Page 34 of Love is Fake (Love is Everything #1)

Lennox’s dark eyes meet mine and the alarm bells which started ringing in my mind get a little louder because instead of the warmth I’m used to seeing, there’s a hardness in his gaze.

Not good.

“There’s something I need to show you.”

Picking up his phone, he taps a few keys and hands it over to me to look at. As I stare at the screen, it feels like my entire world is turned upside down in a matter of seconds.

“I wanted to tell you before, but I didn’t know how and then it didn’t matter because I called the whole thing off.

But now it looks like Honey’s people didn’t get the fucking memo.

” He runs his fingers through his hair in agitation and tries to take my elbow to pull me closer to him, but I’m stiff as a board.

My eyes are glued to the headline of the article and the photo above it, everything else has just turned into white noise.

‘Gray Scores a Fiancé!’

The picture is of two of the best looking faces you could hope to see. Two faces who belong in magazines. Who belong together.

“That’s your ex,” I state dully, unable to take my eyes off of the photo of the model draped all over Lennox as they’re coming out of some fancy party. I check the date of the article, hoping like hell it’s from months ago, from before I even showed up here. It’s not. It was published today.

“Izzy, I’m so sorry,” Lennox’s words come out in a rush, but it’s as if I’m hearing them from far away. That’s all he has. An apology. An apology and a face full of regret.

There’s something horribly ironic about me coming to tell Lennox I’ve totally fallen for him and instead finding out he’s already fallen for someone else. But, right now, I don’t care about irony, not when the world suddenly seems to be spinning underneath my feet.

“I feel sick.”

“It’s not what it looks like,” he says.

I drop the phone and look at him. He’s shaking his head. Sighing. But he’s not saying much.

I turn away from him, rushing out of the room, leaving him cursing behind me. I need some fresh air. I need to think.

I run down the stairs, hearing him pounding down them after me. He should be careful of his knee, I think to myself, absently. But just as quickly, I remind myself that I shouldn’t give a crap about his knee, I shouldn’t give a crap about him at all.

I never understood when people were talking about a love/hate relationship, but I think I get it now, because I’ve moved from one to the other so quickly, I might have broken the sound barrier.

“Izzy, stop!”

Nope, not stopping, definitely not.

In the end, he doesn’t give me the choice, catching up to me and grabbing hold of my arm at the bottom of the steps.

His grip is gentle, but firm and I hate him for the way I so desperately want to lean into his touch, as if my body didn’t get the message that he’s the biggest bastard I’ve ever met.

“We don’t have much time, and I want to explain it all to you before she gets here.” Lennox’s eyes bore into mine as if he’s trying to read my thoughts.

“ Until she does what ?”

This feels like a nightmare, like my sub-conscious has come up with the worst possible ending for us and manifested it. If I could wake up now, that would be really great.

Before I start to pinch myself, there’s an insistent knock at the front door and I see Lennox’s face fall.

“Fuck, not now,” he growls, his grip on my arm tightening involuntarily.

“Nox, you’re hurting me,” I tell him, even though he’s not. I just need him to stop touching me. He delivers, dropping my arm like I’ve burned him.

He looks horrified. “Izzy, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean -,”

I never get to find out whether he’s apologizing for lying to me, for keeping secrets from me or for grabbing me.

The front door creaks open and there’s a squeal of excitement and a flurry of blonde hair and clattering of high heels.

“Noxy, I missed you!” The Amazonian stick-thin blonde throws her arms around Lennox and peppers his lips with kisses. He holds onto her upper arms and tries to create a little space between them, his eyes on me.

I guess I should be grateful he’s trying to spare my feelings, but pity is the last damn thing I feel for Lennox Gray right now. Besides, it’s way too late to spare my feelings, that ship has well and truly sailed.

Now, I’m definitely going to be sick. I step away from them, hoping I can slip out and just disappear without being noticed. But – as always – my luck is nowhere near that good.

“Did you see the socials? Isn’t it great?” She’s bouncing up and down in excitement and hasn’t seemed to notice Lennox is still standing there like a damn statue as she shows him her phone like a kid showing off a report card full of As.

Lennox doesn’t even look at her phone, his eyes are locked on mine.

“Who’s this?” Honey eventually notices the lack of attention Lennox or ‘Noxy’ is paying her and looks down her perfect nose at me, a feat which isn’t all that difficult as she’s almost a foot taller.

