A False Heiress's Guide to Love and Power

Zachary’s words were the final straw, snapping the last thread holding Ileana together.

She glared at him, her expression twisted with anger and something almost desperate.

“Yes! This is exactly the life I want!”

Lucy tried to tug her back, but Ileana shook her off and stepped forward, closing the distance between her and Zachary. He just stood there, towering over her, his gaze cold and unyielding.

“My bedroom is bigger than that whole dingy apartment. Every day, I get custom clothes delivered to my door. There are people to wait on me, and a driver to take me to and from school. All it took was changing my last name, and suddenly my life turned upside down. This–this is the life I want!”

“That cramped apartment with its sour, musty smell–I feel sick just thinking about it! You have no idea how happy I was to escape that life!”

Zachary pressed his lips together, his face pale. He just couldn’t understand where it had all gone wrong, how Ileana could become someone he hardly recognized.

Finally, as if making a decision he’d dreaded, Zachary looked at her, disappointment and sadness clouding his eyes. “Fine. If that’s what you want, then from now on, let’s pretend we never knew each other.”

swallowed hard. “I hope you’re

that, he turned and walked away without a

as if

As long as I can hold on to all this wealth and comfort, what else matters? Now, anything I ask for, I get–doesn’t matter if it’s three thousand, thirty thousand,

drama today. Come. over to my place this weekend, all right?” Ileana’s smile didn’t quite reach her eyes, and something about it

1/2

sald, forcing a smile as she watched

Lucy waved back automatically, only relaxing after the

didn’t really matter who had the Tate name. But things were what

at the school gates finally

Zachary’s attention. He looked

holding his little

a moment, Zachary was transported back in time–to when he and Ileana, still called Morton then, were just kids