Billionaire’s Second Chance Proposal

BILLIONAIRE’S SECOND CHANCE PROPOSAL A SMALL TOWN FAKE FIANCÉE ROMANCE CASSANDRA RUSSELL Copyright © 2023 by Cassandra Russell All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. CONTENTS Chapter 1 - Ansley Chapter 2 - Colton Chapter 3 - Ansley Chapter 4 - Colton Chapter 5 - Ansley Chapter 6 - Colton Chapter 7 - Ansley Chapter 8 - Colton Chapter 9 - Ansley Chapter 10 - Colton Chapter 11 - Ansley Chapter 12 - Colton Chapter 13 - Ansley Chapter 14 - Colton Chapter 15 - Ansley Chapter 16 - Colton Chapter 17 - Ansley Chapter 18 - Colton Chapter 19 - Ansley Chapter 20 - Colton Chapter 21 - Ansley Chapter 22 - Sparrow Chapter 23 - Ansley Chapter 24 - Colton Epilogue - Ansley CHAPTER 1 - ANSLEY “What’s in the box?” Dane asks as he tries to snatch it out of my hands. This is supposed to be one of the most peaceful streets in the continental U.S. to walk down—beautiful Carmel, California, known for its Old English architecture and quaint seaside brick cottages. Definitely not for its local junkie, whom I happened to have the displeasure of graduating high school with. “Go away, Dane,” I say as I clutch the small shoebox closer to my chest. I’m holding onto it so tightly that my knuckles are burning from the tension and turning white. “Yeah, Dane, go away,” another voice taunts in a syrupy fake tone as I see Lillian Jetson sidle up beside me. Perfect, now I’m flanked by both the town drug addict and the biggest mean girl in Carmel. So much for a magical sunset walk out of work for me tonight. I think I would honestly rather deal with Dane than her. At least he looks the part of a conniving asshole versus Lillian’s fake attempts to cover up her rotten soul. When I think back to senior year, I’m pretty sure that these two went to prom together. I wish they had ended up together, gotten married, and popped out a few kids even, because maybe then they would be too busy to keep tormenting me. Lillian eyes the box in my hands as she bounces along next to me. I swear she walks like that on purpose just to make her fake boobs bounce. Nobody naturally walks with that much pep in their step. “Ooh, look,” she says as she nudges Dane in the side. He looks high and his reaction time is definitely delayed. Shocker. Dane spends more time high than he does sober. “Are those dragon stickers?” Lillian laughs. “What are you, like thirteen or something?” I wrap my arm over the front of the box to try and cover it more. “Oh, it’s one of those games she likes to play,” Dane says as he finally remembers how to form a sentence. It’s too bad he’s such a dredge on society because he’d be kind of handsome if he wasn’t such a wasted asshole all the time. “You know,” he says as he makes yet another attempt to try and get into my pants. “You could come over to my place and we could play a much better game than this one. I could even break out my dragon-sized cock and we could—” “Fuck off, Dane,” I snap as I quicken my pace to try and get away from the both of them. “Jesus, Ansley,” Lillian laughs, visibly amused by the whole situation and especially amused that the two of them are able to get my feathers ruffled. “Just because you have daddy issues doesn’t mean that you need to treat every guy in town like crap.” I whip my head around to glare at her, but it only exacerbates things. I can feel how red and hot my cheeks are even in the cool air. It’s going to rain here soon, and the cobblestone streets of Carmel are going to start looking like a damp fairyland. And Lillian is the wicked witch. She stands there laughing at the fact that she’s been able to get a rise out of me yet again. Maybe if she’d had to deal with her father abandoning her when she was five and her mother dying shortly afterward, then perhaps she would have some empathy. It’s not like I asked for abandonment issues but being raised by an aunt who was more concerned with her bakery business than the child in her custody isn’t exactly an ideal environment for nurturing self-esteem, especially not when things could have been entirely different if my father hadn’t run off with some other woman not unlike Lillian herself. Who am I kidding? Lillian is incapable of empathy because her heart is rotten to the core. None of this matters anyway, I have real friends here in town. I walk fast enough that Lillian’s heels start getting stuck in the cobblestones and Dane’s drugged-up feet start tripping over themselves, until I shake both of them. When it starts to drizzle, I tuck the shoebox under my coat and breathe a sigh of relief. It’s relaxing and refreshing, and I’m almost to my destination. As soon as I push open the door to the antique shop, I’m greeted by a warm, welcoming light and a few friendly faces. “Hi, Ansley!” Oscar says with a leathery, wrinkled smile. “Your friends are already in the back waiting for you. And I got something for you.” His kind, old eyes beam as I walk over to see what he’s holding out in his hand for me. It’s a small, tarnished pewter figure. It looks like some sort of maiden with a snake wrapped around her wrist and isn’t any taller than my thumb. “Do you like it?” he asks eagerly. I nod and scoop it