I Was Paid to Be His Dead First Love

The woman Rhys could never get over died, and everything in him turned to ash. His brother made me over in her image and delivered me to Rhys's bed. "Five hundred thousand a month.

Keep him happy." The hundredth time Rhys told me to get out, I just kept looking at him, quiet and obedient. And he slowly pulled me into his arms.

After that, he spoiled me without limit. Until the girl who was supposed to be dead posted an update tagged in Hawaii.

That night, Rhys went at me like he wanted me to die in that bed. Everyone in the local money crowd settled in to watch, waiting for me, the standin, to fall apart and lose it.

The next morning, I went to his brother, a little shy about it. "Mr. Lockhart, do we have workers' comp?" Chapter 1 "Workers' comp?" Merrick's voice was flat.

I scratched my cheek and lowered my voice. "Rhys was really rough last night. There isn't an inch of me that isn't sore. It's uncomfortable to walk. Mr.

Lockhart, if you don't believe me, I can show you—" Merrick cut me off, perfectly calm. "It'll be in your account this afternoon." My eyes lit up. "Thank you, Mr.

Lockhart!" Then I paused. "So about the severance…" "Severance?" Merrick's brows drew together, and something like suspicion flickered across his face.

Then his phone rang and he picked up. A long silence. "She's alive?" His eyes narrowed. He hung up. Merrick tapped one long finger against the desk.

He understood what I meant now. "Stay with him for the time being," he said. "If it turns out later that we don't need you anymore, I'll give you a generous severance." I rolled my eyes where he couldn't see.

Of course they weren't going to need me. That girl wasn't dead. What use was a standin now? But I nodded, docile, and said all right. I turned to go.

Merrick's even voice followed me. "Don't reach for things that aren't yours." My steps stopped. He was warning me. He was like everyone else.

He thought that I, the standin, was about to fall apart and lose it, and that on my way down I might hurt somebody, really lean all the way into the golddiggingviper thing.

I let out a quiet sigh. I couldn't blame them for thinking it. For three years now, Rhys had liked me a lot. Lately he'd even started talking to a wedding planner.

If everything had gone smoothly, he and I would have been married before long. Unfortunately, things had not gone smoothly. The girl Rhys couldn't get over wasn't dead after all.

The position I'd been about to land, the one where I got to be his wife, was gone. By all rights I should have fallen apart.

But in three years I had never once forgotten what I was hired to be. Affection handed down from above for imitating another woman doesn't last.

The only thing that ever actually landed in my hands was the salary Merrick paid me. I looked back and gave Merrick a smile. "Don't worry, Mr. Lockhart.

For a salary this good, I'm not going to let you down." I pushed open the office door and walked out. And ran into the last person I expected in the hallway.

Our eyes met and I froze. "…Rhys?" He stopped where he stood.

That face of his was almost unfairly goodlooking, and those black eyes came straight at me. "What are you doing here?" I pushed the panic down and thought fast.

Rhys didn't know I knew his brother. He definitely didn't know that getting close to him had been a calculated job, and that his brother's hand was behind all of it.

Back when the one Rhys couldn't get over died, he'd spent every day drinking and street racing, causing enough trouble to keep himself in the gossip feeds, and it had done real damage to Lockhart Group's share price.

Merrick, being the one who called the shots, had been left with a headache and no patience for any of it.

Chapter 2 Then someone mentioned to Merrick that there was a hostess at The Cortland Club who looked a little like her. That was me.

After that, endless photos and video were put in front of me, and I learned fast.

I was eventempered and easy to manage, so it didn't take long before they sent me to Rhys to keep him calm.

Rhys thought I was just a woman who happened to look like her and happened to be desperately in love with him. I kept at it, and eventually he came to care about me a little.

This could never, ever come out. Because if it did, forget workers' comp and forget severance. I wouldn't even collect this month's paycheck.

I caught Rhys's arm and said softly, "You were gone when I woke up this morning, and I couldn't get through to your phone. So I went to your brother on my own to ask where you were.

You're not upset with me, are you, Rhys?" Rhys paused. His tone stayed detached. "He's busy running the company. Don't bother him with something this small." He believed it.

I let out a breath without letting it show and said, obedient as ever, "Okay.

It won't happen again." He nodded, indifferent, and slid his arm out of my hands. "Go on home." "What about tonight?

You said you'd take me to that candlelit dinner tonight." I pressed. "That restaurant that's impossible to get into. I got us a table." Rhys paused again.

His long fingers brushed my cheek. The way you'd stroke a pet. "Next time," he said. No surprise there. There wasn't going to be a next time.

But I nodded, obedient. "Okay." If Rhys wouldn't go, I'd go by myself. I'd had my heart set on that place forever, and it was nearly impossible to get into.

It went back to last week, when I was giving Merrick his usual update on how Rhys was doing. I'd asked, offhand, "Mr.

Lockhart, that place upstairs, Aurelia, it's so hard to get into.

Do you have any pull there?" Merrick set down his file and looked up. "Did you mention it to Rhys?" he asked, out of nowhere.

I said I had. "He said if it's that hard to get a table, forget it. It's one meal, they're all the same. But the room is beautiful.

I was curious." Merrick took a cool sip of his coffee. Then he made a call. A second later the reservation confirmation popped up on my phone. "Ms.

Mullins?" A man's voice at my ear pulled me back out of the memory and into the restaurant. I set down my wineglass and looked over.

It was the manager from the wedding planning firm I'd been dealing with.

I smiled politely. "You're eating here too." He looked at me for a few seconds, cleared his throat, and lowered his voice. "Are things all right between you and Rhys?" "Sorry?" I let a little confusion show. "Someone on the family's side called and put the planning and the setup on hold for now." He paused. "The bride's side in particular." I understood what he was worried about, and I smiled at him reassuringly. "Relax.

