Isla's POV
I threw up in the car bathroom.
Twice.
"Miss Chen?" The driver knocked on the wall. "We're here."
I wiped my mouth with a shaking hand and looked at myself in the tiny mirror. Pale face. Dark circles under my eyes. Hair that I'd tried to fix three times and still looked bad.
I looked like exactly what I was: a girl who'd made every wrong choice and was about to make another one.
"Miss Chen?"
"One minute," I called back. My voice cracked.
I tried to call Diana one more time. Straight to voicemail. She was probably sleeping. The hospital always made her tired.
I left another message. "Hi, Di. I'm here. At the show. I'm so scared. Call me when you wake up. I love you."
The driver opened the door before I was ready. Sunlight blinded me. I could hear ocean waves somewhere close. Cameras clicked.
"This way, please," a production helper said. She had a clipboard and a fake smile. "Everyone's gathering in the big living room. You're the last to come."
Of course I was. They probably planned it that way.
My heels clicked on the marble floor as I walked through the house. It was huge and cold and felt like a museum. Everything was too white, too clean, too beautiful.
Like Jesse's life now.
"One moment," the helper said. She pressed her finger to her ear, listening to someone talk through her headset. "Okay, they're ready for you. When you walk in, just smile and introduce yourself. The cameras will be rolling."
"Wait—" But she was already opening the door.
The living room was full of people. Beautiful people. Famous people. People who belonged here.
And then I saw him.
Jesse.
He was standing near the window, laughing at something a blonde woman was saying. He looked different. Older. His hair was shorter. His shoulders were wider. He wore expensive clothes that fit him perfectly.
But his smile was the same. The smile that used to make me forget everything else in the world.
Then he saw me.
The smile died.
His face went completely blank. Not angry. Not sad. Just... empty. Like someone had turned off all the lights inside him.
Everyone else turned to look at me. Twelve pairs of eyes. Twelve strangers criticizing me.
But I could only see Jesse.
"Isla Chen!" The host came out of nowhere, a woman with too-white teeth and too-bright energy. "Welcome to 'Love in the Spotlight!' Come in, come in! Everyone, this is our final contestant!"
I couldn't move. My feet had frozen to the floor.
The host grabbed my arm and pulled me into the room. "Isla, introduce yourself!"
"I'm..." My voice was barely a whisper. "I'm Isla."
"Louder!" someone called out. People laughed.
Jesse didn't laugh. He just stood there, looking at me like I was a ghost.
"I'm Isla Chen," I said again, pushing my voice to work. "I'm an actor. Or I was. I'm... I'm happy to be here."
The lies tasted like poison.
The blonde woman next to Jesse leaned closer to him and whispered something. He nodded but didn't look away from me.
"Wonderful!" The host clapped her hands. "Now that everyone's here, let's go over the rules!"
She started talking about dates and eliminations and rose rituals. About cameras in every room except the bathrooms. About how we weren't able to leave the mansion for six weeks.
I didn't hear any of it. All I could hear was my heart beating so loud I thought everyone else must hear it too.
Jesse finally looked away. He turned to the window, his jaw tight.
I wanted to run to him. I wanted to explain. I wanted to tell him everything—about Diana, about the bills, about why I left, about how every day without him felt like dying slowly.
But cameras were everywhere. Red lights blinking. Watching. Recording.
This was a show. A story. A lie.
And I was the enemy.
"Now," the host said, pulling my attention back. "Let's start with our first task! Jesse, as our lead man, you get to choose someone for the first one-on-one date. Who will it be?"
Everyone got quiet. The blonde woman fixed her hair and smiled. Other women stood up taller, trying to look their best.
Jesse's eyes found mine across the room.
My heart stopped.
He wouldn't. He couldn't. Not after everything. Not after I destroyed him.
"I choose..." Jesse paused. The silence stretched out forever. "Vanessa."
The blonde woman squealed and clapped her hands. Everyone else relaxed or looked disappointed.
I felt like someone had hit me in the stomach.
Of course he didn't choose me. Why would he? I was nothing to him now. Less than nothing.
"Perfect!" The host smiled. "Jesse and Vanessa, your date starts in one hour. Everyone else, get settled in your rooms. We'll have a group dinner tonight where you'll all get to know each other better!"
People started moving, talking, laughing. I stood frozen in the middle of the room.
Someone bumped into me. "Excuse me," a man said, not looking at my face.
Jesse walked past me without a word. Vanessa was holding his arm, talking about something. He didn't look back.
Three years. Three years of wondering if he still thought about me. Three years of hope that maybe, somehow, we could find our way back to each other.
And he'd just picked someone else in less than five minutes.
A production assistant emerged at my elbow. "Your room is upstairs, third door on the left. Your suitcase is already there."
I nodded and headed for the steps. My legs felt like they might give out any second.
In my room, I closed the door and leaned against it. Alone. Finally alone.
Except I wasn't alone. There was a camera in the corner of the ceiling, red light blinking.
Always watching. Always recording.
I pulled out my phone to call Diana. To hear her voice. To remember why I was doing this.
But my phone was dead. Completely dead. And when I pressed the power button, nothing happened.
That was weird. It had been fully charged in the car.
I plugged it into the charger by the bed. The screen stayed black.
Someone knocked on my door.
"Miss Chen?" A man's words. "I'm Derek, the junior producer. Can we talk for a moment?"
I opened the door. A nervous-looking guy with a clipboard stood there.
"Your phone," he said, not meeting my eyes. "All phones have to be turned in during shooting. Show rules. We'll give it back during specific phone times."
"When's that?"
"Sundays. From two to three pm." He held out his hand. "I'll keep it safe, don't worry."
I looked at my dead phone. At Derek's raised hand. At the camera in my room still recording.
Something felt wrong. But I was too tired to figure out what.
I gave him the phone.
"Great! Settle in. Dinner's at seven." He started to leave, then stopped. "Oh, and Isla? Try to make friends tonight. You'll need friends in this house."
He left.
I sat on my bed and stared at the wall. No phone. No way to call Diana. Six weeks trapped in this house with Jesse and cameras and people who already hated me before they even knew my name.
What had I done?
A knock on my door made me jump.
"Isla." Jesse's words. Low and rough. "Open the door."
My heart started racing again. I stood up, my hands shaking.
This was it. He was going to yell at me. Hate me. Tell me I ruined his life.
I deserved all of it.
I opened the door.
Jesse stood there, and up close, I could see the anger in his eyes. The hurt. The three years of questions.
"Why are you here?" he asked.
"I needed the money—"
"No." He stepped closer. "Why are you HERE? On this show? My show?"
"I didn't know you were—"
"Liar." The word was sharp as a knife. "You've always been a liar."
My eyes burned with tears. "Jesse, please—"
"Save it." He started to walk away, then turned back. His voice was quieter now. Dangerous. "Whatever game you're playing, whatever you're trying to do, it won't work. You broke me once. You don't get to do it again."
He left.
I closed the door and slid down to the floor. The tears came hard and fast.
A buzzing sound made me look up. The camera in the corner had a small red dot blinking.
They'd recorded everything.
My phone buzzed—but wait. Derek had taken my phone.
I looked around and saw it. A phone on my desk. Not mine. Someone else's.
I picked it up. One new message from an unknown number.
"Your sister Diana coded in the emergency room twenty minutes ago. They brought her back, but she's critical. You need to come home NOW. But if you leave the show before filming one episode, you owe them everything. Choose wisely."
The phone slipped from my hands and crashed to the floor.
Diana was dying.
And I was stuck.