Traded to His Rival

One million dollars. Be my girlfriend.

The man pointing at me was old money, top to bottom, with nothing behind his eyes. My breakfast cart lay wrecked across the sidewalk, griddle and all, everything face-down in the gutter.

His girlfriend sobbed beside him. Don't you dare insult love with your filthy money!

I crouched, rescued half a breakfast sandwich off the curb, and bit into it like I hadn't eaten in two days.

I was broke. I was hungry. And this lunatic had just kicked over the one thing feeding me.

Then the comments scrolled up in front of my eyes.

[ lmaooo why isn't the side character just saying yes already ]

[ she's eating off the ground, this is so bleak ]

[ girl, if you knew the male lead was actually a billionaire, you'd lose your whole mind ]

I froze. A novel? Male lead? Side character?

Something in me lit up.

"So," I said. "Venmo or cash?"

Chapter 1

Grant caught my jaw in one hand and kissed me. Or made it look like he did, angled so it'd read as real from across the street. For her. Not for me.

Seraphina's eyes went wide. She burst into tears and ran.

I held still and played along.

The comments detonated.

[ WHAT. the side character actually said yes to his confession?? ]

[ no. no. the male-lead-uses-her-as-a-stand-in arc wasn't supposed to start this early ]

[ he's this petty?? kissing the side character just to win a fight ]

[ wait didn't the side character have a childhood friend she grew up with in the group home. yes. YES. the one across the street. she just walked off with the male lead. what happens to him ]

I turned my head. At the far edge of my vision, across the street, a thin figure stood in the rain.

Grant stepped back and dragged his thumb across the corner of his mouth, like he'd tasted something off.

The butler opened an umbrella, all deference.

"Sir. The rain's getting heavy. Shall I send someone for Miss Vance?"

"No."

"We broke up. Why would I go chasing after her."

He looked down at me, irritation flickering under the boredom.

"Get in."

I looked back one more time. The corner across the street was empty now, swallowed whole by the rain.

Grant's brow creased. "You waiting for an engraved invitation? Girl. Friend."

I pulled myself together and got in.

The leather seat was soft to the point of unreal, sealing out the damp, the cold, all of it.

Just as good as I'd imagined.

Warm. Dry. Paid for.

Across the street the corner sat empty in the rain, and I didn't look at it again.

Chapter 2

The butler had my whole file pulled and the paperwork done inside the hour.

Grant walked me upstairs.

"You'll stay here for now."

"There's a million on this card. On top of that, the Sinclairs will cover your tuition, your living expenses, all of it. No more working that cart."

"And know your place." He tacked it on like an afterthought. "I'm helping you because I feel like it. Don't go getting ideas."

I looked him dead in the eye and answered in clean, unhurried English.

"Understood, Mr. Sinclair."

His turn toward the door stalled.

His gaze came back to my face with a flicker of plain surprise, taking me in head to toe, like he was seeing me for the first time.

"You don't sound like the street after all."

I smiled at him, easy about it.

"A girl who sounds like she doesn't know better is easier to look down on."

"And you'd rather parade some broke, clueless nobody than Miss Vance, because a nobody stings her twice as hard. Obviously." I let that settle. "Trust me on this. She'll come back tonight, on her own, wanting to make up."

The comments went off.

[ ok the MIND on this girl. terrifying ]

[ wait why is the side character playing matchmaker for the leads?? another angle to get on his good side? ]

[ am I the only one hurting for the childhood friend she ditched. stood in the rain all night. alone ]

The comments handed me everything I needed to line it up.

Grant hadn't brought me home for me. He'd brought me home to spite Seraphina.

The second they made up, I'd be back in that mildew basement, back to cold and hungry.

Which meant I had to stay worth something to him. That was the whole game. Stay useful, stay housed.

Grant watched me, and for the first time something like interest crossed his face.

"Drab little one. Didn't figure you for smart."

"Fine. I'll have the butler take you up to the third floor." He turned for the door. "Forget putting you anywhere else. You're right next door to me."

Next door. Not the guest wing. I didn't ask why. I had a feeling I'd find out.

Chapter 3

Seraphina came back that night, exactly like I said she would.

Soaked through, eyes rimmed red, standing in the middle of the living room.

Chin still up. Too stubborn to be the one who broke first.

Only this time Grant didn't hand her the out. He sat there flipping through a finance magazine and didn't lift his head.

I came down the stairs in one of her silk slips, sweet as anything, and wished Grant goodnight.

