My boyfriend called me to break up while half a dozen men were laughing in the background, and after three years of being his secret wife, I finally gave him the answer he deserved.
Chapter 1
“Weren’t we just friends anyway?”
The laughter stopped.
Someone on the other end muttered, “Oh, man.”
Another voice whispered, “Chase, you are dead.”
Chase Sterling cleared his throat. He was twenty-nine, a world-famous professional gamer, owner of the country’s most successful esports club, and apparently still capable of making idiotic decisions during a game of truth or dare.
“Lily,” he said carefully, “I need to explain.”
“No need.”
“Wait.”
“I have class.”
“Lily—”
I hung up and turned off my phone.
For the rest of the afternoon, I was so quiet that Professor Harris stopped halfway through attendance and peered over his glasses at me.
“Miss Bennett, are you ill?”
“No, Professor.”
“You’ve taken notes for twenty minutes without making a sarcastic remark.”
The room laughed.
I forced a smile. “New semester. New personality.”
“Let us hope it survives until Friday.”
Normally I would have answered with something ridiculous. Instead, I lowered my eyes and kept writing.
The truth was more embarrassing than any breakup.
Chase could not technically break up with me.
He was my husband.
Nobody at school knew.
Three years earlier, Chase had been a talented but struggling esports player with a disastrous love life and a temper he hid behind an unreadable face. I had known him since childhood because our mothers had been best friends for decades. He was six years older, irritatingly handsome, and once upon a time, I had followed him around with a camera like an overeager puppy.
Then he fell in love with Sienna Vale.
Sienna was beautiful even before Hollywood discovered her. Back then, she hosted gaming events and dreamed about acting. She and Chase dated secretly because she feared being publicly attached to a struggling gamer.
Then her career rose.
His collapsed.
The more famous she became, the less she wanted to be seen with him. They fought constantly. Chase lost match after match, and when Sienna left for Europe to shoot a film, he unraveled.
I tried to help from the sidelines.
I created fan pages. I posted photographs of him at his best. I reminded people how talented he was when everyone else called him washed up.
And, because I was twenty, foolish, and hopelessly in love with him, I told one ridiculous lie.
I joked to friends that Chase had been pursuing me for years.
Unfortunately, our mothers heard it.
Even more unfortunately, reporters soon discovered his secret relationship with Sienna and descended on him during the worst season of his career.
Standing in front of cameras, Chase suddenly pulled me against his side.
“I’ve been chasing Lily for years,” he announced. “Today she finally said yes.”
I nearly swallowed my tongue.
Hours later, he looked at me in the courthouse parking lot and said, “Marry me.”
By sunset, we were legally husband and wife.
That night, I tried to confess how I actually felt.
He apologized first.
“I’m sorry I used you.”
His face looked so exhausted that my courage vanished.
So I laughed and said, “Fine. Win a championship and pay me fifty thousand dollars a month.”
He stared.
“Fifty thousand?”
“It’s my first marriage. I’m expensive.”
For the first time in months, he laughed.
“Deal.”
The following year, he won the championship.
Then another.
He built Sterling Esports into a business empire. Sponsors fought over him. Fans called him the Ice King because he rarely smiled during competition.
And every month, exactly fifty thousand dollars appeared in my account.
But we never became a normal married couple.
He lived at the training facility. I stayed in college. At public events, he called me a childhood friend, his team photographer, sometimes “the neighbor’s kid.”
His teammates knew better. They called me Sister-in-Law.
Chase never corrected them.
That tiny thing kept me hoping far longer than I should have.
By evening, my roommates and I were walking toward our dorm when Mia grabbed my arm.
“Lily. Don’t look now.”
I looked immediately.
A black Porsche was parked at the curb.
Beside it stood Jax Mercer, Chase’s loudest teammate and least discreet friend.
He waved.
“Hey, Sister-in-Law!”
My roommates froze.
I closed my eyes.
“Jax.”
He hurried toward me. “Before you murder anybody, I need you to understand the breakup call was my fault.”
I stopped.
“What?”
“Truth or dare.”
“You’re telling me my husband called to break up with me because you dared him?”
Jax swallowed.
“Yes.”
Behind him, the driver’s door opened.
Chase stepped out.
He wore a charcoal jacket over a black shirt, his dark hair slightly messy, his expression unreadable.
“Get in,” he said.
“I’m busy.”
“You’re standing on a sidewalk.”
“I can become busy.”
Jax whispered, “Please get in. He’s been terrifying all day.”
Chase looked at him.
Jax immediately backed away.
The drive was silent until I sneezed.
Without looking at me, Chase turned down the air conditioner.
Then he said, “What did you mean earlier?”
“About what?”
“When you said we were just friends.”
I stared through the windshield.
“You’re the one who said breakup.”
His hands tightened on the steering wheel.
“We’re married, Lily.”
“Interesting. Somebody should tell the public.”
That landed.
For several seconds, the only sound was the road beneath the tires.
Finally, he pulled a folded blanket from the back seat and tossed it into my lap.
“Fine,” he said. “Neither of us uses that word again.”
“Which word?”
“Breakup.”
I laughed despite myself.
Then I noticed we were not heading toward campus.
“Where are we going?”
“Dinner.”
“I have homework.”
“You’ve ignored my calls all day.”
“That was intentional.”
“I noticed.”
He stopped outside a quiet upscale restaurant downtown, one I had mentioned months earlier. The owner greeted Chase warmly, then looked past him and suddenly became uncomfortable.
That was when I saw her.
Sienna Vale sat beside the windows.
She had returned from Europe three days earlier.
Even without makeup, she was the kind of beautiful that made a room unconsciously rearrange itself around her.
Her eyes moved from Chase to me.
Then she smiled.
“What a coincidence.”
My stomach sank.
Chase hesitated.
Then he reached back, took my hand, and pulled me close.
At dinner, Sienna reminisced about old tournaments, old restaurants, old friends. I barely spoke.
When the server asked about drinks, Chase and Sienna answered at the same moment.
“Room temperature.”
They both stopped.
Sienna smiled faintly. “You remember.”
Before I could look away, Chase took the iced tea in front of me and exchanged it for the warm one.
“You shouldn’t drink cold things this week.”
I stared at him.
He remembered my cycle.
Sienna noticed too.
Her smile tightened.
Then, because humiliation apparently enjoys company, I began hiccuping.
Once.
Twice.
Five times.
Chase finally laughed.
“Stop enjoying this,” I muttered.
“Want me to fix it?”
“Yes.”
“Look over there.”
I turned.
His hand slid behind my head.
Then Chase kissed me.
Not a polite kiss.
Not a fake kiss.
A real one.
By the time he pulled away, my hiccups were gone and my face felt as hot as the restaurant candles.
Across the table, Sienna’s wineglass slipped from her hand and shattered.
She stood abruptly.
“I’m sorry. Excuse me.”
As she disappeared toward the restroom, I stared at Chase.
He calmly picked up his fork.
And one terrible thought entered my mind.
Maybe he had kissed me only because he knew she was watching.
