The engagement ring was beautiful.
Elegant. Cold. Just like him.
Ava stared at the diamond glinting on her finger, feeling as if it belonged to someone else. Someone who actually wanted this. Someone who didn't feel like screaming.
They were in the back of Jace Carter's sleek black car, heading to dinner—their first official appearance as an engaged couple. The air was thick with silence and tension, the kind that prickled under her skin like static.
"You're quiet," he said, his tone unreadable.
Ava didn't look at him. "There's nothing to say."
"That's unusual. I thought you'd have a list of complaints by now."
She turned to face him then, her eyes sharp. "You don't know me."
Jace gave a slight smirk. "I don't need to. We're not doing this for love, remember?"
Right. Love.
That ridiculous, distant thing she'd stopped believing in the moment her world fell apart.
"I'm not pretending," she said, arms crossed. "You'll get your perfect little PR story. I'll play the part. But once this year is up, you won't have to see me again."
"Perfect," he replied smoothly.
But something in the way he said it made her stomach twist. Like he wasn't as unaffected as he wanted her to think.
---
The restaurant was stunning—dim lights, gold accents, whispers of wealth in every detail. Cameras flashed outside as they stepped from the car, Jace's hand lightly resting on her lower back like it belonged there.
He leaned in, lips brushing her ear. "Smile. They're watching."
Ava forced one. It felt foreign on her face.
Inside, they were greeted like royalty. Everyone knew Jace Carter. The cold, brilliant billionaire who never dated, never flirted, never made tabloid news… until now.
Until her.
They sat, and Ava sipped her wine, letting the warm bitterness settle her nerves.
"Are you always this charming on fake dates?" she asked dryly.
"I don't go on dates," he said. "Fake or real."
She raised a brow. "So I'm your first."
He looked at her then—directly, intensely. "In many ways, yes."
A shiver ran down her spine, and she hated that it did.
---
After dinner, they posed briefly for the waiting press. Flashbulbs popped. Jace slipped his arm around her waist like it was second nature, and for a moment, the world might have believed it.
They looked like a couple in love.
Only they knew the truth: it was a beautiful lie.
---
Back in the car, Ava finally broke the silence.
"What do you tell yourself to make this okay?" she asked softly. "To make marrying a stranger feel normal?"
Jace didn't answer right away. His eyes were on the dark city beyond the window.
"I tell myself it's temporary," he said. "And that love is overrated."
Ava swallowed the lump in her throat.
"Maybe it is," she said quietly.
But why, then, did it already feel like her heart was starting to slip?