Then I let my foot slip and went straight into his lap.

His arm shot out to catch me. His breath snagged.

Warm skin, shower gel and something soft, all of it landing against him at once.

His lashes flickered. I stood, and my hair grazed the side of his face on the way up.

His throat worked. He let go half a beat too late.

"Grant"

"Why is she here."

Seraphina snapped, loud, glaring at me like she wanted me in the ground.

Grant looked up at her, flat. "Weren't you the one who wanted to break up?"

"So my new girlfriend's in my house. Seems normal enough to me."

Her tears spilled over. She threw herself into his chest.

"I just didn't know how to face you. I'm only a charity case you took pity on. But I have my pride. The gap between us is too wide. Love built on inequality never ends well."

She said all of it with her arms locked around his neck.

Grant blinked, and something like pleased surprise crossed his face. "So you do have feelings for me."

The comments got excited.

[ FINALLY our girl admits how she feels!! ]

[ told you. no matter how hard the side character throws herself at him, she can't touch what the leads have ]

[ ohhh so THIS is what being the favorite looks like. she only gets to throw tantrums because he loves her enough to take them ]

[ our FL has a spine. wants to earn her own way, not leech off a man like the side character ]

I frowned. I honestly couldn't follow the logic.

We were both getting something out of this. When did it turn into me leeching off him, one-sided?

And anyway, since when was pride worth so much?

It didn't buy a breakfast sandwich with extra sausage.

Staying alive mattered a lot more.

The rest wrote itself.

I dropped my eyes, turned, and went quietly upstairs. Left them the room.

An hour later my new phone buzzed.

A message from Grant.

Him: [ Not bad, little one. ]

After that, I settled into the Sinclair house without a hitch.

Thanks to Grant, I got into the best private school in the city.

No more four-a.m. starts at the cart. No more bowing and scraping just to eat.

The weather-burn faded off my skin. On the diet and the skincare I filled out soft and pale, and people started calling me pretty. Grant's friends came around and never missed a chance to ask for my number. Every time, Grant went cold and told them to get lost.

Because of me, Seraphina got nervous and started clinging to him.

To keep from turning worthless, I worked harder at making Grant happy. I combed the whole city on his birthday to hunt down the exact cake he'd loved as a kid.

I even dragged him out of the wreckage when the car crashed.

At the hospital, Grant looked at me strangely.

"Cleo. It was that dangerous. Why did you come back for me."

Because the comments spoiled it, obviously. Fifteen minutes before the car went up.

But I'd clocked Seraphina in the doorway, soup thermos in hand.

So I hooked my finger around his, careful, and pitched my voice with exactly the right amount of nervous hope.

"I don't know I just did it without thinking."

Grant froze. For a second he didn't pull his hand away.

Outside the door, a dull thud. Food, all over the floor.

From that day, Grant flipped completely.

Every time he bought Seraphina a gift, there was one for me too.

When she went out of her way to make trouble for me, he'd tell me quietly, "You don't always have to let her win."

He even flew back overnight through a brutal storm because I mentioned, once, on the phone, that thunder scared me.

That crash was probably what made Seraphina understand she couldn't lose him.

The day he was discharged she cried her eyes raw and promised she'd be with him the moment she'd made something of herself.

Grant wiped her tears, gentle about it. Not as thrilled as I'd have expected.

Seraphina took over his care, hands-on with everything.

Which suited me fine. I spent my days holed up in my room, counting money.

The gifts Grant had given me over the years were worth a small fortune. I'd quietly liquidated a chunk of them and put the cash to work.

Every last one of them thought I was the stray who'd die without them.

Not one of them noticed the stray was already building her own way out.

Chapter 4

The night I graduated college, Grant's crowd threw a party.

He'd meant to bring Seraphina. Introduce her around, make it official.

She refused. Said she couldn't stomach the gaudy excess of high society.

Grant didn't get it. He gestured at the roomful of designer everything. "Every stitch you eat, wear, and use, I bought you the best of it. And now I'm the wasteful one?"

"It's a party. You don't have to turn it into a referendum."

Seraphina stripped off her jewelry and threw it on the floor. "You think I care about any of this? I only wear it so your feelings don't go to waste."

They blew up at each other. It ended badly.

Grant sat alone at the floor-to-ceiling windows, drinking.

I came up behind him and pressed my thumbs into his temples, slow circles.

"Relax, Mr. Sinclair. I know what to do."

He huffed a joyless laugh and caught my wrist.

"If she were half as easy as you."

