Chapter Two

Diana's POV

Bal sits on the couch, which has been shoved into the corner by now, propping his chin up like he's watching the best show of his life. “Your turn, tough guy. Just a friendly reminder, if you fail this one too, the room keeps shrinking. Until... you two end up flat as pancakes.”

Weston stares at me, his eyes too complicated for me to read.

“My first secret.” He finally speaks. “Senior year, after they threw you out. That run-down apartment that took you in? I bought it.”

My head snaps up. I stare at him, not believing what I just heard.

“That's not all.” He looks away. “Your scholarship. Vincent tried to pay someone off to yank your eligibility and hand it to Delaney. I'm the one who choked off every funding deal the Crane family had going, until he backed off.”

I feel like the blood in my veins just ran backward.

Senior year of high school, the real heiress, Delaney, showed up at the door, and I, the fake daughter who'd taken someone else's place for eighteen years, got thrown out on the street.

It was a stormy night. I dragged my suitcase down the sidewalk, so hopeless I wanted to die.

Then some guy who said he was a leasing agent rented me an apartment for next to nothing. And somehow, my scholarship stayed intact.

I always figured I just got lucky, or the school stepped in.

“You...” I open my mouth, my voice coming out rough. “Why? Aren't you the one who can't stand me? Weren't you the one giving me hell at school every single day?”

Weston turns his head, his mouth twisting into something bitter and self-mocking. “I wanted to beat you. But I didn't want to watch you lose to somebody else that easily. Especially not to trash like that.”

Up above us, Bal claps his hands together, delighted. “Now that is a perfect little secret. All that sour teenage longing, all that denial dressed up as protection. Approved! Room, back to normal!”

The walls pull back fast, and the crushing pressure eases off.

But something in my chest just felt heavier instead. Eight years. Eight years I've treated him like my greatest enemy, aiming the coldest parts of myself at him just to bury a crush I was never allowed to have. And now he's telling me that the worst stretch of my life, he was the one holding me up the whole time.

“All right, that's enough of the tender moment.” Bal cuts through my thoughts, his gold slit-pupils locking onto me. “Ms. Merrick, your turn. If you half-ass it again this time, the punishment jumps straight to a hundred and twenty degrees.”

My whole body locks up. I look at Weston's face, still carrying that edge of arrogance, and my hand drifts on its own toward the pocket with the ultrasound printout in it.

I can't say it. There's no way I'm saying it.

“Diana, what are you stalling for?” Weston frowns, catching that something's off with me. “Why do you look so pale?”

“Warning. Ten-second countdown.” Bal's voice rings out.

“Ten, nine, eight...”

The temperature around us starts climbing fast. The air feels like it's baking us alive.

“Diana! Say anything! Even that you wet the bed as a kid, I don't care!” Weston grabs my shoulders hard, sweat already beading on his forehead.

“Three, two...”

The heat's gotten so bad I can barely breathe. I feel myself starting to black out.

“I'm pregnant!”

I squeeze my eyes shut and scream it out with everything I've got left in me.

The heat vanishes instantly.

Weston's grip on my shoulders tightens so hard it's like he's trying to crush my bones.

I open my eyes and watch the lazy look on his face collapse into something dark.

“What did you just say?” His voice drops low, chillingly quiet, the kind of calm that comes right before a storm hits.

“Secret approved.” Bal jumps up off the couch, practically vibrating. “Oh my god, oh my god, that is juicy. I am loving this story.”

“Shut your mouth!” Weston whips his head around and roars at Bal, and something red flashes at the edges of his eyes.

Bal just shrugs. “Whoops, looks like our leading man needs a minute to cool off. Since round one wrapped up so beautifully, I'll be generous and let you two go rest up. Can't wait for round two~”

He snaps his fingers.

Red light flickers, the world spins for a second, and then the smell of disinfectant floods back into my nose.

My legs give out and I collapse onto a row of chairs in a hospital hallway.

People move past me, a nurse pushes a cart of medication by, everything looks completely normal, like that whole eerie red room was nothing but a dream.

But the red marks still on my wrist tell me otherwise. All of it was real.

Before I can even catch my breath, a huge shadow falls over me.

Weston stands in front of me, both hands braced on the armrests of my chair, boxing me into a space too small to escape.

“Diana. Look at me.”