The chances of this happening to anyone that is not named Nicolette Octaliegh Avalon-Hatchet is slim but If you ever find yourself standing in front of a hot mountain of a man, who has main character energy and a face that belongs in a catalog who you assume is your fiancee and proceed to casually fuck for the next four hours or so, my advice - CHECK HIS FUCKING HIS ID!
Or you are gonna wind up like me right this very second, in between my dead beat Dad, my furious ugly ass real fiancee and a best friend who's mouth is hanging open in shock,
And the worse part would be trying to get over the shock that the weird ugly looking dude in front of you is who everyone expects you to spend the rest of your life with, in time to feel shock over the fact that you FUCKED A STRANGER!
The four of us stood there, frozen.
The man with the scar—the real Kincade—was the first to break the silence.
"You drag me here to finalize a contract," he said, his voice not a yell, but I could feel the vibration "And I find this? A future bride claiming to be defiled by an imposter using my name?" His black eyes sliced from me to my father. "Is this your idea of a joke, Charles? Or your pathetic attempt to pawn off ruined goods? A street level whore!"
Ruined goods? Excuse me, Clown but I am more like second grade goods at best. That's downright insulting. If I was a whore, I would be those high class escorts that serviced the rich and wealthy not a street level hooker!
My father's face, already purple, seemed to swell. The veins on his neck bulged like ropes. I'm not proud to admit that I was... afraid in that moment. What will Interim CEO Charles do to his wayward daughter?
"You foolish girl!" he roared, but his fury wasn't at Kincade. It was at me, for being the source of his humiliation. He took a threatening step toward me. "Who was it? A gardener? A driver? You will tell me right now, you little—"
"It was you!" I screamed back, the words tearing out of my throat. I pointed a trembling finger at the real Kincade, my vision blurring. "I thought it was you! He said he was you! He was in your room!"
"I arrived at this wretched house twenty minutes ago," the real Kincade spat. "And I have never seen you before in my life."
"I-it was..." My voice faded away.
I guess my story went the way every story with a forced engagement goes... except I'm pretty sure not everyone ends up trying to explain away the fact that they slept with the wrong Kincade.
"I'm gonna kill you." My father came for my neck and the finality in his voice broke the last of my strength. My knees buckled. I didn't hit the floor because Eva Belle was suddenly there, her arm around my waist, holding me up.
"That's enough!" Her voice was shrill, laced with a fear she was bravely overriding. She positioned herself squarely between me and the two men, a tiny shield against a tsunami. "Can't you see she's in shock? Get out. Get out of her room, now!"
My father looked like he might strike her too. But the real Kincade simply turned on his heel with a sound of utter contempt.
"The contract is void," he announced to the hallway, his voice carrying like a judge's sentence. "Consider the merger terminated. My lawyers will be in touch. Avalon group has till end of the week to pay back every penny we've loaned you!"
He disappeared. My father shot me one last, venomous look—a promise of later retribution—and stormed out after him, slamming the door so hard the paintings on the wall rattled.
The moment the door closed, the strength Eva Belle had borrowed fled her. We sank to the floor together.
A broken sound, part sob, part gasp, wrenched itself from her chest. She was afraid for me.
"He is gonna kill me, isn't he, B-belly?" I looked at my best friend. "My only use to him was the marriage contract and I screwed it up. He is going to kill me and he is going to make it looking like an a-accident and no one is ever going to know. No one will ever find out what happened to my m-mom. No one would hold anyone accountable"
Eva Belle just held me, her own tears wetting my hair. "It's okay," she whispered, a useless, beautiful lie. "I've got you."
"Evie," I whispered, my voice hoarse.
"What is it, sweetie?"
I looked up at her, my eyes wide with dawning, horrific clarity. "The Kincade I slept with"
"What about him?"
"He…" The memory flashed: moonlight on smooth skin, my fingers tracing a jawline, my lips on a brow… a perfectly smooth, unmarked brow. "He knew who I was and who I was looking for."
Eva Belle's breath caught. She understood instantly. The horror on her face mirrored my own.
"Oh, my God, Noah."
The truth was more terrifying than the mistake. It wasn't a misunderstanding. It was a setup. A deliberate, cruel deception.
I pushed myself up.
Eva Belle rose to stand beside me, her manager's mind already kicking into gear, aligning with my newfound resolve. "Who?" she breathed. "Who would do that? And why?"
I looked at my reflection in the dark screen of the television. The girl who stared back was pale and on borrowed time.
"I don't know," I said. "But I want to find him"