Page 52 of The Fake Family Deal

That’s the floodgate for everyone to realize they’re tired too, and one by one they all stand up. Anna bounds over to me and wraps her arms around me. “Be good, Ellie,” she says directly into my ear. “Stop being dumb. Go get the girl.”

I scoff, shaking my head. “Drink some water before you go to bed, all right?”

Anna gets dragged away, and for the first time all night I crack a smile. She’ll sleep well tonight. Of everyone here, she’s the most real person. Despite the tailored suit, she cares about other people too.

It’s more than anyone else.

Everyone else slowly starts filtering out of my house. I say goodbye to them all, robotically going through the motions of a refined host without any feeling behind it. They either don’t notice, or don’t care.

“See you, Ellis,” says Joseph, clapping his hand on my shoulder as he goes. “Don’t be a stranger.”

“Goodbye,” I say, and the look he gives me twists the knife in my stomach even harder, like I’m about to start bleeding out on the floor.

Am I really that obvious that they can see right through me?

Eventually I’m alone again, a fact that fills me both with relief and a sickness that makes me want to curl up in my bed and sleep for days.

Aimlessly, I walk over to the sofa and, without thinking, flop down with a sigh. My body is heavy, tired. I barely did anything today and it was too much.

I pick up my phone and go to start scrolling, just for something to do. Without realizing it, I pull up my messages, and when I blink, I see I’m on Marina’s contact.

I think my subconscious is trying to tell me something.

The truth is, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about her from the moment she stormed out on me all those weeks ago.

I was wrong to treat her like that. Those three weeks with Marina and Lila were three of the most fulfilling weeks I’ve experienced since the release ofBeautiful Fitness.That’s the high I’ve been chasing ever since. That’s the kind of joy I’ve been missing, the kind of challenge I’ve needed to rise to.

That’s what I want. And Beautiful Babyisn’t it.

I need them back. I’ll get on my knees if that’s what it’ll take. I need to show Marina that I’ll give her the world and mean it. I need to show her I’m not scared to feel it, or at least I’m willing to try, because she’s shown me a whole world I had never stopped to think about before, one that is so full of joy and fulfillment, like nothing else I’ve ever known.

A world that was so close to being mine.

I almost hit call, but I glance at the time and stop myself. It’s almost midnight, and I don’t want to wake her or Lila up.

I hope she’s sleeping, anyway. I hope Lila has settled peacefully and that Marina has been able to get all the rest she deserves. I hope she’s okay.

In the morning. I’ll call in the morning and put everything right. Or not. But I have to try.

In the morning, I’m going to get the life I never knew I wanted back.

CHAPTER 26

MARINA

I’m just glad Lila is too young to understand my vacant expressions and fake smiles. I’m trying my best for her, but when she’s not with me, I pace the apartment alone, thinking about the new life growing inside me. Thinking about how this baby isn’t going to know its father either.

Or worse. Theywillknow their father and resent me for being out of contact with him.

But I can’t tell Ellis I’m having his baby. He’ll never accept it or want it. He barely wanted me in his life in the first place.

There was a moment when I thought we were getting through to him, but it was all just a lie. There was a moment when his smiles for us were real, but that was a delusion brought on by the cameras. And now his business is booming again, he’s gone back to the only thing he ever really could care about.

I’ve made yet another mistake, and I’m going to have to live with the consequences.

At least I don’t have to worry about money. That’s the one thing I am grateful to Ellis for. At least I’ll be able to get all the medical care I deserve and all the help I need.

It’s not that I can’t raise a baby on my own. God knows I’ve already been doing it. The thing is, I just don’twantto. I always wanted Lila to have a sibling. I guess I just hoped I would be married by then, or at the very least have some sort of stable partner.

---