Pawn In Their Twisted Love Game

Pawn In Their Twisted Love Game

Zitella Shepp

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I was the scholarship girl with a 4.0 GPA, dating the untouchable Branson Ayers. My dream of winning the Rhodes Scholarship was just one interview away. Then, a deepfake video with my face on it destroyed my life overnight. The scholarship was gone, and suddenly, I was the girl from the video. I ran to Branson for help, only to overhear the horrifying truth from behind a hedge. He' d orchestrated the whole thing to give the scholarship to his childhood sweetheart, Kennedy. But the cruelest cut was the second secret. For two years, the passionate man who came to me in the dark wasn't my boyfriend at all. It was his identical twin brother, Hanson. I was just a pawn in their sick game-a body for Hanson to use while Branson kept himself "pure" for the woman they both loved. When I called my parents, they didn't ask if I was okay. They disowned me for shaming the family and booked me a one-way ticket to London. Betrayed, used, and discarded by everyone I trusted, I took the flight. But as the city lights disappeared below, I made a vow. One day, I would return. And they would regret ever thinking they could destroy me.

Pawn In Their Twisted Love Game Chapter 1

I was the scholarship girl with a 4.0 GPA, dating the untouchable Branson Ayers. My dream of winning the Rhodes Scholarship was just one interview away.

Then, a deepfake video with my face on it destroyed my life overnight. The scholarship was gone, and suddenly, I was the girl from the video.

I ran to Branson for help, only to overhear the horrifying truth from behind a hedge. He' d orchestrated the whole thing to give the scholarship to his childhood sweetheart, Kennedy.

But the cruelest cut was the second secret. For two years, the passionate man who came to me in the dark wasn't my boyfriend at all.

It was his identical twin brother, Hanson. I was just a pawn in their sick game-a body for Hanson to use while Branson kept himself "pure" for the woman they both loved.

When I called my parents, they didn't ask if I was okay. They disowned me for shaming the family and booked me a one-way ticket to London.

Betrayed, used, and discarded by everyone I trusted, I took the flight. But as the city lights disappeared below, I made a vow. One day, I would return. And they would regret ever thinking they could destroy me.

Chapter 1

Ally Gomez POV:

The video that destroyed my life had my face, my voice, and my body. The only thing it didn't have was me.

It surfaced on a Monday morning, spreading through the Kingston University servers like a virus. By noon, the Rhodes Scholarship committee had sent me a terse, formal email withdrawing my final-round interview. My dream, the one I had bled for, the culmination of my entire existence as the perfect, brilliant, working-class prodigy, evaporated in a single click.

My world, once a pristine ivory tower of academic achievement, was now a public cesspool. Whispers followed me down the manicured campus pathways. Eyes, once filled with admiration, now held a mixture of pity and disgust. I was no longer Ally Gomez, the scholarship girl with the 4.0 GPA. I was the girl from the video.

I needed to find him. I needed to find Branson. He would fix this. He had to.

I ran to the Ayers family' s designated sanctuary on campus, the exclusive Epsilon House, a place so steeped in old money it seemed to repel the very air I breathed. I was let in by a stony-faced fraternity brother who looked at me like I was something he' d scraped off his shoe. He pointed me toward the back garden.

That' s where I heard them. Their voices floated from behind a perfectly sculpted hedge, laced with the casual cruelty of the untouchable elite.

\"Honestly, Branson, it was a masterpiece,\" a voice drawled. It belonged to Kennedy Kaufman, the beautiful, ambitious socialite who had been Branson' s shadow since they were in diapers. \"The way she looked so... cheap. No one would ever suspect it was a deepfake. The Rhodes committee practically tripped over themselves to drop her.\"

My blood ran cold. I pressed myself against the hedge, the leaves scratching my cheek.

Branson' s voice, usually so calm and measured, was laced with a chilling satisfaction. \"She was a necessary sacrifice, Kennedy. The scholarship was always meant for you. I told you I' d handle it.\"

\"You did,\" she cooed. \"But having Hanson handle the... physical side of things? Utterly brilliant. It kept you pure for me.\"

A third voice, one I knew with a terrifying intimacy, laughed. It was a careless, hedonistic sound. Hanson Ayers. Branson' s identical twin brother, the impulsive, artistic \"bad boy\" to Branson' s polished prodigy. \"Honestly, I did you a favor, bro. Kept you pure for your little princess while I got to play with the scholarship girl. She's not bad in bed, by the way. A little naive, but eager to please.\"

The world tilted sideways.