“This is Isabella,” he says simply, warmly even, and I can almost see her hackles rise at his tone. “And Honey…we need to –“

I have no intention of getting in the middle of this and I don’t know what game Lennox is playing, but I’m ready to cash in my chips and head the hell home.

“I’m Mr. Gray’s physical therapist,” I add quickly, avoiding the look Lennox throws me. I try to smile at her, but it probably looks more like a grimace.

“Oh, sure, the masseuse for your elbow, right?” Honey looks to Lennox for verification.

“Knee,” I correct automatically, and she looks at me as if I’ve offended her for answering a question not directed at me. I guess she figures the help should be silent and subservient.

“Whatever,” she shrugs, dismissing me with a wave of her manicured hand. “I’ll just go upstairs and start getting settled in. The driver will bring in the rest of my things.” Honey gestures upstairs, blissfully unaware her words are rubbing salt into my open wound.

“Honey, we need to talk,” Lennox calls after her, but she’s already half-way up the stairs. She can move surprisingly fast in those vertiginous heels. Another way she’s completely different to me, I notice.

“I know, we need to set a date and start thinking about a guest list, I’m so excited!” Honey claps her hands together like a little kid and my eyes zero in on the huge rock on her ring finger.

It’s not the size of the diamond that makes my knees go to Jell-o, it’s the thought of Lennox going down on one knee and giving it to her .

I’ve been fooling myself this whole time. I let myself believe in the damn fairy tale even though I knew better.

I’ve always known happily ever after doesn’t exist outside of Disney movies, but somewhere along the way of falling in love with Lennox, I must have forgotten that.

And holy crap, she’s talking about their wedding . This is actually happening, it’s not a nightmare and no amount of pinching myself is going to get me out of this seventh circle of hell.

“Nox?” I look up at him in confusion, willing him to tell me something to make all this make some kind of sense. Like, I don’t know, he had temporary amnesia or this is some kind of prank or… I don’t know, the wrong dimension spun itself on its ass and landed at our feet.

He looks between me and – fuck - his fiancée, conflicted about what to do before he steps in the direction she’s gone.

He’s chosen her.

“Just, wait here, don’t go anywhere, okay? I need to straighten this shit out.” He doesn’t wait for me to reply before rushing off, probably to placate the woman he’s apparently engaged to.

What. The. Actual. Fuck.

For a full minute I stand there, frozen to the spot, unable to compute what I’ve just seen.

When my brain starts functioning again, the only thing I can think is how much I need to get out of here.

On auto-pilot, I tap my phone a few times, ordering an Uber because there’s no way I’m driving Lennox’s truck anymore. I don’t want anything of his.

I get flashes of conversations I’ve overheard, scraps between Lennox and Declan, between him and Kai and I realize this is what they were talking about.

Everyone knew about it, everyone apart from me.

Part of me wonders if they’ve all been laughing at my naivete behind my back.

I’d like to think Kai wouldn’t, that at least one of the relationships I’ve had in this house has been real.

Vaguely I’m aware of a uniformed man, laden with matching designer suitcases walking through the front door and grumbling to himself as he starts to struggle up the stairs with them.

It looks like she’s moving in. Permanently. And, of course, why wouldn’t she be? This is going to be her home when she marries Lennox.

The thought causes a bubble of hysterical laughter I swallow down before it turns into the real emotion I’m feeling, the bone-deep misery I don’t think I’ve ever experienced before, not even when my dad sat me down when I was old enough and explained the woman who gave birth to me had left us because ‘she didn’t want to be a mom’.

It almost feels like history is repeating itself. Lennox said he didn’t want to get married, he wasn’t into the institution. But perhaps what he was really trying to say is that he just didn’t want to marry me .

I’m not sure how long I stand there for before I decide to get the hell out of dodge. I can meet the Uber at the front gates. I don’t need to wait around in the entrance hall and watch what I thought was happiness crumble around me.

I’m almost at the door when Lennox’s unmistakable step hits the stairs.

“Isabella, wait!”

Like the fool that I am, I do and it’s not just because it’s damn hard to walk away from him; it’s because I feel like I deserve to have some freakin’ answers!

“Where are you going?” That alarmed look I’m so unused to seeing on him makes a reappearance. Lennox is always in control and full of confidence, but right now he seems anything but.

“Anywhere!” I burst out. “Anywhere that’s far away from here!”