The wedding isn't getting called off." It was a big contract. Nobody wanted to lose it. He blinked, let that settle, and broke into a grin. "Then let me congratulate Ms.

Mullins and Rhys early!" The wedding really wasn't getting called off. They were just swapping out the bride.

I didn't explain any further, and once the planner left, I sat there playing with my silverware out of boredom. Then two figures by the window caught the edge of my vision.

I looked, and stopped dead in my seat. Rhys. He was facing me, but his eyes never left the woman across from him. A slender back. One look and I knew who she was.

Only because I'd sat in front of her photographs countless times, learning the way she held herself. The waiter happened to be setting down my food.

Chapter 3 I pointed over there. "I tried forever to get that table and never could.

Did they pay extra or something?" I was complaining out of habit and didn't expect an answer, since waiters don't hand out information about their guests.

To my surprise, he smiled. "Nothing anybody can do about it, ma'am. This place belongs to Lockhart Group. That's the Lockhart family's younger son. He sits wherever he wants.

He just has to say the word." I froze. So that was it. When I'd finished telling Merrick about it, he'd given me a look I couldn't read. Then one phone call, and I had a table.

And Rhys couldn't be bothered to make that one call. I'd complained to him plenty of times about not being able to get in here.

He'd just keep me loosely in his arms, playing with my earlobe, enjoying my disappointment at his leisure. "Poor thing.

Can't even get the dinner she wants." That was how he'd always been with me. No respect, no equality. I was a pet he could squeeze into whatever shape he liked. For instance.

I looked over there quietly and watched the two of them. Rhys would never eat a meal sitting across from me.

He had to have me next to him, where he could pull me into his lap and mess with me whenever he felt like it.

He wouldn't pour my wine like a gentleman or hold a serious conversation with me either. He'd just hold his own glass to my mouth and make his lazy little threat. "Not drinking?

You want me to give it to you mouth to mouth?" The truth is I never wanted respect. I've always been clear about where I stand.

It's just that seeing it with my own eyes still got to me a little. "Well, if it isn't our Ms.

Mullins." A man dropped into the seat across from me without asking, and I had to look away from the window.

A trustfund brat whose face I knew. "We had a bet going just yesterday about when Rhys would dump you, and here you are all by yourself already?" His smile was pure malice, and his eyes went over me however they liked.

Then he took out his phone, snapped a picture of me, sent it to the group chat, and followed it with a voice note. "Guess who I ran into, boys?

Rhys really did throw her out." And at that exact moment, of all things, what went through my head was this: if a trustfund friend of Rhys's harasses me, can I file that with Merrick as workers' comp too? "Without him, how are you going to keep up your spending?" His eyes swept over me, nothing decent behind them. "How about you come with me for a few nights.

A thousand a night, what do you say?" I really wanted to throw my drink in his face, give him a flat little laugh, and tell him: my boss pays better than that.

But I still had a devotedgirlfriend character to maintain. I said gently, "It's not like that. Rhys had something come up. He'll bring me next time." That delighted him.

He tipped his chin toward the window. "You see that? Who do you think that is over there?" I looked exactly once and said, firmly, "That's just a friend of his.

I don't interfere with his social life." He stood up and started over there. He was going to tear off the last fig leaf and make sure I saw how little Rhys cared. What?!

I hid the excitement in my eyes and hurried after him. Perfect. What I'd been missing was a flawless exit that nobody could question.

In front of the one he couldn't get over, Rhys would absolutely draw a hard line between us. And I'd be devastated, but too proud to make a scene, and I'd leave heartbroken.

That way I'd get my severance fast and clean. Best case, Rhys would feel guilty enough to write me a breakup check on top of it. After that, he'd go his way and I'd go mine.

Chapter 4 Merrick had said it himself: the jewelry Rhys had given me and the money he'd wired me didn't have to be returned. I could keep all of it with a clear conscience.

My mind was still off wandering when I stopped with the brat at Rhys's table. Two pairs of eyes came up at once. Sure enough, Rhys's expression shifted a little when he saw me.

He looked straight at me. The mood at the table turned strange. The woman asked, "Your girlfriend?" Rhys didn't answer. The brat jumped in, grinning. "Not a chance.

There's never been anybody in Rhys's heart but you, Paloma. Isn't that right, Rhys?" I switched the performance on instantly.

My lashes trembled, my eyes went red, and I looked at Rhys. Rhys looked back at me, unbothered.

After a moment, he lifted his chin. "My brother's little pet." The woman stopped short. So did the brat. So did I. Merrick was in fact my boss.

But… That was a legitimate employment relationship! The woman made a small scoffing sound. "I don't believe you, so don't bother lying. The way she looks at you isn't innocent.

You two are close, aren't you?" The brat couldn't read the situation either. "Damn," he muttered, suspicious. "Is that for real?" Rhys's eyes were pitch black.

He took a calm sip of his wine, then met my eyes, unhurried. "My brother asked me to look after her, so of course we talk. Isn't that right?" I could read that look of his.

Careless, telling me not to make a scene. But what I wanted was a clean break! Rhys could have thrown a check at me and coldly told me to get lost.

Not stuck me with some bizarre fake identity! He was practically defiling the pure professional relationship between me and Merrick.

The woman wasn't easy to fool either. "I know your brother. He doesn't take just any woman. Where's your proof?" Right then, the same waiter came over and said, respectfully, "Ms.

Mullins, have you finished your meal? Mr. Lockhart has left instructions. Your check goes on his account, and you won't need a reservation going forward.

Also, we'll have a car ready to take you home shortly." Nobody