After He Mistook Me For Her, I Walked Out

Chapter 2 The Real Fiancée

"Vivi. You made it."

Weston greeted me like nothing was wrong, but I caught the flicker of panic in his eyes before he buried it.

A corner of the picture frame stuck out from under his pillow.

He shifted back against the headboard, and his gaze slid past me to Sloane Whitmore.

"Hi. Are you a friend of mine? Sorry, I don't remember much of anything."

It was almost funny, watching him strike up a conversation with Sloane on his own.

He probably had no idea he did it, but Weston only ever talked that much when he had something to hide.

"We're not friends."

Sloane opened the thermos of chicken noodle soup she had brought, blew across the spoon, and lifted it to his lips.

"Weston, I'm your fiancée."

His eyes went wide, and his head snapped toward me.

I nodded, because there was no point in denying it. "Your parents do want you to marry Sloane."

Weston and Sloane came from the same world, the kind of money I could spend my whole life chasing and never touch.

His parents had no use for the Cinderella their son dragged home.

For me, he turned down a seat at his father's company after graduation and built his own from nothing.

My friends had envied me for years.

They used to tease me about it. "Tall, rich, gorgeous, and he does all that for you? Vivienne, you must have been a saint in a past life."

I used to think they were right.

It took until this afternoon for me to understand that I had been a stand-in the whole time.

"Huh."

His answer came out flat.

"I'm a grown man. I think I can decide who I marry. You can show yourself out, miss."

Sloane arched a brow. "So you're refusing to marry me?"

He answered without a beat of hesitation. "Of course I am. Vivi and I are getting married."

Sloane laughed, and there was nothing in it but contempt.

"Is that right, Miss Hale?"

Three days ago, she had dropped a check on the table and told me to walk away from him, and the words I had been holding on my tongue, that there would be no wedding, slid back down my throat.

I nodded and gave her the answer she was waiting for. "That's right."

"The door's behind you, miss."

Weston threw her out without bothering to soften it.

That was the real him. Anyone he didn't care about got nothing but ice.

Sloane opened her mouth to argue, then caught the look he gave her and left, glancing back the whole way.

"Vivienne, I don't think the two of you are going to make it."

She tossed the line over her shoulder on her way out and left me to work out what she meant by it.

She turned out to be right.

I looked at Weston, familiar and unrecognizable at the same time, and wondered how much of the way he used to love me had ever been about me, and how much of it was only about Seraphina.

He let out a long breath and slid an arm around my waist. "You scared me half to death, Vivi. I thought you were about to walk out on me."

I pulled out of his arms and said his name the way you say something that matters.

"Weston."

I held his eyes and laid the words out one at a time so he could not miss a single one.

"I'm not a stand-in for anyone. I never will be."