𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐈𝐑𝐄 𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐋𝐎𝐑 || 𝐋.𝐌 ✓

➢Chapter 6- Fake it till you make it

"You threw Lucius Malfoy's thousand-dollar suit jacket into a mud puddle? That's brilliant." Charlotte's deep brown eyes crinkled around the edges and she threw her head back and laughed.

"I don't know how brilliant it was since I walked back freezing and soaked to the bone." Y/n yawned, then drank the coffee she needed more than her next breath. It'd been a sleepless, stressful couple of nights. On a good night, she slept a few hours. This week she was lucky if she'd accumulated a few hours' sleep since Monday.

Charlotte swiped moisture from her inky lashes—and not inky because they were coated in mascara. Inky because they were naturally coal black, like her smoothed-to-perfection shoulder-length hair.

"You look amazing," Y/n blurted. Because her best friend did, in fact, look amazing. Her fair skin was glowing, her cheeks highlighted with a dab of pink as if blood was dropped in snow, her eyes bright and sparkling. Y/n, on the other hand, looked like a hobo brought in to be given a hot meal. "Oh my God," she said, her lazy synapses finally firing. "Did you get laid last night? Are you and Leonard back togeth—"

"What? No! Neither of those things." Charlotte turned her chin down to examine the printed papers in front of her. "And we're not talking about me. We're talking about you, future Mrs. Malfoy."

Since Y/n's parents were at the hotel, she'd taken advantage of the rare bit of privacy at home to have Charlotte over. They sat at the breakfast nook, baked-from-a-box blueberry muffins on a plate between them. Y/n had filled Charlotte in on a letter at six this morning, which was about two minutes after Lucius owled her a prenuptial agreement, from his personal address no less, that stated, Need your answer by tomorrow. This is a draft and not finalized.

"Romantic, right?" Y/n grumbled into her coffee.

The night he'd stopped by the L/n, she'd slept fitfully, grabbing twenty minutes here, five minutes there. She'd stumbled through the next few days on autopilot trying to figure out a way around what Lucius was asking. He'd told her she couldn't tell anyone, but the prenup's arrival  required a lawyer's expertise. Her lawyer also happened to be her very best friend. She'd debated for about thirty seconds before giving in and calling her lawyer bestie.

Charlotte had promised to read over the document and arrive at Y/n's house within the hour. Now she flipped through the pages casually while Y/n waited and watched her facial expressions for any clue as to what she might say.

"So?" Y/n prompted. "How badly am I getting screwed here?" Obviously, Lucius Malfoy had more to gain or he never would have come up with the plan. There was something she wasn't seeing; she was sure of it.

"Honestly?" Charlotte straightened the papers, then folded her hands neatly on top of the stack. "I think you're sitting pretty if you take the deal."

Knife hovering over the butter dish, Y/n blinked at her friend. She abandoned the utensil, muffin forgotten. "I'm sorry, I swore I thought I heard you imply this is a good idea?"

Charlotte picked a hunk off the edge of her muffin and popped it into her mouth, then gestured around Y/n's living quarters. "Beautiful as your parents' house is, I know you're ready to leave."

Y/n sighed. She was past ready. Whenever she and Charlotte had lunch or drinks—sadly, it wasn't that often since Charlotte had made partner at her firm—Y/n moaned and complained about living with her parents. At age twenty-nine, it wasn't exactly charming to be shacked up with Mom and Dad. She'd made due because the three-story house had a completely private upstairs, and save for the kitchen, she was able to feel as if she were in her own apartment. She now knew (after her mother's reluctant revelation about their finances) that the rent Y/n insisted on paying and grocery trips she made every other week had been helping.