Page 85 of The Enemy of My Enemy Is… My Fake Boyfriend?

"No, thank you. We won't be staying long," was Ethan's terse reply.

If it was anyone else, I would have thought Ethan was being rude. But since it was them, I knew they deserved it.

"Again, what are you doing here?" Ethan said in a glacial tone.

Richard lifted a shoulder in an obviously rehearsed nonchalant move. "We heard about your new girlfriend, and we wanted to meet her."

"Why?" Ethan seethed. When his uncle didn't answer right away, he repeated the word, this time more slowly. "Why?"

I had my own hunch, and I was pretty sure Ethan suspected the same. I'd seen it a million times ever since I could remember, ever since I was aware of the Stratton name and how people perceived our family, our history.

It was the very reason my sister Annalise was undercover at her new job right now. People treated us differently, for better orworse, so much so I wondered if Annalise was onto something, if Astrid and I should try the same thing.

The silence from his aunt and uncle was telling, the sounds of the party going on around us, laughter and chatter mixed with music and dishes clanking as servers began to clean up, like what was happening in this little circle was insignificant. But it didn't feel that way.

I could feel it in Ethan's grip on my hand, the tension radiating off him, palpable, alive, a quiet force just beneath the surface, as if his emotions were a storm waiting to break loose.

"I hear business isn't so great lately," Ethan said to his uncle, almost casually.

"No, no. Business is great," his aunt chimed in. "Really great. Never been better."

Richard shot her a glare before releasing a heavy sigh. "Okay, look. Yeah, our company has taken a few hits lately. And well..." He didn't finish his sentence, his face turning a shade of light pink.

"You want money," Ethan said.

His uncle swallowed, then squared his shoulders as if bracing himself for some kind of battle, looking Ethan straight in the eye. "You owe me."

"I owe you?"

"Yes. You absolutely owe me for all the years you lived with us. For food." He held out his hand, ticking off his fingers as he went on. "For shelter. For your education. For boarding school. For the life you have now."

"All the sacrifices we made," Cynthia added.

"Sacrifices?" Ethan's laugh was bitter. "You sacrificed nothing. You resented me every single day. You made me feel like a burden, like I was unwelcome in your home."

"That's not fair," Cynthia protested weakly.

"It's not fair? You know what's not fair? Treating an orphan like shit, a kid who just lost his parents." Ethan shook his head, his jaw clenched."And now you think I owe it to you to bail you out? After everything you put me through?"

"We're family, Ethan," his uncle said. "Family helps each other out in times of need."

Ethan let out another humorless laugh. "Funny how you remember that now, when you need something from me."

The tension in the air was thick, suffocating. I could see the conflict raging within Ethan, although I didn't quite know why. He was going to refuse them, right? He had to. They didn't deserve a dime of his money.

"Between you and your girlfriend..." Richard eyed me in a gross way. "You have plenty of fucking money to spare."

His grip on my hand tightening, Ethan stepped closer to his uncle. "You leave her out of this."

For a long moment, they stared at each other, almost equal height, the family genes undeniable. I held my breath, wondering what Ethan would do or say.

Ethan was the one to break the spell. "We're done here."

And with that, his vise-like hold on me, he whirled us around to walk away. I thought we'd head back to our table, but instead, he led me through a door off to the side, not stopping, not saying a word, leading us to a quiet balcony with a few lingering smokers.

We made our way to the far corner, the coolness of the night hitting me, making me shiver. Ethan immediately shrugged off his suit jacket and placed it over my shoulders, the gesture warming me in more ways than one, especially that he would notice my physical discomfort when he had to be all torn up inside.

Ethan's gaze focused on the lights in the distance, and I turned to lean against the balcony's railing, trying to find some semblance of peace in the beauty surrounding us.

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