Page 237 of The Billionaires

“There may not be any millions,” I say. “Let me tell you the rest of the story.” I get to the part about the gallery, and how I dissed his outstanding culinary creations before cowardly running away.

“Oh, I wouldn’t worry about that,” Mom says. “He won’t break the engagement simply because you got a little jealous.”

I give Mom my best narrow-eyed stare. “I wasn’t jealous.”

“Oh?” She grins. “Then what would you call that green feeling of anxiety, anger, and confusion you felt when you saw one of his naked exes?”

“Can we rehearse what we’ll tell Mary?” I ask, desperate to change the subject.

Mom looks at the door furtively. “We’ll get as close to the truth as we can: you accidentally met the guy of your dreams. You didn’t tell her right away, but now that he’s proposed, you can’t keep it a secret anymore.”

“Guy of my dreams?”

Mom grins devilishly. “Like I said, trying to stay as close to the truth as we can. The lie will be the when—and not much else.”

“Yeah, whatever,” I say. “The key bit is that you knew about our relationship all this time, but we didn’t tell Mary because he has a bad reputation, so I wanted to wait and see.”

“Exactly,” she says. “And I’ll tell your grandmother that you got engaged to the guy I told her about.”

“Excuse me?”

“Remember that idiot you dated for a week a few months back?” Mom asks. “The guy with the faux hawk?”

Wincing, I nod.

“I didn’t have the heart to tell Mom that you retained your virginity.”

“You what?!” I shout.

Miss Miller believes that merely thinking about matricide is a grave sin.

“Hey,” Mom says. “I made our lives easier. You know how Grandma doesn’t remember any names? Now we can just tell her it’s been Adrian all along.”

“Fine. I guess it cuts down on the lies.”

“Exactly,” Mom says. “Now go ahead and sign your documents too.”

Oh, yeah. I do that—and a second later, my phone dings.

My heart leaps. “It’s him.”

Mom tries to snatch my phone from me. “If it’s a dick pic, I call dibs.”

I yank it out of her reach and check the message.

Looks like we’re a go! Please give me a call when you’re ready to plan the next steps.

“See?” Mom says. “He didn’t back out—so call him.”

“Tomorrow. Let me calm down a bit.” Because I’m seriously having palpitations.

“Smart,” Mom says. “For now, let’s get Mary up to speed.”

We head over to my sister’s room, and I tell her what we’ve just discussed and show her the ring.

“I don’t believe it,” my sister says when I’m finished.

Crap.

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