Chapter 2
644 Words
The Fiancée Effect
The first photo hit the tabloids before Leona even made it home.
THORNE HEIR OFF THE MARKET: WHO IS THE MYSTERY WOMAN ON HIS ARM?
She stared at the headline from the back seat of the sleek black car Elias had “generously” sent for her. Her face was partially hidden behind her hair in the photo, but the ring… the ring was center stage. It sparkled like a promise and a warning. Both lies.
Next to her, the driver gave her a polite glance in the rearview mirror. “Where to, Miss Vale?”
Miss Vale. Not Mrs. Thorne. Not yet.
“Back to Queens,” she muttered, locking her phone and tossing it onto the leather seat. “I’ve got work to do.”
The clinic smelled like antiseptic and old coffee—comforting, in a way. It was nothing like Elias’ high-rise castle. No glass walls. No cold silence. Just people who needed help and didn’t care if her clothes were from last season or if she owned five percent of a billion-dollar company.
Inside her office, Margo—her lead nurse and part-time therapist—was waiting, arms folded and eyes wide.
“Tell me this is some kind of elaborate prank.”
Leona dropped her purse on the desk. “It’s not.”
“You’re engaged. To him.”
“It’s temporary.”
“It’s insane!”
“I know.”
Margo’s voice dropped. “You said you hated everything he stood for.”
“I still do.”
“Then why the hell are you wearing that?” Margo pointed accusingly at the ring.
Leona glanced down at it, the stone catching the cheap fluorescent light. “Because the world pays attention when Elias Thorne shows up with a ring on someone’s finger. And right now, attention is currency.”
Margo sat, arms crossed. “So what’s the plan?”
Leona took a deep breath. “I use his name to fund the clinic, to buy us time. In six months, we break the engagement, part ways with a smile, and I go back to saving lives the hard way.”
“And him?”
Leona hesitated. “He gets to distract the world while his company rearranges its skeletons.”
Margo looked at her carefully. “Just don’t fall for him.”
Leona gave a humorless laugh. “You’re assuming he’s the kind of man someone could fall for.”
Later that night, her phone buzzed.
ELIAS:
Wear something elegant. We have an event tomorrow. Black tie. I’ll send the car at 6. Try not to be late.
LEONA:
Try not to be insufferable.
ELIAS:
No promises.
She stared at the screen a moment before tossing the phone aside.
The next evening, the world met Leona Vale for the first time.
Dressed in a black velvet gown that clung to her like a secret, she stepped out of Elias’ town car into a wall of flashing cameras and shouted questions.
She didn’t flinch.
Elias emerged beside her, tuxedo crisp, smile razor-sharp. He offered his arm like a prince in a fairytale.
She took it like a queen who knew better.
“You clean up well,” he whispered.
“Don’t get used to it,” she replied, smiling for the cameras.
As they walked up the steps into the ballroom, he leaned down just enough for only her to hear.
“Tell me something, Leona. Do you ever lie awake wondering what it’s like to really belong in a place like this?”
She tilted her chin, unshaken. “No. But I bet you do.”
He didn’t respond.
He didn’t have to.
Because in that moment, she knew something he didn’t:
She might be the outsider.
But she was the one with nothing to lose.
And that made her dangerous.
- Writer
