Chapter 6

The pain in my ribs was a dull, constant throb. I woke up in a different hospital this time, a quiet, private one. Holden Nunez had arranged everything.

Carter showed up the next day. He had the decency to look ashamed, but it was just another performance.

"Alysha, I am so, so sorry," he said, his voice laced with practiced regret. He tried to take my hand, but I pulled it away.

"I was going to come back for you," he said, his words tumbling out in a rushed, defensive stream. "But Gia was having a panic attack, I had to get her to safety first."

Lies. All of it.

"I love you, Alysha," he whispered, his eyes pleading. "You know that, right? I never meant for any of this to happen."

I just stared at him, my heart a block of ice. I felt nothing. No anger, no sadness. Just a vast, empty numbness. I was done. I was focusing on one thing and one thing only: leaving.

While I was recovering, I saw the news. Gia, in a televised interview, tearfully recounted how she had been the target of the mob, how Carter had heroically saved her, and how I had, in my jealousy, instigated the riot.

The lie was so audacious it was almost brilliant.

A few days later, Carter came to my room and saw the small suitcase I had packed.

"Where are you going?" he asked, a flicker of alarm in his eyes.

"I' m leaving, Carter. Our deal is done. I' m taking my money and I' m disappearing."

Just then, his phone rang. It was Gia, of course. He walked out into the hallway to take the call, his voice a low, soothing murmur. I watched him through the window in the door, his back to me, completely absorbed in her.

My priority. His priority. It was always her.

A bitter laugh escaped my lips. Even now, he couldn' t see the truth.

He came back into the room a few minutes later, his face a thundercloud. He was holding his phone, his hand shaking with rage.

"What is this?" he snarled, shoving the phone in my face.

It was a a gossip blog. The headline was explosive: "GIA SALAZAR' S SECRET PLASTIC SURGERY: LEAKED PRE-OP PHOTOS SHOW INFLUENCER WASN' T BORN PERFECT."

Below the headline were pictures. Photos of a young woman on an operating table, her face marked up for surgery. It was Gia, before Carter had transformed her. The article claimed the photos were leaked by a disgruntled former assistant.

"You did this!" he yelled, his voice echoing in the small room. "You leaked these to ruin her!"

I stared at the photos. The style of the surgical markings, the specific angles of the shots... they were Carter' s. They had to have come from his private files.

"I didn' t do this, Carter," I said, my voice tired. "How would I even get these?"

"You' re jealous!" he raged. "You' ve always been jealous of her! You hate that you' re just a copy, so you decided to destroy the original!"

"My God, Carter," I whispered, "You're delusional."

The accusation was so insane, so twisted, that something inside me finally snapped.

"Jealous?" I screamed, pushing myself up despite the searing pain in my ribs. "You think I' m jealous? I hate this face! I hate what you did to me!"

I started pacing the room, a caged animal, the years of pain and humiliation pouring out of me.

"You took my life from me! You turned me into a puppet, a shield, a sacrifice for your sick obsession! You stood there and watched me get beaten by a mob you sent me into!"

"I never wanted to hurt you," he said, his voice shaking. He was trying to defend himself, to rationalize his monstrous behavior. "I was just trying to protect what was mine."

"I was never yours!" I screamed. "I was just a stand-in! A cheap replacement for the woman you really love!"

He flinched, but I wasn' t done.

"This marriage was never real. You never loved me. You loved the idea of her, and you used me to get it."

He opened his mouth to speak, to offer another lie, another empty promise.

"Don' t," I warned, my voice dropping to a dangerous low. "Don' t you dare say you love me. Not after everything you' ve done."

He fell silent, his face pale.

The news of Gia' s plastic surgery sent the media into a frenzy. Her "natural beauty" brand was shattered. Her sponsors started dropping her. Her perfect image was ruined.

That afternoon, Gia was rushed to the hospital after an apparent suicide attempt. The news reported she had taken a bottle of pills.

It was another one of her games. I knew it. But Carter didn' t.

He was frantic, consumed with guilt and worry. He believed he was responsible for her breakdown.

And he blamed me for all of it.