Love In The Shadows | Fred Weasley x OC

Chapter 90

Chapter 90: The Lies We Tell

Adhara sat in front of her vanity, staring at her reflection as she absently twisted the engagement ring around her finger. The diamond caught the candlelight, glinting brilliantly—a perfect symbol of the illusion she had been forced into.

She could still hear her mother's delighted voice from earlier that morning.

You're on the front page, darling! You and Max look so in love. The perfect match.

Perfect. That word again.

She wanted to laugh.

Or maybe scream.

But instead, she had smiled, nodded, and let Narcissa brush her hair as though she were still a child with no say in her future.

Lucius had, of course, been pleased. He had barely looked at her during breakfast, simply reading the article with a satisfied smirk before setting the paper down.

Now that the public has seen it, there is no turning back. Everything is proceeding as it should.

As it should.

Adhara clenched her jaw, blinking back the frustration burning in her throat.

She had known this was coming, but seeing it in print, with those photographs splashed across the pages, made it feel unbearably real.

The article had gone exactly as planned—perhaps too well. The world believed it. The wizarding elite were celebrating it. Even the way the photographs were captured, the way she and Max appeared lost in each other, laughing like they had no worries in the world—it had worked too well.

And that meant Fred had seen it.

She squeezed her eyes shut.

There had been no way to warn him. No way to prepare him for the headlines, for the staged perfection of it all.

Had he believed it?

Had he thought she had truly moved on?

The very idea made her sick.

There was a knock at her door.

She sighed, forcing herself to breathe before saying, "Come in."

Max Laurent stepped inside, closing the door behind him. His expression was unreadable, but his usual arrogance was absent. He had seen the article too, of course. He had played his part well, and like her, he was now trapped in it.

"I assume you've read the Prophet," he said dryly.

Adhara let out a humorless laugh. "Oh, I've read it. I even had the pleasure of hearing my mother gush over it."

Max rolled his eyes. "Same with mine. She thinks we're the next great love story of our time. I didn't have the heart to tell her otherwise."

Adhara exhaled sharply, standing from her chair. "This is getting out of hand."

Max studied her for a moment before speaking. "You thought it wouldn't?"

"I thought we'd have more time," she admitted. "Time to find a way out before it became... this." She gestured vaguely at the newspaper resting on her desk.

Max walked over, picking it up and scanning the article. He snorted. "They really did a good job making us look like soulmates, didn't they?"

Adhara crossed her arms. "Lucius probably paid them to make it as convincing as possible."

"Wouldn't be surprised," Max muttered. He tossed the paper back onto the desk and leaned against the wall. "So what's the plan now?"

Adhara hesitated. That was the problem. There was no plan.

They had agreed to go along with the engagement temporarily, both forced into it by their parents' expectations. But now that the entire wizarding world had seen them together, now that people believed in the fairy tale, escaping it would be twice as difficult.

Lucius would never allow her to walk away now.

And Max's parents, as liberal as they claimed to be, still wanted their son married off to a respectable pure-blood heiress.

Max sighed. "Look, I know this isn't ideal. But it's not forever. We just have to convince them long enough to keep our families happy, and then we figure something out."

Adhara ran a hand through her hair, exhaustion weighing on her. "And in the meantime, everyone believes we're madly in love."

"Could be worse," Max said, smirking. "At least I'm easy on the eyes."

She shot him a glare, but he only chuckled.

Then, after a moment, he sobered. "What about him?"

Adhara stiffened. She didn't have to ask who he meant.

Max sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. "He saw it, you know. The article. The pictures. It's all over Diagon Alley."

She swallowed. "I figured as much."

Max studied her carefully. "You think he believed it?"

Adhara's hands clenched into fists at her sides. "I don't know."

But she hoped he hadn't.

She needed him to see through it.

Because if Fred thought she had truly moved on, if he believed even for a second that she had chosen this life, then maybe—just maybe—she really would lose him forever.

And that thought terrified her more than anything else.