoria says, triumphantly.

  I barely hear her. My head is still ringing with her betrayal.

  I’ve been stabbed in the gut by the woman I trust the most.

  I don’t even know why.

  But all the evidence is there, laid out on the table in front of me and corroborated by a few quick calls to my lawyer and an ex-cop PI I know.

  Time and again, right to my face, she lied while in the same breath telling me she loved me. Was that a lie, too?

  Officially, there’s no record of Melody Peres until a year ago, and that’s as far back as any records of her go. Everything else is sealed by some court in Colorado, as far my ex-cop was able to dig up.

  Still, he told me he’d keep digging.

  Just what the hell is she trying to pull?

  I watch her leave, which is just more confirmation of her how bad the truth must be. I push back the urge to chase after her. She said enough.

  I love Melody Peres, but that woman descending the elevators isn’t her. Melody Peres is just an invention, a lie, just like our relationship.

  How could she spend so much of our time together demanding trust and honesty, while lying right to my face?

  “You can see this complicates things,” Pierce says.

  “No fucking shit it does,” I retort, bitterly.

  My mouth is full of ashes and my head is still spinning from this betrayal.

  How could she not tell me? How could she go through with all these lies, knowing how important today is for me? Was she planning to keep lying to me?

  What’s making everything worse is the look on Victoria’s face. It’s so fucking smug that my throat fills with bile.

  “Pierce has someone digging even deeper in her hometown. We’ve found out there’s another man, too. This other man was so curious about what you and that bitch have been up to. This is will be a nightmare for you when it gets out to the press,” she crows.

  I slam my fist into the table and it shudders and cracks at the blow. The pain is jarring, and both Victoria and Pierce start. “What the fuck do you want?” I demand.

  “You know what I want,” she spits.

  “I’d rather die than give you the company after what you did to Alex.”

  She rolls her eyes. “Please. That mess was your father’s doing. You know he had too much pride to be the man at the helm of a dying company, so he did what he had to to keep it afloat.”

  Pierce nods.

  The bastard probably helped my father pull off all the shit that Alex took the blame for.

  “So he decided he’d get away with it by fucking over his own son? Jesus Christ, how can you people be so twisted?”

  She glares at me. “It doesn’t matter. It was survival. Now, I did not spend three decades laying beneath your beast of a father not to get paid what I’m due.”

  I can’t even comprehend how much of a wretched bitch she is.

  And I can’t let her win.

  “I’d rather die than let a conniving cunt like you sit at the head of the board. Go ahead, leak all the information you want. By the time it gets anywhere, I’ll already be CEO. And I’m no stranger to dealing with a shit reputation.”

  “What about her?” Pierce asks.

  I shrug. “I don’t care.”

  Those words feel like ashes in my mouth.

  But even so, I think I mean them.

  * * * * *

  My head is swirling as the announcement is made.

  There’s a note of pride in Gordon’s voice as it echoes through the boardroom.

  He still doesn’t know about the truth about Melody. It’s going to be a firestorm of biblical proportions when word of that gets out.

  “And so, by a vote of four to two, it is decided. Julian Stone, welcome aboard as the next CEO of Stone Capital.”

  I force a gracious smile. I feign pride.

  Victory tastes like shit.

  I should be happy. Fuck, I should be ecstatic and not just because I prevented vultures like Victoria from feasting on the remains of my brother’s career. I’ve just fought my way to the top of one of the most powerful investment firms in the state.

  But all I can think about is her.

  Melody.<
br />
  Her name raises this whirlwind of emotions inside me.

  Anger. Sadness. Wrath. Betrayal. Confusion.

  They all compete with that stubborn sensation of love that still twinges my heart any time I think of her.

  So, while the board is going on about my fancy new pay package as CEO and the truckloads of stock and cash they’re going to give to me just for becoming their boss, all I can think about is her.

  Still, I get up in front of the board and I say the usual gracious shit you’re supposed to say in times like this. How I’m grateful for their confidence and support. How I’m looking forward to leading the company into the future with confidence and integrity.

  It’s the kind of shit these guys eat up. I get the old white man golf clap when my speech is over, I get a few pats on the shoulder, and a death glare from Victoria and Pierce when I step out into the hallway.

  It’s only going to be a matter of time before they try and tear apart Melody’s life and my own.

  This is what going for revenge has got me — a bitter taste in my mouth and the promise of a continuing cycle of hate from everyone I’ve stepped on to get here.

  I hardly talk to anyone as I leave the board room. I make a bee-line for the elevators and put I put on a stony don’t-fucking-talk-to-me expression.

  I send a text to Mike on the ride down. It’s simple. I won. Say hello to the new CEO.

  His reply’s almost immediate: Congratulations??? I think?? Or should I say I’m sorry?

  I get to the parking lot. I turn the key in the ignition of my Jag and peel out onto the street.

  There’s just one place I can go to get my head straightened out.

  * * * * *

  “You have fifteen minutes,” the guard says as I sign the guest register.

  He points me to a shitty card table with a few folding chairs set up around it. Alex, my brother, is waiting for me. He’s got a fancy orange jumpsuit on and looks like he could use a shave, but otherwise seems no worse for wear. Aside from being in prison.

  I take a seat across from him.