Page 48 of Her Billion Dollar Groom

I’ve lost Eliza forever.

CHAPTER 26

ELIZA

The first person who calls me when I get back to my apartment is my mom. She’s one of the few people who knows I’ve moved out of the mansion.

“Elizabeth,” she says. “What’s going on? Tell your mother right now.”

I swallow hard. She deserves the truth. Both my parents do. After all, I did all of this for them.

But how do I tell them that it was all a lie?

They were so happy on our wedding day, so pleased to see me marrying someone who seemed nice. My dad did a thorough background check on him, which I should have been mad about, but I know it’s just because he cares. And I have worried them before, with all the footballers and the losers.

I’ve put them through a lot, and yet I can’t quite find the words to tell them that my thing with Jason was never real. And not only was it never real, but I’m starting to wish it was.

“I’m just taking a break,” I say, which is technically not a lie. “I wanted my own space for a bit, somewhere more grungy to work. You know?”

“You and your music,” says my mother, and I can hear the smile in her voice. “Do you have any samples for me?”

“Not yet. I’m really struggling to make this one make sense. It’s why I needed the change of scene. But I’ll get there.”

“I know you will, honey. You always do. We love you. You know you can always come home anytime you want.”

“I know, mom. I love you too.”

The next thing she’s going to suggest is coming over for dinner, and I can’t have that. I can’t have my parents see how empty and sad my apartment looks. I don’t want them to see the unpacked boxes, the stacks and stacks of microwave dinners. I don’t want them to realize how much Jason’s breaking my heart.

At the end of the day, he and I still have months and months left in our deal, and we both have to figure out what we’re going to do after that. I think he knows as much as I do that the second we get divorced, he’s going to have to figure out something new to do with his platform in record time, because all my fans are going to blacklist him and Handshake forever, even if I beg them not to.

They’re loyal to me. It’s why I love them.

But it could ruin Jason. That thought makes me sick.

The whole point of this was for us both to get something good out of it, not for me to accidentally lure him into my catastrophic life and then ruin him.

Never mind that I’ve been ruined too. I was already pretty damaged to begin with.

“We’ll come over,” says my mom, unsurprisingly. “Let us help you unpack.”

“No, Mom, you don’t have to.”

“I’ll come and visit you. Let my daughter unpack all her boxes herself? I don’t think so.”

“I’m not unpacking,” I scoff. “I’m just staying here for a minute. That’s all.” I hate lying to her, but I worry that the press will corner her and pepper her with questions. It’s better for her not to know the truth so she doesn’t feel like she has to lie.

I know they would lie for me, but that’s a position I never want them to be in. Better for them to think that me and Jason are still happy and healthy. Better for us to keep pretending for the cameras, no matter how much things are falling apart behind the scenes.

My mother tries to insist that they’ll come over, but eventually I manage to dissuade her. She eventually hangs up, telling me I should call more often, that I can visit any time and that I shouldn’t let Jason break my heart. It takes all my strength not to say he already has.

When I hang up, it’s silent in the apartment, too silent.

I go into the living room and turn the TV on, just for background noise. I put some trashy reality series on and quickly realize that I can’t stand to listen to all these empty-headed people talk about love. My heart hurts too much for that.

What I need is ice cream and a bad movie.

I grab my phone, slump down on the sofa, and open my delivery app, demanding that three pints of ice cream get sent to my door right now. Modern technology is brilliant. I don’t know how we used to survive as teenagers, getting broken up with and having to leave our bedrooms to get ice cream.

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