Chapter 2

A coincidence. But then…how many people were named Rohina? Maybe a lot in India but what were the odds that a troll would randomly pick the same name as Lilith’s half sister? Who hated her for no other reason than because their father had picked Lilith and her mother over Rohina and hers.

If Rohina would bother to have an actual conversation with Lilith that didn’t involve a lot of cursing and false accusations, she’d tell her half sister she could have the worthless cheater who had sired them both.

Maybe this wasn’t what it looked like. Maybe it really wasn’t these reviews that had put a virtual target on Relâcher. And maybe pigs could eat at Buckingham Palace with forks and knives clutched in their little cloven hooves.

After all, this wasn’t the first time Rohina had stuck her nose in Lilith’s business with cataclysmic results. There was the mysterious prom date cancellation. And the undiagnosed stomach ailment that had landed Rohina in the hospital oh-so-coincidentally at the same time as Lilith’s graduation from high school—the little faker had miscalculated that one because Lilith couldn’t have cared less whether her father had been in the auditorium watching the ceremony or at his other daughter’s bedside.

But the real icing had been a few years later when Lilith had walked in on her then-boyfriend locked in a torrid embrace with another woman. The smirk on Rohina’s face as she’d pretended to be shocked and embarrassed to find out the man she was “seeing” had been taken—it was emblazoned on Lilith’s brain. She’d never forget it. Or that men couldn’t be trusted.

People didn’t change. She’d learned that one the hard way.

“That...witch.” Lilith breathed through her nose and centered herself before something a little more colorful came out.

“You know who’s behind this, I assume?” Carolina guessed, though it probably wasn’t a guess since she made her living by instantly figuring out what made people tick. “Do I need to help hide the body?”

“I’m in too.” Katie linked arms with Lilith in a show of solidarity that put a sting in the corners of her eyes. “I can find a shovel, no prob.”

It was almost a lovely thought, but of course they didn’t mean that literally. Right?

“You guys are great, but no. I can’t go after her.” That wasn’t Lilith’s style at all.

Honestly, she didn’t have a style when it came to combating the lies Rohina had apparently spread wide enough to cut into Relâcher’s customer base. Lilith considered herself a nice person who tried hard to be friendly to everyone she met. The idea that someone out there hated her made her throat tight, and she’d been living with it for twelve years, ever since all the lies her father had told had come crashing down on Lilith’s sixteenth birthday.

This was on her to fix, whether it made rational sense to be in this position or not.

“If you’re not going to go after her, what can we do instead?” Katie asked immediately.

“Brainstorm,” Lilith suggested with a grin that wasn’t even faked. Her friends had her back.

Rohina’s problem stemmed from jealousy, not hatred. There was a huge difference and Lilith would do well to remember that. Didn’t make any of this any more forgivable. Lilith’s forgiveness muscle had atrophied when she’d been a teenager, and she didn’t intend to grow it back anytime soon.

Carolina shook her head. “There’s nothing to brainstorm. Obviously Lilith needs a husband to fix this.”

While Lilith’s mouth dropped open, Katie just laughed. “Is that going to be your solution to everything now? Just because it worked for me doesn’t mean it will work for everyone. It didn’t for Nomi and Malone.”

“That’s totally false.” Carolina smoothed back her sleek blond hair with a smug smile. “They’re married, aren’t they?”

“Yeah, but the fake marriage was supposed to fix her problems with her political campaign, and instead, she dropped out of the race,” Lilith reminded Carolina, a bit desperate to get off this subject because holy cow. Marriage was so far out of left field as a solution to her problems that she almost couldn’t protest hard enough.

Also, marriage? That was number four hundred and eighty-seven on Lilith’s priority list, and it was only on the list because she couldn’t quite kill that tiny little hope that she might find someone someday who wasn’t a big loser. How that spark hung on, she had no idea. Not dating probably helped—she had no possibility of being proven wrong.

“Please.” Carolina shot Lilith a withering glance. “The fake marriage was to help Nomi figure out what she really wanted and it did. Exactly like I intended. This is not my first rodeo.”

