I never thought I’d have to resort to something like this.

Scandals, rumors, insatiable public curiosity—I’ve always navigated them with practiced ease. A carefully placed smile here, a vague answer there, and the world would take what I gave it without demanding more. But this time, they wanted more. They wanted proof of a romance, something tangible to dissect and fawn over. And unfortunately, my silence was no longer enough.

So here I was, standing in my penthouse, staring at the only person I trusted enough to involve in this ridiculous charade. Mydei.

He looked at me like he always did—calm, unreadable, as if my sudden request hadn’t shaken him in the slightest. He had been my bodyguard for years, a presence so constant in my life that I sometimes forgot he wasn’t just another extension of myself. He knew my habits, my tells, my weaknesses. He had taken knives meant for me, bullets even, but now, I was asking him to take on something far more absurd