But it didn't.
The world turned out to be dirtier than Guilia thought, and she had ended up fucking Travis, his father, and later on, Travis' friends and his father's friends...and sometimes, she had to fuck them all at the same time.
She had been sixteen then, a nobody.
A year later, she was somebody, a girl whose face was plastered on every magazine cover, a girl who had everything she once dreamed of, and as she made it to the top of the world, Guilia simply wished she was dead.
IT WAS ONLY ON A WHIM that Guilia had come to attend the Blackwoods' party, and she found herself relishing the nasty looks she got from the other girls. They all thought her a gold-digging bitch, and that was fine with her. She would rather have them hating on her than let them realize the truth.
After grabbing a flute of champagne from one of the servers, she headed straight to Ethan Blackwood to say hi. His time in England had clearly done him good; she remembered seeing him in high school, and he had been so pale and thin in those days. Now, he was just the opposite. He was all tanned and sexy, and simply oozing with charm as all the girls flocked around him.
Guilia only had to clear her throat for the other girls to clear the way for her, but one in particular seemed to hold a grudge against Guilia. She stuck her foot out at the most opportune time, causing Guilia to lose her balance.
She started to fall.
That bitch!
But instead of suffering an embarrassment, she fell straight into Ethan's arms instead.
Looking up, Guilia intended to tease Ethan about staying true to his British side by acting like a knight to her damsel. But when her gaze met his, and she saw the look in his eyes—-
Ethan was startled when Guilia suddenly jerked away from him. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Guilia said stiffly. "Nice party, by the way."
Ethan hadn't any time to answer since Guilia had already spun on her heels to walk away.
What the hell?
He had always found Guilia beautiful but had never tried asking her out. In those days, he had thought her out of his league. But it was different now, and in just a couple of strides, Ethan caught up with the now-famous model and grabbed hold of her wrist.
"Not so fast, love."
He spun her around to face him and was only amused by the way her green eyes flashed with fury.
"What do you think you're doing?"
Her voice was cold, but the look of desire in her eyes belied this.
She wanted him, Ethan realized with satisfaction.
Guilia tried tugging her hand out of the younger man's hold. "Will you let me—-"
But instead, Ethan pulled her even closer and took her mouth in a deep, hard kiss that had Guilia's knees knocking against each other.
By the time the young billionaire lifted his head, the whole party had gone silent. Ethan's hazel eyes gleamed down at her, and Guilia's teeth gnashed when she actually felt her cheeks turn red. She couldn't remember the last time she had blushed like this, and for a boy like Ethan to make such a thing to happen—-
She lifted her chin, intending to crush his balls with a few choice words, but everything she had to say was forgotten the moment she looked into his eyes.
Fuck.
Most men only had lust in their eyes when they looked at her, and she had thought Ethan would be the same. In the years that would eventually pass, Guilia would often think back to this day and find herself thinking if only...
If only Ethan had been the same as the rest.
But instead, he had been different. Instead of lust, she had seen something else in his eyes. Something she had thought she would never see again.
And that had been the beginning of her downfall...and his.
TO SAY THAT THE WHOLE town disapproved of their relationship would have been the understatement of the century. Everyone thought Ethan Blackwood was too good for a bitch like Guilia Santos, and even worse, the supermodel seemed to go out of her way to prove them right.
In the beginning, the twins had been willing to give Guilia the benefit of the doubt despite their private misgivings. For Aidan, Guilia appeared too mercenary while Thornton thought her too sly. But because Ethan clearly loved the woman, the twins did their best to focus on what they remembered of Guilia in her younger years: proud, hardworking, and always giving as good as she got to those who tried to bully her.
Things changed, however, when disturbing rumors started to reach the twins' ears, and Aidan finally paid for a private investigator to look into Guilia's personal life.
When Ethan was confronted by his brothers with proof of Guilia's infidelity, it was like the past all over again, but instead of anger, he was filled with self-contempt. In his mind, it was his fault that Guilia had cheated, and he was grimly convinced that Guilia wouldn't have done the same thing if she were dating one of the twins.
GUILIA KNEW THE MOMENT she welcomed Ethan to her home that something had changed. Ethan was usually outrageously charming, and with the craziest ability to make her laugh nearly every second. No other man had done that, and in some ways, it had her hating him for making her feel so despicably human.
But this Ethan before her?
He was quiet and grim, and when she saw the bleakness in his gaze—-
He knew about Travis, she realized sickly.
And it was as if Ethan had heard her thoughts, with the way his lips tightened in seeming response.
"E-Ethan..."
"Tell me why, Guilia. Just fucking tell me why."
Oh God, if only it were that easy. If only her story was like a fairytale, and she could be sure there was a happy ending in the end.
If only it happened once upon a fucking time.
But
