Page 64 of Beautiful Lies

When he left, the heartache was like a physical thing, carving holes straight through my chest. I used to lie awake at night, staring at the ceiling, imagining all the ways he might come back to me. All the pretty words he might say, all the promises he might make. I would have fallen to my knees and thanked God if he’d shown up at my door asking for forgiveness, begging me to take him back.

That heartache was so consuming I never thought it would stop.

But one day, like waking from a fever, it just… did.

The sharp edges dulled, the holes filled in, and Chad became nothing more than a memory. A closed chapter in a book I’d already moved on from.

Now he’s back with his nervous smile and desperate eyes, and I feel…nothing.

No racing heart. No butterflies. No urge to fall into old patterns.

Just a hollow kind of recognition, like seeing a stranger wearing a familiar face.

And I’m about to marry a possessive billionaire who just called mehiswith a conviction in his voice that made my knees weak.

What kind of craziness is that?

How can I allow myself to getweak-kneedover a man who’s just a contract to me?

Knox and I are a business arrangement with an expiration date stamped in bold across every page. In six months, this will all be over, and we’ll go back to being strangers.

I am no fool. So, I won’t be a fool for him.

Knox was just protecting his investment tonight, making sure I don’t mess things up or make him look bad in front of the wrong people.

He said so himself. He doesn’t want another scandal.

Tonight was damage control. A reminder of the terms I agreed to.

I need to stay on track. Up my game.

Before Chad waltzed in and created a storm, I was thinking about the forfeiture clause. That’s where my focus should lie.

And… I also owe Chad an apology.

The way things ended tonight was awful.

He may have hurt me, but he didn’t deserve to be dismissed and humiliated, no matter what his intentions were.

I still think of us as friends. He needs to know that, regardless of Knox’s motives or my own confused feelings.

I just have to figure out how to make things right… without making everything worse.

I close my eyes and press my palms against my temples, trying to push the memory of tonight out of my head.

But not even a minute passes before Knox drifts back in—his fingers on my neck, the jump of my pulse beneath his touch, the dark, dangerous flicker in his eyes when he leaned close enough for me to smell his cologne and feel the heat radiating from his skin.

Stop, Isla.

God, what the hell?

That goddamn man may have my stomach twisted in knots and my thoughts spinning in circles, but I’m stronger than his charm.

My heart’s telling me I need to find a way out of this.

And I will.

I just have to keep my eyes open.