Chapter 2 The Offer

Cassidy was mid-bite into a dry blueberry muffin when her phone buzzed againsixth notification in five minutes.

She groaned , wiped her fingers on a napkin , and swiped to unlock the screen.

"BREAKING: Billionaire Dominic Thorne Spotted With New Mystery Woman – Could This Be His First Real Relationship?"

Below the headline was a photo.. grainy , zoomed in, but unmistakable . Her hair. Her blazer . Her irritated scowl as she stormed out of the Thorne Dynamics building.

Cassidy choked .

"No. No, no, no."

She clicked the article. There were three different versions of the story now, all using that one damn photo from yesterday. Each article got a little more ridiculous. One suggested she was an heiress from Monaco . Another claimed they'd been secretly dating for six months. The third speculated she was his fiancée .

Fiancée .

Her phone buzzed again.

This time it was Emily , her assistant.

" Uhhhh... Cass... your face is all over Page Six."

Cassidy squeezed her eyes shut and dropped her phone onto the café table like it might explode. Then she looked around, suddenly self-conscious. The place was packed with downtown professionals and freelance writers pretending to be chill. Were any of them recognizing her? Whispering ?

She didn 't think she had enemies in the press. She also didn 't think she was interesting enough to end up in a billionaire 's scandal.

And yet. Here they were.

Great, she thought, watching her muffin slowly collapse into a pile of crumbs . This is exactly what I need right now. A fake engagement rumor with a man who makes Batman look emotionally available.

Her phone buzzed again.

She stared at the screen.

DOMINIC THORNE .

She blinked . Then blinked again.

No one texted her from that far up the corporate food chain. They summoned you via assistant or surprise board meeting. They didn 't text.

But this time, there was a message.

> We need to talk. Lunch. My driver will pick you up in 15.

Cassidy frowned . No greeting . No explanation. Just a command in perfectly punctuated text.

Her gut told her to ignore it.

Her curiosity said otherwise.

---

Twelve minutes later, Cassidy was in the back seat of a silent black car, her nerves doing cartwheels . When she pulled up to the restaurant.. more glass, more steel, more hush - hush than anywhere she'd been before.. the driver opened the door without a word and gestured for her to head inside.

She walked in, bracing for a boardroom full of people.

Instead, it was just Dominic .

Seated at a table for two by the window, sipping espresso like the chaos of the internet hadn 't just swallowed them whole.

He looked up as she approached . " Cassidy ."

She folded her arms. "What's this about?"

"You' ve seen the headlines ."

"I am the headline."

He gestured to the chair across from him. "Sit."

She didn 't. "If this is an apology.. "

"It's not."

She raised a brow. Of course it wasn 't.

Dominic set his cup down and leaned back slightly, studying her like she was another asset to be acquired . "You' re trending on seven outlets . Traffic is surging . Engagement is off the charts . My PR team had a minor heart attack this morning. And my board.. who usually treat me like a cyborg with a bank account.. think this is an opportunity."

"Opportunity?" Cassidy echoed .

"To make me more... approachable . Relatable ."

She laughed, sharp and humorless . "So now you want to pretend to be dating me?"

Dominic didn 't flinch . "It's mutually beneficial."

"Oh, please."

"I fund your company," he said calmly . "And in return, you go along with the narrative. Public appearances . Photos . One month. Then we stage a quiet breakup , blame work schedules , and you walk away with a seven-figure investment."

Cassidy stared.

There it was. The offer.

Neat. Clean. Cold.

Fake .

He was just sitting there like it was no big deal. Like this kind of thing happened all the time. Like it wasn 't completely insane.

"You want me to fake -date you," she said slowly, "to improve your PR ."

"Yes."

"And in return, you' ll write a check to Vale & Co.?"

"Yes."

Cassidy sat down.

Her mind was spinning. The answer should' ve been no. Hard no. Fast no. But...

Her company was bleeding. Her father's reputation had dragged them through a dozen disasters . Clients were nervous. Contracts were fragile . They were one major cancellation away from folding.

She looked at Dominic again. He wasn 't begging . He wasn 't even smiling.

He was just waiting.

And somehow, that made it worse.

"I don't fake date people," she said.

"I don't date anyone. This solves both our problems."

"What if someone finds out?"

"They won't."

"What if I say no?"

He met her eyes evenly . "Then you walk away. No hard feelings."

That was the thing. He meant it. There was no manipulation in his voice, no pressure. Just facts. Strategy.

A deal.

Cassidy leaned back in her chair, exhaling slowly.

This wasn 't just about money. This was about survival. About buying time. About saving the company she'd poured the last three years of her life into.. one client, one crisis at a time.

And it was about not letting her father's legacy be the only thing attached to her name.

"Thirty days," she said quietly.

Dominic inclined his head. "Thirty days."

"No weird controlling billionaire rules."

A pause. "Define ' weird .'"

She almost smiled. "You know what I mean."

He held out his hand. "Deal?"

Cassidy stared at it.

It felt like a line in the sand. Like a door opening to a room she couldn 't fully see.

But her fingers closed around his anyway.

"Deal."

---

Later that night, back at her apartment, Cassidy opened her laptop and found three new articles. The first two were more gossip. The third was a video clip from earlier that day.. her and Dominic stepping out of the car together, a camera catching his hand hovering just a little too close to her back. The headline read:

" Dominic Thorne 's Mystery Woman Confirmed.. But Who Is Cassidy Vale ?"

She stared at the screen, heart thudding .

The comments were pouring in. Photos , theories, wild guesses about her life, her past, her body, her worth.

And at the top of the trending page, a new post appeared.

" Insider Source Confirms : Thorne 's ' Girlfriend ' Has Something to Hide."

Her stomach dropped.

Something to hide?

Before she could click , her phone buzzed again.

Unknown number.

> Careful, Cassidy . Not everything is pretence.