I waited until he was gone before releasing the breath I had been holding. My body tensed as Duke’s eyes landed on me again.
His gaze searched mine, scanning my face as if he were trying to decipher a puzzle.
I forced a soft smile. "It really was just a misunderstanding."
A long beat of silence.
And then, finally, Duke sighed. "Be more careful next time."
I nodded, my heart still hammering as he turned and walked away.
It wasn’t the first time I had to lie my way out of a situation like this.
And it sure as hell wouldn’t be the last.
Because I wasn’t Britney Arkinson.
I was Mia. Her twin sister.
And I was living her life.
Britney Arkinson should have been standing here. She should have been the one preparing to marry Duke, smiling at socialites, playing the perfect stepmother.
But Britney was in a coma.
She had been for months, hidden away in a private hospital under our father’s care. And me? I was the replacement.
At first, I fought against it.
I wasn’t like her. Britney was delicate, graceful, obedient. I was wild, reckless, untamed. A woman like me had no place in Duke Trayson’s world.
But my father had made it clear.
"You have to keep pretending, Mia."