They kept me in that pitch-black basement for three days and three nights. Pumped me full of some brutal aphrodisiac, left me screaming into nothing, and nobody came.

I'd told myself it was random—some enemy who grabbed the wrong person, a case of mistaken identity.

But Clyde Gilbert had been pulling the strings from the very beginning.

To him, I was just the ugly backdrop that made his idealized first love look even more radiant. A foil.

A tool.

A piece of trash to be used up and thrown away.

I spun around to run,

but my knee buckled and I stumbled back a step without meaning to.

A dry branch snapped under my foot.

Both of them turned at the same time.

Victoria's face went bone-white. She shrank behind Clyde on instinct. "What do we do? She heard everything we just said..."

Clyde's head snapped up, his eyes locking onto me. "Deidre. Come out."

I straightened my spine and stepped out from behind the hedgerow.

Three people facing off under the moonlight. The air between us was eerily still.

"You heard all of that?"

A slight crease between his brows. His voice perfectly calm.

I looked at him and laughed.

It must have been an ugly laugh—I could feel the tears forcing their way up, burning behind my eyes—but I choked them back with everything I had.

"Every word."

Victoria glanced at my face, then at Clyde, biting her lip.

"Clyde... she's the one you're with. I'm the one who shouldn't be here. Maybe you should just let me go."

Clyde actually smiled. "You're everything I've ever wanted, Victoria. Why would I give you up for anyone else?"

"And? She heard. What's she going to do about it?"

He walked up to me and tilted my chin up with his fingers, looking down at me like I was something amusing.

"Right, Deidre?"

I slapped his hand away, forced my expression flat, and took one long breath.

"The kidnapping. That was you?"

"Yes."

"The drugs. Also you?"

"Yes."

"The videos, the trending list, the trolls ripping me apart—all you?"

He blinked, then let out a short, contemptuous laugh.

"All me."

Every answer came that easy, that bare—like hiding it from me had never even crossed his mind. A knife shoved straight into my chest. He didn't even care enough to lie anymore.

I lifted my face. My eyes were shot through with red. "But why me?"

"Why did it have to be me?"

The day Clyde proposed, I'd already decided to give up the career I'd spent over a decade clawing my way through.

And now, just like that, he'd knocked me right back to where I started—back to nothing.

Ground every last illusion and scrap of happiness I had into dust.

"Deidre, you do what you're told. No connections, no family to back you up. You'd scrape and fight just for a walk-on role. Honestly—you were the perfect pick."

He glanced down at Victoria as he said it,

the tenderness in his eyes completely unconcealed.

"Besides, my mother's never liked Victoria. But put someone worse in front of her, and suddenly Victoria doesn't seem so unacceptable. You understand?"

I couldn't tell anymore whether it was rage or humiliation. My chest was so tight I could barely breathe.

"Clyde, isn't this too cruel to Deidre? She didn't know a thing. Using her like this... I feel terrible about it..."

Victoria's voice floated out, soft and fragile as a kitten's.

Clyde pulled her against his shoulder, his tone dripping with indulgence.

"Don't worry. I'll handle her."

He turned to look at me.

"Deidre, since you've heard everything, I won't beat around the bush."

"I need you to play along until the curtain falls."

Acting—for professionals like us, it was as routine as breathing. But coming from the mouth of the man I loved, it was nothing short of laughable.

"Oh? And how would you like me to play it? What's the rate?"

Clyde ignored the mockery in my voice entirely. His expression was dead serious.

"I need you to keep being my fiancée. Keep up the public displays of affection. Keep being Victoria's foil. It won't be long. Two months, tops."

"Once her new drama wraps and my parents have fully accepted her, I can drop you without it getting ugly."

I could barely believe what I was hearing.

"How shameless can you possibly be? You actually think I'd agree to this?"

"You will."

Clyde pulled a check from his pocket and held it out to me.

"That's two million. When it's done, I'll give you another three. Five million buys me two months of your cooperation."

"You should think about that. At the rate you make doing bit parts, you wouldn't see that kind of money in ten years."

I looked at the check, and something inside me just hollowed out.

So that was it. My dignity, my feelings, who I was as a person—he'd priced it all at five million.

"What if I say no?"

My face was bloodless as I looked at him. "You planned that kidnapping, Clyde. I can go to the police. I can put you behind bars."

He looked at me like I'd told a joke. Nothing but contempt in his eyes.

"Then go ahead."

"Look at what you've actually got. You're the one who filed that report. The police already ruled it a random crime—nothing to do with anybody. And those videos, those photos? Every single one is real. No edits, no fakes. You've got nothing on me."

