Chapter 3

I put the phone back exactly where I’d found it. A second later, Damien burst through the door and grabbed it.

“Aria, did you—”

He looked guilty, like he was afraid I had looked.

“Your phone kept buzzing,” I said. “Maybe it’s something urgent. You should check it.”

Damien let out a breath of relief so quiet I almost missed it. “It’s nothing. Nothing important. I’ll stay here with you.”

I studied his face, and then I smiled, a real smile.

“Damien, you know I’m so lucky to have you, right? I know you and my brother don’t get along, but I’m going to tell him so many good things about you. And here’s something you don’t know. I was in love with you long before you ever confessed to me. These three years with you have been the happiest of my life. Damien, I really, really love you.”

His hand trembled.

“Silly girl. Why didn’t you tell me this sooner? I love you too. I mean it.”

He kissed my forehead, but he couldn’t look me in the eye.

I knew that even now, he wasn’t going to call it off.

Don’t worry, Damien. On number ninety-nine, I’ll have a big surprise for you too.

I spent the next couple of months recovering, and I watched Chloe happily prepare for the competition. Without me there, she won it easily. That day, Damien didn’t come to the hospital.

In Chloe’s post, she was surrounded by friends, and a hand wearing an expensive watch rested on her waist.

I knew that watch at a glance. I had given it to Damien.

I turned off my phone and gave a small, bitter laugh.

At least my heart didn’t hurt for him anymore.

On the day I was finally discharged, Damien suddenly burst into my room in a panic. Before I knew what was happening, he had grabbed my arm and was dragging me out of the room, my bad leg and all.

“Chloe was in a car accident. She’s losing a lot of blood. Aria, you’re the only person we know with her blood type. You have to give her yours. You have to save her!”

He didn’t care that I was a patient who had been discharged minutes ago. He hauled me to the surgical unit where Chloe was being operated on and ordered the nurse to start drawing my blood right away.

He stared anxiously at the doors to the operating room and murmured, “Chloe, I’m not letting anything happen to you.”

Before I could even say no, his friends pinned me down and the nurse slid the needle into my arm.

My blood kept flowing out of me, bag after bag, and I grew weaker and weaker.

The nurse noticed something was wrong. “Something’s not right with her,” she said sharply. “I recommend we stop.”

“Keep going! Don’t you dare stop until Chloe’s safe!”

Damien roared the words before she had even finished, his usual cool, polished composure completely gone.

When it came to Chloe, he had no control over himself at all.

Damien, you really do love her more than anything.

I closed my eyes and stopped fighting.

My face went paler and paler, until my body finally gave out and I passed out.

When I came to, it was already dark outside.

I was supposed to go home today. Instead, I was back in a hospital bed.

Damien and his friends were standing just outside the door. They must have thought I was still unconscious, because they talked without bothering to lower their voices.

“What’s going on with you, Damien? She gave a little blood. Why were you so worked up about it? Don’t tell me you actually fell for her.”

“Get it together, man. After number ninety-nine, you dump her. It was just a game. Don’t lose your head over this. Think about Chloe.”

Chloe must have been fine, because I heard her voice too.

“Damien, did you really fall for her? It’s okay. I can step aside. Even if you break your promise to me, I’ll still love you.”

“I didn’t!”

Damien cut in fast. When he said my name, his voice was full of contempt.

“I’ve just been playing with Aria for so long that I’m a little reluctant to give up such a convenient toy, that’s all. Number ninety-nine goes ahead as planned. Tomorrow I’ll come up with an excuse to take her there. We lock her in for the night, and then I tell her everything.”

“That’s our Damien. Cold as ice.”

They talked a while longer, then Damien sent them away and came into the room alone.

He sat by my bed, tucked the blanket around me, and adjusted my pillow.

Damien, there’s no one here to watch. Why bother pretending?

I opened my eyes and looked at him without expression.

“Aria, you’re awake. Chloe was in critical condition, so I had to ask you to give a little blood. Don’t worry, the doctor says you’re fine. Chloe’s like a sister to me. Don’t get the wrong idea. You’re the one I love.”

I gave him a flat nod. Damien smiled, then brought up something else as if it had only just occurred to him.

“Let me take you somewhere tomorrow night, okay? I have a surprise for you.”

I forced a happy smile.

“Okay. I’ll love whatever it is. The surprise doesn’t matter. You’re what matters.”

Damien froze for a moment. Then he stood up, almost like he was running from something, and walked out of the room.

The moment he was gone, the smile fell off my face. I called my brother.

“Ethan, is the death certificate ready? I need you to help me put on a show tomorrow.”

The next afternoon, while Damien thought I was resting in my hospital bed, Ethan’s men carried a body bag up ten flights of stairs to the east corner of that tower. Inside was a perfect replica of me, dressed in the clothes I had been wearing for three days, so that it carried my scent.

That night, Damien drove me to the condemned tower.

I didn’t ask a single question. I looked at him like I trusted him with my life.

“The surprise is in that room. Aria, why don’t you go in and see for yourself?”

I narrowed my eyes into a smile and threw myself into his arms.

“Damien, I love you. I’ve liked you since the very first time I saw you. You don’t need to plan surprises for me. Just being with you is enough to make me happy.”

Before he could react, I turned and walked straight into the pitch-black room.

The second I was inside, I heard footsteps in the hall, then the sound of the door being locked.

This was the tenth floor. With that door locked, there was no way out.

I felt my way to the corner where Ethan’s men had left the body bag, and I laid my replica out on the concrete floor. The doctor who had treated my leg had already been paid. By tomorrow, he would tell Damien I was dead.

And I had a second surprise waiting. The doctor would also tell him I had been pregnant.

I wanted him to believe he had killed me and our baby with his own hands.

I pretended to panic. I pounded on the door and screamed Damien’s name.

From the other side came his friends’ laughter.

“Prank number ninety-nine: done! Enjoy your night, Aria!”

“We’ll let you out in the morning. Try not to wet yourself!”

“You really thought Damien loved you? You were just his way of getting back at your brother, hahahaha!”

Their voices faded down the stairwell. I stayed quiet and waited until I heard their cars pull away. Then I waited for the people who were coming to get me out.

Ten minutes later, the lock clicked open. Marcus, Ethan’s Beta, stood in the doorway with a flashlight.

My replica stayed behind in the dark. I stood across the street with my brother. Ethan made one phone call, and the condemned tower came down with a roar that shook the whole block.

When Damien came back the next morning, all he would find was a pile of rubble and a body being carried out of it. Mine.

And I would already be gone, in the back of a car on my way to the airport, leaving the country with my brother without a single backward glance.