Page 51 of Playboy Billionaire's Fake Marriage

“And you of all people, Stella.” Sabrina pipes in. “You never stop reminding us how you can’t imagine yourself in a long-term relationship.”

I shrug, trying to diffuse the mounting tension with humor. “And you all never stop raving about how great it is to be married; maybe I just decided to take your word for it and give it a go?”

“Stella,” Bonnie says from beside me, her voice now soft. “I’ll put my hand up and admit that I did push you toward Ryan. But in reality, this is happening way too fast, not enough time for the guy to change. You know Ryan is a game player. He probably got married on a dare or something like that.”

“Exactly! Why on earth would you agree to be his plaything?” Brooke knows the reason why Ryan needs to marry, but doesn’t know why I need to marry him.

“Maybe I’m the one playing with him.”

A quick look at their faces, and I see they’re not buying it.

“You’re so not taking this seriously, Stella.” Brooke’s voice breaks. “It’s not a joke. We are really worried about you. Do you even know Ryan? Really know him? Did he tell you the real reason he wanted to marry in the first place?”

I can’t take it anymore, so the words spill out of me.

“Yes, I know he’s marrying to further his business; he was upfront with me. I agreed because I need his help, okay? But I can’t say more than that. I signed an NDA.”

Bonnie snorts into her drink. “Holy shit. It’s more fucked than I thought. Whips and gags and things?”

When I say nothing, Sabrina too puts her drink down and tries to set Bonnie straight. “Girl, nobody needs an NDA for spanking or gagging. That’s normal territory. Heavy bondage, swinging, sharing, for sure...”

“Role-playing, choking–” Bonnie continues.

“Enough guys!” I interject.

Bonnie and Sabrina chuckle while Brooke just looks alarmed.

For some reason I can’t bear my friends thinking the worst of Ryan, so I quickly tell them the rest. “It’s nothing like that, girls. He’s from an old rich family. I’m sure even the paperboy signs an NDA.”

“We see,” Sabrina replies, “Anyway, you said you need his help? What for?”

I take a deep breath before answering, “I need money and stability.”

Brooke pauses her drink in mid-air and carefully puts it down “Come again?”

“I know, ludicrous coming from me, but I need to adopt my niece.”

“What!” This time Sabrina and Brooke yell.

Now that I’ve started talking, I can’t stop “My sister—Viv, she died giving birth to her, and I promised her I would look after her.”

Brooke’s face has gone pale, her eyes glassy. “You had a sister, Stella?”

“Now Brooke, Stella was going to tell you this ages ago.” Bonnie interjects.

“You told Bonnie about this?” She swings accusing eyes to me.

“I swear I only got to know recently,” Bonnie backtracks. “Literally a few weeks ago.”

A sob escapes Brooke as she dabs at her eyes. “I can’t believe you wouldn’t tell me. We lived together for two years. I thought we were best friends. I told you everything.”

“I—I didn’t mean to not say something. It was just hard and painful.” Tears fill my eyes too and I start to cry softly. “Brooke, I’m sorry.”

Brooke is still shaking her head, hurt and disappointment warring in her features, “So back then when you dropped out of your design program and started modeling… this was what you were dealing with?”

I hang my head and sob harder, feeling awful for hurting her, but also wishing someone understood what it meant to have a pain so deep you couldn’t share it.

Bonnie wraps her arms around me while Sabrina does the same for Brooke.

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