He studied me for a moment, then pressed his lips together.

"And you should know, with the kind of reach the Gilbert family has in Sterling City's elite circle, the second you say no, your parents back home get evidence that their daughter's been kept as some rich man's mistress. Your brother's school gets a tip that his sister is the industry's public entertainment. And your mother's little shop? It won't stay open."

Everything in me went cold. My head snapped up, and I locked every muscle to keep the trembling from showing.

"How do you know about my parents?"

Clyde shook his head with a small laugh.

"Deidre, you think I didn't run a background check before I picked you?"

"Where you're from, how many people in your family, what your parents do for a living, which school your brother attends, how much debt you owe. I know all of it."

My fists clenched so tight my nails bit into my palms, and the pain was the only thing keeping me conscious.

"So you're threatening me."

"Not a threat. A partnership."

Clyde corrected me. "You cooperate, I pay you, and your family stays safe."

"You don't cooperate, that's fine too. I'll just find someone else to be the foil. But Deidre, think carefully. If I replace you, those videos and photos aren't coming down."

"They'll stay up forever. People will keep digging into you, keep tearing you apart. Sooner or later your parents will see them. Your brother's classmates will see them. Is that what you want?"

My fists were clenched so hard my knuckles ached. In that moment, I wanted to kill him.

But I couldn't.

I stood there in the moonlight, my face white as paper.

Victoria lifted her gaze and gave me one slow, provocative look—then, just as fast, softened into that sweet, concerned mask.

"Clyde, maybe we should just drop it. Deidre's been through enough… We can find another way."

"No."

His voice was absolute.

"I've already come this far. I'm not stopping now. Besides—"

He glanced at me.

"Deidre's a smart woman. She'll agree."

I looked at him, a tangle of emotions knotting inside me.

Three years ago, when I first came to Sterling City, I was renting a partitioned room in Brookside District.

In winter there was no heating—I'd pile on three quilts and still lie there shaking.

I told myself back then:

Deidre, remember this. In this city, nobody is going to save you. You can only save yourself.

Three years of clawing my way to where I stood now. How much I'd suffered, how many humiliations I'd swallowed—only I knew.

I thought Clyde was my reward for all of it. Proof that the worst was behind me.

It wasn't.

He was just another lesson.

A crueler one.

I took a deep breath, lifted my head, and looked him straight in the eyes.

"Fine."

"I'll do it," I said, cold and level. "But when it's done, on top of the five million, you pay me half again as much."

Clyde raised an eyebrow. "Deal."

The moment I turned to leave, every trace of warmth dropped from my face. So from the very beginning, he'd treated this as a transaction and a performance.

Fine. I was a professional actress. I could give him the show of his life.

The next day. A brand event.

I wore a dress Clyde had picked out in advance.

Black. Deep V. Thigh-high slit. Sexy to the point of gaudy.

Normally I would have refused anything this revealing, but today I didn't.

Because I knew exactly what this dress was—Clyde's handpicked foil costume. Beside me, Victoria wore a little white cocktail dress, pristine and untouched, like some fairy descended from the heavens.

Black and white. Gaudy and pure. Tramp and sweetheart.

Every camera angle built the same story without a single word:

One cheap. One refined.

The venue was packed, camera flashes firing from every direction.

Clyde had one arm around my waist and a champagne flute in the other, all doting smiles for the cameras like I was the love of his life.

I leaned against his shoulder, smiling too. Stiff.

Victoria watched us. A flicker of jealousy crossed her eyes, but her composure held perfectly—even when the reporters came.

She smiled gently, voice like honey.

"I'm so happy Young Mr. Gilbert found someone he really likes. I wish them nothing but the best."

The murmuring started immediately:

"Victoria's so gracious. Everyone used to say she and Young Mr. Gilbert were a couple, and now that Deidre swooped in, she can still be this classy about it."

"Right? Deidre can't hold a candle to Victoria. No family background, no manners—and that dress she's wearing, honestly…"

Right on cue, Clyde dipped his head and murmured against my ear.

"Victoria's bracelet shifted. Go fix it for her."

I froze. "What?"

"Go fix her bracelet."

His voice was low enough that only I could hear, but the smile on his face was tender enough to look like a whispered endearment.

"Victoria's assistant didn't make it inside. She can't adjust it herself. Go. Make it look natural."

When I didn't move, his voice came again from above me, threaded with warning.

"Think about your brother. Think about your family. You'd better cooperate."

I took a breath and was about to step forward.

But Victoria was already walking toward me, champagne in hand.

"Deidre! I heard you and Clyde got engaged. Congratulations!"