I Seduced My Sister's Billionaire Fiancé

The first text came three days after the quad.

**Sloane:** *Hey! It's Sloane. Elara said you wouldn't mind driving me to the train station?*

Liam showed it to me over pizza. "You told her she could ask me?"

"No."

"Huh." He was already typing back. "Well, it's on my way."

It wasn't on his way. The station was twenty minutes in the wrong direction.

After that, the requests came faster.

*Elara said you're good with computers. Mine keeps crashing.*

*Elara mentioned you have a truck? I'm helping a friend move a couch.*

*Elara said I could call you if anything happened.*

That last one landed at 1:47 a.m. on a Tuesday. I woke up to Liam pulling on his jeans in the dark.

"Where are you going?"

"Your sister's stuck outside some bar. Her Uber canceled."

"She lives two hours away."

"She's visiting a friend near here." He grabbed his keys. "Go back to sleep, El."

I didn't.

---

I told him everything on a Sunday afternoon. We sat on the floor of my apartment with our backs against the couch, because I didn't want to look at his face.

"She told my friends I said awful things about them. She copied my voice, Liam. My laugh. Everyone believed her."

"Okay."

"People wrote *whore* on my desk. I was sixteen."

He nodded slowly.

"And then this girl walked up to me at lunch." My throat closed around the words. "She dumped her whole tray on my head. Spaghetti. Milk. And everybody filmed it, and I just sat there, and—"

My voice broke apart. I pressed the heels of my hands into my eyes, but the tears came anyway, hot and ugly.

"My parents made *me* apologize. To her." I turned toward him. "Please. Just this once, believe me. Stay away from her."

Liam was quiet for a long moment.

Then he sighed.

"El, listen to yourself."

"What?"

"Sloane is the sweetest person I've ever met. She asks about you constantly. She worries about you." He rubbed the back of his neck. "And you're over here telling me she's some kind of evil mastermind?"

"She *is*—"

"It's honestly a little sick. The way you talk about her. That's your sister."

I stared at him. The tears dried on my cheeks.

"You think I'm making this up."

"I think you were a hurt kid, and you needed somebody to blame."

---

He told her.

I knew because two days later Sloane was standing in my living room with mascara running down her face.

"I just wanted my sister back." She hugged her own arms. "That's all I've ever wanted. And she tells you I *ruined* her life?"

"Sloane, stop."

"I drove all the way here to fix things, El. I thought maybe if I got to know Liam, you'd finally let me in."

Liam crossed the room and wrapped her up. She folded right into his chest, sobbing into his shirt.

Over his shoulder, her eyes found mine. Completely dry underneath the mess.

"Elara." Liam's voice was hard. "Apologize to her."

"For what?"

"For assuming the worst about someone who loves you. Every single time."

The room went still. Sloane sniffed softly.

I heard myself laugh. One short, strange sound.

"Sorry, Sloane."

"Thank you," she whispered, and pressed her cheek tighter against my boyfriend.

---

Five weeks later, my Friday seminar ended early.

I bought two coffees on the walk home. Liam liked his with too much sugar. I'd decided I would apologize properly, tell him I wanted to try harder.

The apartment door was unlocked.

Sloane's red heels lay on their sides in the hallway.

Then I heard it. A low moan from my bedroom. The bed frame knocking the wall in a steady rhythm.

I pushed the door open.

Liam was on my bed. On my gray sheets, the ones I'd washed that morning. Sloane was underneath him, her legs wrapped around his waist and her nails in his back.

The coffees hit the floor.

"What the *fuck*?"

Liam jerked around. Sloane didn't even flinch. She just pulled my comforter up to her collarbone, slow and lazy.

"El—" Liam grabbed a pillow and held it over himself. "You're supposed to be in class."

"That's your answer? My *schedule*?"

"Don't make this a whole thing."

"You're fucking my sister in my bed!"

He stood up. His face wasn't guilty. It was annoyed.

"What did you expect, Elara? Three years together, and you won't touch me. I asked you to be ready. I waited. A guy has needs."

"So you picked *her*?"

"She actually wanted me."

Sloane sat up and tucked her hair behind one ear. She smiled the way she used to over Mom's shoulder.

"Don't look so shocked, El." Her voice was soft, almost kind. "You never could keep anything."

My hand found the water glass on my desk.

I threw it.

It exploded against the wall two feet from Liam's head. Glass rained across the carpet.

"Get out." My voice cracked through the room. "Both of you. *Get out!*"

"Jesus Christ!" Liam yanked his jeans on. "You're insane. You know that? You're actually crazy."

Sloane gathered her dress without hurrying. At the door, she paused.

"Call Mom," she said. "She'll be worried."

The front door slammed.

I ripped the sheets off the mattress. I tore the pillowcases. I shoved everything into a trash bag and dragged it into the hall.

Then I sat on the bathroom tiles and cried until the window over the tub turned gray, then pink, then white.

That morning I called my landlord and broke the lease. I blocked Liam's number. His email. His Instagram.

Then I blocked Sloane's.

---

Six years passed.

New York was loud enough to drown out almost everything. I had a tiny apartment in Queens and a job at a consulting firm in Midtown. At work, I used my grandmother's last name, Arden. It was the closest thing I had to a clean beginning.

Then one night in March, my best friend from work sent me a screenshot.

**Isn't this your sister???**

I unblocked Sloane's account just to look.

A massive diamond filled the screen. Oval cut. Heavy enough to sink a boat. Sloane's hand rested on a man's chest, his dark suit sharp and expensive.

*He asked. I said yes. Soon to be Mrs. Julian Cross.* 💍

Julian Cross. CEO of Cross Meridian. The richest man in the world.

The comments ran forever.

**Aunt Denise:** *Finally! The perfect life you deserve, sweetheart!*

**Cousin Rachel:** *Living the dream!!! So proud!*

I scrolled down, my thumb going numb.

**Mom:** *Our proudest daughter. We always knew you'd do something amazing.* ❤️

**Dad:** *That's my girl.*

Proudest daughter.

Spaghetti in my hair. Milk on my collar. *Mean it.* Liam calling me crazy while my sister smiled in my sheets.

I set the phone face-down on the counter. Then I picked it right back up.

My fingers moved before I could stop them.

*Cross Meridian careers.*

The listing sat near the top.

**Executive Assistant to the Chief Executive Officer. New York headquarters. Immediate start.**

I read it three times.

Then I opened my laptop, rewrote my résumé until two in the morning, and hit submit.

*You never could keep anything, El.*

Fine.

Let's see if you can.

---

Nine days later, at 6:12 a.m., my phone buzzed on the pillow.

New email. Subject line: **Interview Request — Executive Assistant.**

*Ms. Arden,*

*Your application caught my attention. Be at the 58th floor, Thursday, 8 a.m. Don't be late.*

I scrolled to the bottom.

There was no HR department. No recruiter.

Just one name.

*Julian Cross.*