The Billionaire's Authentic Daughter ▶️

8 7 | J U L I E T

I pushed open the door to the ice cream shop and am instantly greeted with Nova's forever displeased face. Maybe that was just the way he looked.

He pulled out a strawberry ice cream and pushed it toward me. "On the house."

I grinned. "What if I wanted the chocolate one?"

He replaced the strawberry one with the chocolate. "Still on the house. In exchange for not doing whatever you're here for."

My smile dropped. "Just say I gotta pay for my damn ice cream," I said, whipping out my wallet.

He looked at me unhappily but accepted the money. "What do you want?"

"Let's go on a trip for the weekend," I said, taking a seat at the nearest table.

His eyebrows disappeared in his hairline. "You and I?"

"And a few other people from school you don't need to know about," I said, stuffing ice cream in my mouth as I avoided his gaze to try and brush past the topic of the other people we'd be going with.

He stepped out from behind the counter and sat with me as there were no other customers, just us. "Do these people I don't need to know about include Abeo?"

"Maybe," I said sheepishly.

He shook his head, about to stand up. "You know what I'm about to say."

I grabbed his arm, having expected this. Time to play him on his sympathy then. "Please," I gave him a troubled look. "The thing is, my friend is dating Abeo's ex and her other two friends don't like me much because they think I stole him from her. You do know Maira has tortured me for so long now and only has stopped because of Abeo but I can't say the same about these three. I'm afraid they'll do something but I'll feel at ease if you're there with me."

I sputtered utter bullshit. I alone was enough to handle the three if they did try something but I was sure they wouldn't.

Nova was a highly sympathetic person and if that was the only thing I could use to make sure he would be going with us then I was going to take it, even if it meant using all that Julia had gone through as a valid reason.

"You want me to protect you from them?" He asked, astonished.

"We're friends, aren't we? I trust you to keep me safe from them. I may have gotten a little tough but I'm still scared." I pushed out my bottom lip to further look the part of a damsel in distress. I wouldn't know if I got it right because when in distress I was my own knight.

"Abeo will keep you safe."

"No he will not. You don't know these three girls. They rule our school. He won't be able to make sure they leave me alone. That's why I've come to you. Because you make me feel safe."

A little flattery was all it took for him to yield.

"Okay, I'll go with you."

"Great! This is also the perfect opportunity for you to get closer to Abeo and try to be friends with him."

He looked at me like he didn't believe me. Which didn't matter because I really didn't care if they managed to befriend each other. What mattered most was to get close to Nova, make myself important to him. I had a feeling I'd need him wrapped around my finger if I was ever going to blow this whole drug operation over.

He shrugged. "That's likely not going to happen."

"Be a little optimistic. I'll try and play Cupid for you."