Page 48 of Falling for My Billionaire Fake Date

“How’re you feeling, dad? Are you in pain? Should I call the doctors?”

“I’m fine, Rory. The doctor has been here while you were asleep. Your friends, too.”

“My friends? They’re here?” I ask incredulously, wondering how I slept through it all.

Much more surprised my friends let me sleep without some sort of souvenir for me, like a band-aid on my lips.

“Yeah, they were here. Brittney, Ryan, and some other girl. Then there was a guy who refused to enter, just stayed at the entrance staring at you before he stepped out again."

I feel my heart go thud in my chest and stop for a second before it starts to beat again at a totally abnormal rate.

“What’s wrong? Is everything okay?” he asks me, looking concerned at the stricken expression on my face.

“Yes, Dad. Everything is alright,” I try to say in a calm voice, keeping the tremor racing through me from reflecting in my voice. I don’t want my overprotective father worrying about guy issues on his hospital bed. Why am I overreacting? It might have been Alex.

But my dad knows Alex,my brain reminds me, popping off the bubble of illusion I’m about to blow up for myself.

Maybe it’s Dylan? Ethan? I counter the tiny voice in my mind, wanting . . . no, needing to believe someoneother than Alex is out there, right in the same city, the same hospital with me. The tiny voice in my mind sighs and rolls her eyes at me, retreating deeply back behind the screen.

“Well, where are they now?” I ask Dad, who is giving me a suspicious look. He may be on a hospital bed, but he won’t mind kicking Jake’s ass with his uninjured leg. I bet he doesn’t know Alex drove me here yet or is just not saying anything about it for now. But the former seems more likely.

“They went to get breakfast. They got here around six this morning. I wonder when they left Birchwood for them to arrive this early,” dad explains, ending it with a yawn, and I can tell he’s sleepy.

Probably from the meds and all he’s been through.

“You’re still feeling sleepy, dad?” I ask, and he shakes his head in the negative, only for him to yawn twice as hard.

I roll my eyes at him. “Get some rest, Dad. I’ll be out here when you wake up again.” I tuck him in and kiss his forehead, his eyes closing already.

I smile at him fondly, raise my eyes, and whisper silently into the air. “Thank You for keeping dad safe. Thank you so much.”

I step out of his room silently, my heart beginning to pound painfully in my chest at the thought of seeing Jake.

But it’s to no avail.

Chapter thirty-one

Jake – Trying to Show Others the Truth

I glare at the space right in front of me, seeing nothing, feeling nothing. It’s been like this for the past week, since my heart has gone numb from regret, pain, and guilt.

It’s been a few weeks since everything went crashing down. Everything I’d been building so carefully with Aurora going down the drain faster than I could ever imagine.

It’s totally my fault for yet again underestimating Sophia’s ability to drain off people’s happiness like a leech. I totally regret letting my guard down, and it cost me something extremely precious. I’ve never seen Bella look so disappointed when I met her in the hallway, her eyes tear stricken.

Of course, I remember what happened, but going through it again and again makes no difference. Aurora is gone from me. And it’s all from a mean trick that reached its target of hurting me and breaking Bella’s and Aurora’s hearts.

***

“What the heck were you doing with Sophia?” Bella had glared at me, disappointment painted on her face in vivid colors.

“You saw that?” I asked foolishly, feeling like the world’s biggest idiot.

“Yes, I did. And you know who else saw it too?” she asked, her eyes glaring at me heatedly.

I feel a boulder settle in my stomach. No . . . no!

Please, not her. Please not her . . . please . . .

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