“Okay, genius. I’ll bite,” Lilith said with a bemused twist of her mouth. “How will a fake marriage help me get the troll to stop badmouthing my business?”

“Oh, it won’t,” she replied as if Lilith had lost her mind. “You just said you didn’t want to go after her. So we come at it from another angle. You don’t really need the husband, per se. But you need a fake wedding for sure, one that you can play up with Relâcher as a backdrop. Bridal services are huge. Shoot a commercial with you as the star. People love to see the face behind the signage. Show them who Relâcher is. A woman who is passionate about skin care. So much so, that she’s in a wedding dress showing you how it’s done.”

That almost made sense. Much more so than an actual husband. She could hire an actor. Pay him to be her fake husband and move on. Of course, that might cost as much as her mortgage and the funds were not rolling in at the moment.

Actually…she might not have to pay anyone. What if someone would pay her?

Pulling out her phone, she swiped into her deleted mail and pulled up the invitation from Bride at First Sight, then flipped it around to show Katie and Carolina. “Ever heard of this?”

“Sure,” Carolina said with a shrug. “It’s one of those reality shows where they marry two complete strangers and follow them around for thirty days to capture all the hijinks. I think the expectation is lots of drama and for the couple to fight, not for anyone to actually fall in love.”

“But there’s a wedding?” Lilith could do anything for thirty days if it would feature her business in a positive light. Better still if she didn’t have to go anywhere. What if she could convince them to film at Vivo? That would help every shop owner as well as Relâcher. Win-win.

Carolina waggled her brows. “Now you see how the genius part applies.”

“Yes, you win the prize for smartest person in the room,” Lilith said. “Except you had no idea they’ve been hounding me to audition for the show. Explain that.”

“Marriage is just my solution to everything. Like Katie said,” Carolina admitted with a grin that wasn’t at all contrite. “Call me a romantic.”

“You tell viewers to get out of Dodge on a daily basis,” Katie protested a millisecond before Lilith could say the same thing. “Whenever anyone asks for advice, you tell them to drop that relationship like a bad habit. You hate men.”

That was something Lilith and Carolina had always had in common, something she’d frankly clung to because everyone else in their circle seemed to be on the find-the-love-of-their-lives express. Carolina didn’t date either and they’d often found themselves watching a Sandra Bullock movie on a Saturday night together.

“I don’t hate men. I hate the way they treat the women they are supposed to be in love with,” Carolina corrected easily with a snort. “And by the time they call me, they’re looking for validation of the decision they’ve already made, not advice. There’s a difference. Leave this to the professionals, honey, and let’s get Lilith married.”

Blinking, Lilith flinched as both women swung their attention back in her direction. “I haven’t even replied to the email yet. They may not accept me onto the show.”

“Stack the deck. Give them exactly what they’re looking for and land it.” Carolina could not be swayed and it bolstered Lilith’s confidence in this plan. A little.

What if this didn’t work? She’d have lost thirty days to something as ridiculous as a reality show.

But what if it did work? How could it hurt to have Relâcher featured on a TV show?

“Reply to the email,” Katie suggested in her usual calm fashion. “What’s the worst that can happen?”

“Isn’t it lying, though?” That was the part she struggled with. It was fake.

She hated anything that smacked of falsehood. After catching Nick with Rohina, she’d started questioning her own ability to sniff out cheaters and simply quit the dating scene. She could control herself, and no matter how painful, she told the absolute truth in every circumstance. She was not the friend you asked if those pants made you look fat. But anyone who wanted an honest opinion came to her first.

“It’s reality TV. No one thinks it’s real.” Carolina’s eye roll was nearly audible. “Anyone who does deserves to be disillusioned.”

There was the cynicism Lilith had long grown used to hearing from her friend. Whew. They could keep their All Men Are Losers club together. With her world somewhat righted, she tapped out a quick reply to the email. At least she was in the driver’s seat. They’d been the ones contacting her on a daily basis. Now they could play a part in helping her get out from under the Rohina cloud that had settled over Relâcher.

“Hey, I was promised a full body scrub like thirty minutes ago,” Carolina reminded her. “What does a girl have to do to get a spa treatment around here?”