I glance over at Thad, whose mouth is hanging open in shock, his eyes burning with anger.

“One minute!” Mary calls out.

Ignoring him, I scour the table for the rest of our supplies, but it feels like nothing is left, so I instead just start picking up different sheets of cardstock I think we could work with, knowing we need at least something to use for decorations. We could cut out feathers, or something like that.

I’m just reaching for a scrap of bright-pink paper when Mary calls out for us to put our hands up and go back to our workbenches.

We make it back, and Diane yells, “Cut! Clean up. Five minutes, and we are getting started again.”

Thad whips around to me. “What the fuck was that?”

“All of the stuff was taken—I just grabbed what I thought could work.”

“I’m not talking about the things you grabbed,” Thad says, seething. “I’m talking about you handing shit off to Team Rossi, as if you know exactly what they need.”

My stomach drops. How on earth do I talk myself out of this one? There’s no valid explanation. Can I claim I was confused?

Mind control?

That could work. Luna has been working on mind control and is perfecting it on me. It’s a stretch, but if I play it right, I think I can convince Thad—

“That was so sweet of you to help your girlfriend back there,” Mary says, coming up to the workbench and talking loudly enough for the entire set to hear. “She looked so frazzled searching for that ribbon. She’s lucky she has you.” Mary pats my shoulder and walks away.

Fuck.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

“Girlfriend?” Thad asks, in seeming disbelief.

“You guys are dating?” Helen asks.

“What?” I hear Cohen quietly ask. I turn toward Team Rossi’s workbench. Luna meets my gaze, her eyes wide and her lip trembling.

Jesus Christ, what do we do?

“I should have seen it,” Helen continues, and if I didn’t have just feathers and fabric on my workbench, I’d seriously consider throwing something at her. “I saw the way he was looking at her.” Then she gasps. “Wait a second, does that mean these two teams have been working together, colluding against Team Hernandez? Is that allowed? Diane!” she shouts. “Diane, we need to have a conversation.”

“Luna, what’s going on?” Cohen says. Tears begin to well in Luna’s eyes.

Fucking hell. I take a step toward her, but Thad pulls on my shoulder, forcing me to face him.

“Tell me she’s lying. Right now, Alec. Tell me Mary is lying.”

“Alec?” Naomi looks up at me, confusion pinching her brow.

Fuck.

What the hell do I do? I don’t think lying at this point is going to get me anywhere—probably only make the situation worse.

I drag my hand over the back of my neck. “Yeah, we’re dating.”

“You’ve got to be—” Thad sucks in a sharp breath while pressing a finger against my chest. “You asshole. You fucking asshole.”

“Thad, it’s not what—”

“Not what I think it is?” he finishes, his voice growing louder and louder. “Because from the looks of it, you’re dating the competition, and—” As if everything starts clicking in his head, his eyes dart back and forth, and he pulls away from me. “Holy shit, has she been giving you advice?” Thad glares over at Luna. “Have you been giving him advice? Telling him what to do so you can sabotage us?”

“Don’t,” I say, gripping the front of Thad’s shirt and pulling him back to me. “Do not fucking talk to her like that.”

Thad pushes my hand away. “Those drawings, those weren’t yours. They were hers.” Thad points, his anger growing. “And how funny that everything we needed was miraculously taken, and we ended up with shit.” Thad waves at the pile of junk on our workbench. “She set you up, and you fell for it.”

“She did not set me up.”

“You’re so desperate for any kind of female attention, because Mom never liked you, that you fell for her scheme.”

“Watch it,” I say slowly, deliberately.

“Thad, maybe we should talk about this somewhere else,” Naomi says calmly.

But Thad has truly lost it. Planting his hands on his hips, he nods toward Cohen and Declan. “Did you know about this?”

I glance at Cohen, who’s standing ramrod straight, anger rolling off him in waves.

Fuck.

