My Catfish Victim Is Actually My Bestie's Brother

Jean Whitfield spent six months talking to a man online. He was sweet, possessive, called her baby. He never saw her face because she sent him a photo of someone else. When he wanted to meet, she panicked. She typed out a breakup, hit send, blocked him everywhere, and disappeared.

Spring break lands her at her best friend Marlowe's place. The moment she walks in, she runs into Marlowe's older brother. Tall, gorgeous, ice cold. She knows that face. She asks Marlowe if his name is Silas Kingsley. It is. The man she ghosted is standing in the same house. He looks right through her, just another one of his sister's college friends.

Breakfast is worse. Mrs. Kingsley asks about the arranged match she made for Silas. He says he's not interested, met her twice, can't even remember her face. Then he looks at Jean and says, "You look guilty." Her brain goes blank. Mrs. Kingsley tells him to be nice to their guest. Jean keeps her head down and tries to breathe.

That afternoon, Jean offers to take Silas's forgotten documents to his office. In the taxi, she searches his name and finds the same story everywhere: ruthless, sharp, decisive. Nothing like the man who once sent her money and told her to get something nice. She sent it all back. She only wanted someone to talk to after her parents' divorce. She never gave him her real name, never took a video call, just her voice for thirty minutes a night.

Then he got clingy. He wanted to meet. She had finals coming, but the real reason was simpler. If he saw the real her, he wouldn't have said any of it. So she ended it and thought he'd move on. Marlowe says he hasn't. Not even close.

Jean is now inside the house of the man she ghosted, carrying his documents to his office. Her secret hangs by a thread, and his mother is already pushing another woman toward him.