Page 88 of Fake Dating Mr. Prince

In some ways though, she wasn’t wrong.

Dean was using me as a means to an end, but my silly heart yearned for more. It probably was a fairytale, a made-up story, all in my head. Even thinking he might feel the same way was perhaps the most foolish thing I could’ve believed this whole time.

Elaine was right.

What would he want with me? He’d never promised more than what we’d agreed upon. Once he’d gotten what he wanted, our arrangement was done.

I was determined not to cry in front of her, but it was a losing battle.

Her evil grin ripped through me. She knew she’d hit me where it hurt. She started to walk around me then abruptly stopped.

“You will break up with him. Immediately.”

“What do you care? You got what you wanted.” My voice cracked.

“Oh, I don’t really care since I’m sure he’ll be done with you soon enough.”

“Then why?”

“Because you enjoy being with him.”

I exhaled sharply. There was nothing this woman wouldn’t do to hurt me. “So you want me to be miserable. Just like you.”

Her eyes hardened into emerald daggers. If looks could kill filtered through my head. “You deserve to suffer like I did. You were the cause of my pain.”

“What? You’re not making sense.”

All these years I’d known Elaine didn’t like me, but the malice in her eyes told me that she’d hated me all along. “If it wasn’t for you, I would have been enough for your father.”

“You hate me because my father loved me?”

“You’ll never understand. He destroyed me just as much as you did.”

I stiffened. It was time to make my stand. “You’re fucking crazy to punish a seven-year-old for some imagined slight from my father.”

“I’m crazy?” She reached out and grabbed my arm, her nails digging into my skin. I tried to yank myself out of her hold but she tightened her grip, shaking me. She jerked me forward, her face inches from mine. “You’ve seen nothing yet. Break up with him, or I’ll make him burn along with you.”

I blinked, not understanding what she was saying. “What are you going to do to him?” I wouldn’t let Elaine anywhere near Dean. I’d rather have her destroy me before she hurt him.

“Me? Why nothing, dear Ashlyn. It’s what you will be doing to him.”

“I won’t hurt him. And there’s nothing you can say to get me to change my mind.” I stubbornly held on to the belief that she wasn’t fully aware of what she was saying.

“Really? If you don’t break up with him in the next twenty-four hours, I’ll be sure to have the newspaper mention his generosity in handing these designs over to me when they run tomorrow’s edition.”

Chills ran up and down my limbs, making me tremble. This would destroy Dean. “You wouldn’t.”

“Try me, Ashlyn. Are you sure you want to see if I’m bluffing?”

I shook my head.

She’d won.

There was no way I’d let her ruin Dean’s dream of running Prince Industries. And a leak of that magnitude would provide enough doubt that the board would contest his father appointing him as his successor. Somehow Elaine must have found out that Dean was the only one with access to the designs.

“So are we clear on what you need to do?”

“Yes,” I whispered.