“He didn’t,” I say, facing Team Rossi. “Cohen, please, this is on me. I asked her not to tell you. She wanted to, but I wanted to keep it a secret until the end of the show. This isn’t her fault.”

His jaw works to the side. “This is her fault. Because my sister knows better than to keep secrets, especially about something this important.”

“Cohen . . .” Luna reaches for him, but he turns and walks off the set. Luna chases after him. Declan glances at me, giving me the most profound look of disappointment I have ever experienced before walking away as well.

Spinning toward Thad, I say, “Why the fuck did you do that? Make those accusations?”

“I didn’t do that.” Thad points at me. “You did that.” He shakes his head. “I thought you were going to change. I thought you were actually going to try to be a part of my life, but that’s not the case. I should have known. Ever since you left for college, it’s always been about you. What you want.”

“Thad, I spent my entire fucking childhood taking care of you. I had the right to focus on me for a goddamn second!” I yell, feeling my control slip.

“But you didn’t have to forget about me,” he says, his voice low now, any traces of hysteria vanishing from his eyes as he gives me a slow once-over. “You used to be my hero, but now you’re just like Dad—another selfish man who’s left me disappointed.”

“I’m not Dad,” I say through clenched teeth, pushing Thad in the shoulder. “Don’t you dare compare me to him.”

Thad pushes me back. Naomi gasps and hurries to stand in front of Thad, her back to his chest. “Why did you have to make this competition about you?” Thad asks.

“What are you talking about? This has been about you the entire time.”

“This was supposed to be about creating a wedding for me and Naomi, but it became about you, about the two of us holding your hand through the whole process, encouraging you to keep helping, giving you all the credit for the cake, making sure you’re not too depressed or angry during the challenges. We’re walking on eggshells around you just so I can have my brother around. And then this . . .” Thad shakes his head in disappointment. “I’ll make it easy on you. After this, don’t even fucking worry about talking to me, because we’re done.”

With that, Thad walks away.

“Naomi, I didn’t—”

“Don’t, Alec, not right now.” She takes off after Thad, leaving me with a million questions in my head, but the one that keeps playing on repeat . . . Did I really make this about me?

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

LUNA

“Cohen, wait!” I call, my heart nearly pounding out of my chest as I trail after my brother. “Please, let me explain.”

He stops, hands on his hips, head tilted down. “Why, Luna? What does it even matter anymore? You’re dating. Cat is out of the bag.”

I hurry around him so I can see his face. Off in the distance, I spot Declan, still on set and standing to the side, looking ready to step in if he’s needed.

“I know, but at least let me tell you how it happened.”

“I don’t care how it happened. I just care about why you didn’t tell me.”

“I wanted to, I really did, but Alec—”

“Alec doesn’t control this,” Cohen says, motioning between us. “He doesn’t control our relationship—you shouldn’t have given him that opportunity.”

“It’s not like that,” I say, my throat growing tight. “He was going through a rough time, and Thad is an emotional basket case.”

“Thad has the right to own his feelings,” Cohen shoots back. “That still does not explain why you wouldn’t tell me.”

“Because then you would have told Declan, and Declan could have—”

“Respected your wishes and not said anything to Thad?” Cohen looks to the side and lets out a sharp breath. “You really think if you told us something so important, we would say something?” He shakes his head. “I thought we were closer than that, Luna.”

He starts to walk away, but I block him and press my hand to his chest. “Don’t say that, Cohen. You’re my best friend.”

He runs his tongue over his teeth and looks straight ahead. “Does Farrah know?”

My stomach churns, nausea rolling up the back of my throat.

“Did she know about the application to get on this show?”

“Cohen.”

His head drops, and he focuses his eyes on mine. Pain, disappointment, and anger are all there, written like a novel across his face.

“If I were your best friend, Luna, you wouldn’t have gone behind my back about the application—and you wouldn’t have hidden this relationship from me. You would have trusted me to keep this quiet, for Thad’s sake, but you didn’t even give me that option. It’s like you can’t seem to give me any options.”