The mansion doors opened.
Summer and I were already in position.
The marble floor was cold beneath my knees. Summer had arranged us side by side in the middle of the living room like two offerings to a very irritated god.
When the front door clicked shut, the entire house went still.
I didn’t dare look up immediately.
I only saw polished black shoes stop in front of us.
Then silence.
A terrifying, expensive kind of silence.
Summer deserved an Oscar.
Tears burst out of her like she had a hidden faucet.
“Brother!” she wailed. “I know I was wrong! Please restore my allowance! I can’t survive like this!”
Her voice cracked at all the right places. Her shoulders shook. Her makeup held. Incredible.
Even I was a little moved.
If she cried this well on camera, she wouldn’t still be playing nameless side characters with three lines and a tragic haircut.
She tugged hard on my sleeve.
It was my turn.
My face burned.
It had been three years since I’d seen Ryan Carter, and somewhere in that time, I had apparently lost whatever ability I once had to speak to him normally.
“Ryan,” I said, keeping my eyes on the floor, “Summer really knows she was wrong. She cried all day yesterday because she was scared you’d stop talking to her.”
A housekeeper nearby coughed.
“Miss Chloe,” she said gently, “that child only knelt because she heard he was home.”
Lies exposed.
Excellent.
I thought Ryan would get angrier.
Instead, after a beat, I heard movement. Calm footsteps. Then they stopped directly in front of me.
For one horrifying second, I thought he might actually kick me.
Honestly, if it came down to money, I was prepared to die with honor and grab his leg on the way out.
But when Ryan finally moved, his hand came toward me—not to shove, not to punish.
To help.
I panicked and grabbed his arm on instinct.
His body stilled.
Then, very slowly, his other hand came around to steady me as he helped me up from the floor.
I was still clutching his sleeve.
He didn’t pull away.
Instead, he crouched in front of me.
My breath caught.
He tilted his head slightly and looked down at my knees, like he was checking whether the marble had hurt me.
Warm breath brushed my skin.
His lashes were lowered.
For some reason, my legs felt weak.
His voice came low and even.
“How long were you kneeling?”
The truth was about two minutes. Maybe less.
The floor hadn’t even warmed under us yet.
But if I said that, wouldn’t it make us look insincere?
I shot Summer a desperate glance and she widened her eyes right back.
“Quite a while,” I said firmly. “Summer really knows she was wrong. Please forgive her.”
“Yeah,” Summer chirped from the floor. “Please don’t be mad anymore.”
Ryan looked at her once.
She immediately shut up.
Something felt off.
He wasn’t softening the way Summer had sworn he would. If anything, there was a strange tension around him, something contained and sharp.
Like he was angry, but not for the reason we thought.
The housekeeper sighed. “Ryan, the floor is cold.”
He didn’t look away from me.
“Are you uncomfortable?”
I shook my head too fast.
Beside us, Summer tried weakly, “I’m a little uncomfortable.”
Ryan turned to her at last.
“If you want forgiveness,” he said calmly, “keep kneeling.”
Summer froze.
I nearly choked.
We had lost.
Spectacularly.
And then those floating comments appeared again.
These two really are best friends. Between them, they don’t even add up to one functioning brain cell.
Ethan had to work hard to win the sister. Ryan has been suffering way longer.
Try kissing the crown prince instead. That would work faster than kneeling.
I bet Summer’s about to accidentally help her brother find a wife.
I stared at the words in disbelief.
Summer, meanwhile, had clearly reached the end of her planning abilities.
She whispered to me, “Do you think my brother’s just been single too long? Maybe that’s why his temper is so bad.”
I said nothing.
She was already pulling out her phone.
“This won’t work. I’m happy now. I can’t let my brother suffer forever. Maybe we should set him up on a blind date. Once he gets a girlfriend, he’ll calm down. And if I have a sister-in-law, my life will be even better.”
I watched her in silence.
The comments were nearly dying of laughter.
In the chaos of those floating words, one line burned brighter than the rest.
Just kiss Ryan once. Problem solved.
I looked at Summer, who was now apparently building a spreadsheet of eligible women.
Then I looked at Ryan.
His sleeve was still in my hand.
My bank balance flashed through my mind like a religious vision.
For Summer. For friendship. Definitely not for the money.
Before I could think too hard about it, I reached up, grabbed his wrist, and pressed a quick kiss to his cheek.
Everything stopped.
Ryan went rigid.
So did I.
Oh no.
This was it.
This was the moment he finally had me thrown out of the Carter estate and blacklisted from every decent neighborhood in Manhattan.
The courage that had possessed me vanished instantly.
My head dropped. I wished the floor would open and swallow me whole.
Then Ryan’s hand closed around mine.
Not rough.
Not cold.
Steady.
His voice, when it came, was so low it felt like it brushed across my skin.
“Chloe.”
Just my name.
But the way he said it made my heartbeat trip over itself.
“It’s been a long time.”
I couldn’t tell if I imagined the softness in his tone or not.
My knees went weak again.
Somehow I grabbed Summer, dragged her upright, and fled the mansion before either of us could die.
The second we got in the car, her phone chimed.
She looked down.
Then up.
Then down again.
“My brother transferred me a hundred thousand dollars.”
Her mouth had been hanging open ever since I kissed Ryan.
I kindly pushed it shut for her.
She turned to me slowly.
“Babe,” she whispered, “why?”
I stared ahead in numb silence.
Summer was the first one to recover enough to make a theory.
“Wait. Is my brother secretly like one of those weird fast-food reward systems? Begging didn’t work, but one kiss and he folded?”
I still said nothing.
She drove me home, then stopped me before I got out.
“Oh, and that idiot Jason called me,” she said. “He wants to talk to you.”
I blinked.
“Block him.”
Summer looked at me for a long moment.
Then she sighed.
“You’re incredible. When you decide to break up, you really break up.”
I smiled, but it hurt a little.
It wasn’t because I was strong.
It was because I knew Jason Miller had never really loved me.
And if the moon I had wanted for so many years could never belong to me alone, then I didn’t want it anymore.