"I accept the deal."
Rhett's voice came through the phone rough and raw, like he'd been shouting or hadn't slept or both. Maybe all three.
"I can't deal with this anymore," he said.
I sat frozen on my couch, phone pressed to my ear, pizza growing cold on the coffee table. The dark of my apartment wrapped around me like a blanket, and for a moment, I couldn't speak. Couldn't breathe. Couldn't do anything except listen to the sound of his breathing on the other end of the line.
"What?" I finally asked.
"I said I accepted the deal," Rhett said. "Fake dating? Let's do that."
"Is this because of the news?" I asked.
The pregnancy announcement. Patrick's tearful face. The comments section full of strangers calling Rhett every name imaginable. Of course it was because of the news. What else would have pushed him over the edge?
"Yes," Rhett said. "And my team thinks if I was in a relationship, it would be easier to get him off my back."
"Oh."
I didn't know what else to say. My mind was racing. He'd said no. He'd said it was insane. He'd said he needed time to think. And now, five days later, he was calling me in the middle of the night to say yes?
"The team says nothing I say is getting me out of this mess," Rhett continued. His voice was tired. Worn down. Like he'd been fighting for days and had finally run out of energy. "And I am honestly so tired of this omega. I don't know you and I have never met you. Why have you made it your choice in life to hunt me and destroy everything I have?"
"Rhett…"
I couldn't really say anything. He sounded so sad. Not angry. Not frustrated. Just... sad. Defeated. Like he'd given up on understanding why this was happening to him.
"No matter what I say at this moment, everyone is going to say I am lying," he said. "All of a sudden, I am a bad alpha. I have a child with someone I have never had sex with? Everything I say makes this situation even worse than it is."
I could hear it in his voice — the exhaustion. The hopelessness. The way he'd probably been repeating the same truths over and over to people who refused to believe him.
"Is this why your team recommended you get in a fake relationship?" I asked.
"Yes," he replied. "They said if I was in a relationship, it would be easier to debunk this. And then I said I was. That I have been dating you for like a year."
"A year?!" I asked, surprised.
My heart jumped. A year? That was a long time. Did he think before he said that? A year sounded to king how do you even lie that you've been in a relationship for a year?
"I just said whatever came to mind," he replied.
"A year is too long." I was planning on saying something like three months or six months at most. A year meant anniversaries and a history that would be hard to fake.
"I didn't know what to say. I panicked when they asked," he said. "I just wanted them to do something about the situation."
"Heavens, Rett." I groaned, pressing my palm against my forehead. "What if they asked for a picture?"
"I still have pics of us as kids," he said.
"Yeah, that makes so much sense. We've been together for a year and the only pics we have together is a picture of us when we were kids." I rolled my eyes so hard it almost hurt.
"We were cute kids." He said
"Rhett."
"I'm serious. We were adorable."
"This isn't a joke."
"I know." His voice sobered. "I know it's not a joke. I just... I didn't know what else to do."
"Still" i said.
"What should I have done?" Rhett continued. "In this meeting, they were planning on pairing me up with a friend and shit."
"Wait, what?" I asked. Pairing him with a friend? "I don't understand. You were in a meeting?"
The pieces were starting to come together. The silence. The sudden call. The desperation in his voice. He'd been in damage control mode. Meetings with executives. Lawyers. PR people. Maybe this happened immediately Patrick posted that on the Internet. I voild just imagine how confused and panicked his team were.
"Yes," he said. "I left this meeting not too long ago. It was with the team and executives. This has blown out of proportion and the investors are pissed."
"Investors?" I asked.
"They put money into the team, Teddy. They expect returns. They expect the players to be marketable. And right now, I'm not marketable. I'm a liability."
The word hit me like a slap. Liability. That's what they were calling him. Not a person. Not someone being targeted by a liar. A liability which was totally stupid. Did they even care about the situation he was in? What am I saying this are investors we were talking about they only cared about their money.
"So what exactly was the point of this meeting?" I asked.
"To know if I had anything with Patrick — which obviously I don't." Rhett's voice was sharp now. Frustrated. "They asked me a lot of questions. Like if I had ever slept with him or anything. And I said I haven't, because I haven't. Hell, I didn't even know this guy until he started posting stuff about me on the internet."
"And they didn't believe you?"
"They said they did. But then they asked how he always knows my location and how he has some things that I own." Rhett sighed. "And I said I don't know. I don't understand either. I've been trying to figure it out for months."
"What did they say to that?"
"The PR team said the only way to get out of this is to be in a fake relationship or something. And I was like... okay?" He paused. "Then they said if I wanted to fake date my friend Victor, and I said no."
Victor. I knew Victor. Everyone knew Victor. He was an influencer — one of those omegas with perfect hair and perfect skin and a perfect life that he posted about for millions of followers. He was also Rhett's friend. They'd gone to the same university. They'd been close for years.
Probably the man who replaced me when I left Rhett's life.
I pushed the thought away.
"They had a list of people," Rhett continued. "Including influencers who were interested in fake dating me. They would sign an NDA and get paid millions."
"They gave it to you like a job application?" I asked.
"Yeah, like that." He laughed bitterly. "The difference was I was like the boss and I was picking who gets to stay and who gets to leave. And I said no to all of them."
"All of them?"
"All of them. I would never put Victor through that. They really wanted him with me because we're friends and everyone knows about our friendship. But I said no."
Victor was beautiful. A perfect match for Rhett, honestly. The kind of omega who looked good on camera and knew what to say to reporters. The kind of omega who would have made this easy for Rhett's team.
"And I would never do things like that with an influencer," Rhett said. "They talk too much and I don't trust them. So I rejected every single person on the list."
"What happened then?"
"The team got annoyed. They said this would be so easy if I had a boyfriend. And then I said... yes. I did."
I closed my eyes. "Oh, so this is where I come in?"
"Yes."
"Did they believe you?"
"Not at first. No one knew about it. Not even my manager." Rhett's voice was quieter now. "I said it's a secret. That we've been together for like a year. And my manager said he has never seen you. So I said that's because you live in another town. That it's a long-distance relationship."
I wanted to be annoyed at him for lying without asking me first. But I could hear it in his voice — the panic. The desperation. The way he'd been backed into a corner and had said the first thing that came to mind.
"And they said they wanted to see you," Rhett continued.
"See me?" I asked. "Why?"
"To confirm it's true. I offered to give them your number, but they weren't buying it. They said you had to come in person. They had to make sure you were real."
I almost laughed. "You think they don't believe anyone would actually date you?"
"Probably." He groaned. "Coach kept saying I am lying. And I said I'll show them that you're real."