RENEE
"Do I really have to keep pretending with them?" I asked Miles, adjusting my outfit as I prepared for work. The board was insisting on meeting with me today, and thankfully, Malcolm was still in town. He had agreed to come with me and handle the meeting with them.
"You mean Liam and Adan?" Miles asked, his voice calm as he reached for my hairbrush. He gently worked through my curls as I looked at him in the mirror.
I nodded, my eyes meeting his reflection. "Yes. I'm tired of pretending they're my friends when I know they're my enemies."
"They don't need to know that you're Axelle just yet," Miles pointed out. "But there's no reason to be nice to them. We've already gotten what we needed from them."
That made sense. I was done with pretending, done with putting on a fake smile and acting like everything was okay. "But we're going to have to face the press eventually," I reminded him. Miles had been unusually quiet ever since the scandal broke, the one about our affair.
