Chapter 1

The day my anorexia was declared cured, Juliana Pruitt slipped a hotel key card into my hand.

"Austin Vance, you're the one I spent three years nursing back."

"Tonight, I want to really have you."

I went to meet her, full of hope.

I pushed the door open and was slammed to the floor by a woman who had to weigh two hundred pounds.

"Quit playing innocent. We talked online for three months. Didn't you say we'd sleep together the second we met in person?"

I fought her off with everything I had, groped for the ashtray at the corner of the table, and cracked it hard against her shoulder, staggering back to my feet.

The next second, the door swung open.

Juliana's childhood friend stood in the doorway, doubled over laughing.

"Austin, I used your photos and ran an online romance with her for three months. Called her sweetheart, called her babe, the whole thing. Do you know how much work it took to reel her in for you?"

I was shaking all over. I looked past him at Juliana.

She only said, careless as anything,

"Don't look at me like that."

"I just lost a bet. They wanted to see whether you'd actually show up."

"Nothing happened, did it? Don't be a sore loser, Austin."

And then I understood. This love I'd believed was my salvation had been filthy beyond words from the very start.

......

The woman scrambled up off the floor, rubbing her shoulder, cursing.

"Catfish! You disgusting man! You said you were tall and handsome and couldn't wait for it!"

Bob Young was laughing so hard his eyes were watering.

"Oh, the photos are handsome, all right."

"Juliana took every one of them."

He opened his phone and tapped into a dating app.

There on the screen were pictures of my life.

A photo of me cooking in the kitchen.

A photo of me curled up on the couch with the cat.

And one from when I was sick, my face pale, leaning against Juliana's shoulder.

Every single one, taken by Juliana.

She used to say she wanted to record me getting a little better each day.

But it turned out that every moment she captured, she'd turned around and handed straight to Bob.

I pointed at the phone, shaking.

"So you took my photos, ran an online romance with her, and lured me to a hotel?"

"That's right."

Bob admitted it without a flicker of hesitation.

"That was the bet, me and Juliana."

He glanced back at her, like he was showing off.

"I said, give me three months and I'll use your photos to reel someone in, and you'll get to watch her throw herself at you with your own eyes."

"See, Juliana? Didn't I win?"

The woman rounded on me, humiliation turning to fury.

"The chat logs, the pictures, they're all right here. You said yourself that once we met I could do whatever I—"

"Shut up!"

I nearly screamed it.

"That wasn't me!"

But she didn't believe a word of it.

"Talking that dirty online and then playing pure in person. You make me sick!"

Listening to that filth, I went cold all over, like I'd dropped into a pit of ice.

I lurched to my feet and reached for my phone.

"I'm calling the police!"

But before my fingers touched it, Juliana had already picked it up first.

"Stop it. Calm down."

I looked at her, tears sliding down without end.

"I was almost assaulted, and you're telling me to calm down?"

Juliana leaned in close, her eyes going cold.

"Nothing actually happened, did it? Do you have to blow this out of proportion?"

"Or is it that you really want everyone to know how cheap you are?"

My breath stopped short.

She stared at my white face and kept going.

"The photos are yours. The account's yours. If you really go to the police, everyone's going to find out what you did."

"Your coworkers, your friends. And your father."

"Do you want them knowing that in private you're the kind of person who goes around soliciting people?"

I looked at her, and it felt like my heart was being crushed inch by inch.

She knew exactly how to hurt me.

She knew my father's health was bad.

And she knew what I feared most was people looking at me with that kind of filthy stare.

So every line she spoke was crueler than the last.

Cruel enough that I didn't even have the courage left to call for help.

I bit down hard on my lip until I tasted blood.

Bob came closer.

"Austin, Juliana's only doing this for your own good."

"If you don't call the police, at most everyone treats it as a joke."

"But the moment you do, you become the slut who solicits women and then backs out once they show up."

Every ounce of strength drained out of me.

I was the victim.

And they'd cornered me until I didn't dare cry for help.

What made it worse was that the woman who'd once held me at my lowest and whispered "don't be afraid" was now the one clamping her hand over my mouth, pressing every last plea back down my throat.

"Austin, Bob only chatted with her. It's not like he actually hurt you."

"It's already done. Why can't you be a little more gracious about it?"

I laughed, all at once.

"I'm the one whose photos were stolen, who got lured to a hotel, who was almost assaulted!"

Juliana's brow drew tight.

"You're too worked up right now."

"I spent three years treating you. Not so you could turn into some hysterical lunatic."

At the word lunatic, my vision went black for a moment.

Three years ago, everyone said I was fat, said I was disgusting, said I didn't deserve to be loved.

Juliana was the only one who stepped up and told me, "You're fine just as you are."

But now it was still the same person.

The same one shoving me back into the mud with her own hands, while sneering at how ugly I looked struggling in it.

I raised my hand and slapped Juliana hard across the face.

Before she could react, I whipped the back of my hand across Bob's.

"The two of you make me sick."

With that, I turned and ran out of the hotel.

My stomach heaved without warning.

I grabbed the trash can at the curb and threw up, shaking uncontrollably.

Everything in front of me blurred more and more.

The next second, I collapsed hard at the side of the road.