The next day I did my makeup soft and lethal, put on something sharp and short, and went.

Before I left, I lit up my socials with a run of very suggestive posts.

No surprise: I pushed the door open and the first thing I saw was Seraphina, planted dead center.

Grant's eyes ran down the line of my skirt and stalled for a beat.

Seraphina went pale and grabbed his arm like she was staking a claim.

Someone started in right away.

"Sinclair, your scholarship kid's got a face on her!"

"So THIS is why you never let us come over. Keeping her locked away."

"Bro, that's cold. You've already got Seraphina. You couldn't introduce us to a girl this pretty?"

Grant laughed, swore, and lazily kicked the guy next to him. "Behave, all of you."

"She's not like you lot. She only came because she was worried about my health, fresh out of the hospital. Don't go scaring her."

In the corner, a boy with sharp, cutting features set his glass down hard enough to crack it.

He raised an eyebrow, light and easy. "Sorry. My hand slipped."

Heads turned toward the sound. A low ripple of talk.

"Who's that? Don't know his face."

"Some nerve, snubbing Sinclair like that. Who is he?"

"The Thorne heir, I think. Word is he got lost as a kid, and his grandfather only tracked him down in high school. Couple of years and he's turned Thorne Group into a machine. Profits up several times over. Outrunning Sinclair at every turn. The two of them are dead rivals."

"Ah. A Thorne. That explains it. He's got the muscle to back the attitude."

The comments were confused.

[ the male lead's dead rival? why's he even at this party ]

[ who knows. here to ruin Sinclair's night probably ]

[ why does this Kellan Thorne look familiar. like I've seen him somewhere ]

[ ^ do you say that about every hot guy in every scene LMAO ]

[ ok focus. FOCUS on the leads please ]

Grant slammed his glass down, face gone to iron, and started to rise.

His friends jumped in to smooth it over and floated a round of Truth or Dare.

The bottle spun a few times and landed on Seraphina.

The one asking was a friend of Grant's, grinning like trouble.

"Miss Vance. Dare. Make out with a guy here. Thirty seconds. Clock's running."

The room lit up.

Seraphina flushed and cut Grant a coy little look. Something hopeful in it.

The comments went wild.

[ ohhh are they FINALLY kissing ]

[ male lead's gonna be thrilled, he finally gets to kiss her ]

[ make out?? the good kind?? ]

Grant lounged back into the couch, one arm slung behind Seraphina.

He heard it. And he looked at me.

I had no idea why. I was busy rubbing my eye. Got some grit in it a second ago. Red and itchy.

A few seconds passed. Then Grant picked up his glass and drained it.

"I'll take her forfeit."

The comments stalled, then scrolled faster.

[ wait. he didn't kiss her?? ]

[ am I crazy or is the male lead way less into her than he used to be ]

[ no. no. he's just protecting her. doesn't want a game stealing her first kiss ]

The friends booed.

"Sinclair, can't take a joke?"

"Damn, no need to guard her that hard. It's one kiss."

"Don't tell us you two still haven't kissed after all this time."

The flush drained out of Seraphina's face. Her mouth opened, like she wanted to say something, then shut. Her smile went stiff.

The bottle spun again. This time the mouth slowed, and stopped, pointing at me.

"Your turn, gorgeous. Truth. When did you last kiss someone? Be honest, now."

Grant scoffed, careless. "As if she has."

"All these years her head's been full of me. Circles me all day. Won't even let me eat a meal without hovering. Where would she find the time."

"Not one guy around her but me. Good as gold."

The friend needled him. "Come on, Grant, how would you know she's got no secret little crush? Think she tells you everything?"

Seraphina's face soured, and she jumped right in. "Right? I saw her near your campus not long ago. Awfully close with some good-looking guy. People were talking, saying they were a thing"

The lazy amusement slid off Grant's face. He turned toward me, eyes gone a shade darker. "News to me."

Every eye in the room snapped to me.

I tipped my head and smiled, sweet. "Classmates messing around."

"I can't really answer this one. I'll just take the drink instead."

"Because I've never kissed anyone."

The friend clicked his tongue, bored.

Grant's brow eased, barely, and he settled back into the couch. Like he'd gotten the answer he expected. The one that pleased him.

The boy who'd said nothing this whole time, Kellan Thorne, laughed under his breath.

Not loud. Dripping with mockery.

He set his glass down, leaned in a little, and crooked his mouth at me.

"She's telling the truth, sweetheart."

"She hasn't. Not in five years, three months, and nine days