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Lovers Lodge Owner’s Desperate Attempt to Save the Lodge; A Fake Engagement!

I swipe the app closed on her phone and set the device face down, as if not looking at it will make the featured article in Epic Destinations disappear.

Weeks ago, something like this would have made my brain scream that we’re fucked, but things are different now.

At least they are for me.

“It doesn’t matter what this article says, we⁠—”

“Are fake-engaged,” she finishes for me.

That wasn’t what I was going to say, but I see the wheels turning in her head. They’re spiraling.

“Someone knows, and they know a lot. Who? Who would do that? I bet it was Marcus. Did you say something to him?”

She reaches for the phone, pulling up the article again.

“No, I didn’t, and don’t read that,” I say quickly, and she groans, pushing past me.

“I need to know what they are saying.”

“You don’t.”

“I do!”

“Grace, no matter what they say, we know the truth.”

“And the truth is, it’s all a lie. Everything they’ve said and—” She stops talking as she reads. “Oh my god,” she says and covers her mouth, looking up at me.

Her eyes widen and then start to glaze with tears.

“What?” I ask and grab the phone.

I read quickly.

My heart stutters when I read:

Since the engagement announcement, the lodge has flourished, while King Enterprises is now ready to pass the entire franchise to its heir. Coincidence? I think not. There is more to this story, and we plan to reveal it all. In the meantime, at least he got the promotion before the plan fell apart. As for her, seems she’s not so different from her father. Lying Lodge is starting to sound like a better fit.

Fuck.

“They’re right,” she says.

“What?”

I physically shake my head, as if the gesture will help her process how wrong she is.

“You’re joking, right?”

She shrugs. “They aren’t wrong. He lied, and now I am, too. It’s all … too much. I can’t … do this anymore. I can’t keep faking this. At least now, you got what you wanted and I can⁠—”

“What I want is for you to stop calling it a fake engagement.”

“That’s what it is.”

“It’s not!”

She lets out a choked cry and tosses up her hands.