The air in my lungs turned to glass, shattering with every shallow breath. A wave of nausea so powerful I had to clamp a hand over my mouth to keep from vomiting right there in the pristine flowerbeds.

\"She actually believed it was you for two whole years,\" Hanson continued, his tone dripping with amusement. \"That' s the best part. I had to transfer in from my art school in London just for this little game. Totally worth it.\"

\"It was all for you, Kennedy,\" Branson said, his voice softening into a tone I had never, not once, heard him use with me. \"Everything I do is for you.\"

\"I know,\" she whispered, her voice thick with triumph. \"And now, nothing stands in our way.\"

My body started to shake uncontrollably. The foundation of my life, the very reality I had inhabited for the past two years, crumbled into dust.

It was all a lie.

I stumbled back, my legs feeling like they were made of water. The memories, once so precious, now flashed through my mind like scenes from a horror film, each one a fresh stab of betrayal.

I remembered the first time I saw Branson Ayers. He was standing on the library steps, the autumn sun catching in his dark hair. He was beautiful, unattainable, a god among mortals in the world of Kingston. He was the heir to the Ayers Global fortune, a business school legend who treated everyone with a cool, detached politeness. Everyone except Kennedy Kaufman. With her, he was different. Softer.

I was nothing. A first-generation American from a cramped apartment in Queens, here on the charity of a scholarship. I knew my place. I kept my head down, buried in books, my future a singular, blazing point of light: Oxford. The Rhodes Scholarship.

Then, things started to happen. \"Coincidences.\" We were assigned as partners in a project. He' d show up at the same coffee shop. He started walking me back to my dorm. He was reserved, almost shy during the day, a stark contrast to the rumors of the wild Ayers twins.

One rainy night, under the soft glow of a campus lamp, he' d stopped me. \"Ally,\" he' d said, his voice quiet. \"I can't stop thinking about you.\"

My heart, which had been dormant for twenty years, exploded in my chest. I, Ally Gomez, was being seen by Branson Ayers. I said yes before he could even finish asking me to be his girlfriend.

Our relationship was... strange. During the day, in public, he was the same Branson. Distant, impeccably polite, his touches fleeting. But at night, in the privacy of the off-campus apartment he insisted on getting for us, he was a different person entirely. Passionate. Demanding. Almost feral. His hands knew my body with an artist' s confidence, his mouth was a whirlwind of breathtaking sensation. He' d whisper things in the dark, his voice huskier, rougher than his daytime tone.

I' d chalked it up to his upbringing. He was a private person, I told myself. He didn't like public displays of affection. The pressure of his family name made him guarded. I invented a hundred excuses, a thousand justifications, because I was so desperately in love with the lie.

Now, standing behind that hedge, the truth crashed down on me with the force of a physical blow.

The man I saw during the day, the one I had intellectual debates with, the one who reviewed my thesis, was Branson.

The man who came to me in the dark, the one whose body I knew as well as my own, the one I had given my first everything to... was Hanson.

I was not a girlfriend. I was a project. A pawn in a cruel game designed to secure a scholarship for the woman they both loved. I was a surrogate body for Hanson to use while he obsessed over Kennedy, and a target for Branson to destroy.

A single, choked sob escaped my lips. I slapped my hand over my mouth, my knuckles digging into my teeth.

I had to get away.

I turned and ran, my feet pounding against the stone path, each step an echo of my shattered heart. I didn't know where I was going. I just knew I couldn't breathe.

My phone rang, shrill and insistent. It was my mother. I fumbled to answer, desperate for a lifeline.

\"Alessia,\" she said, her voice tight with fury. She only used my full name when she was truly angry. \"Your father and I just saw it. The video. How could you? After everything we sacrificed for you, how could you bring this disgrace upon our family?\"

\"Ma, it's not real,\" I gasped, tears streaming down my face. \"I was framed. It's fake.\"

\"Fake? Do you think anyone will believe that?\" she shrieked. \"Our neighbors are whispering. Your cousins have been calling. Our name is mud because of you! You have shamed us!\"

There was no concern. No asking if I was okay. Just shame. Blame. The same cold, transactional love I' d been trying to earn my whole life. I had spent years being the perfect daughter, the academic trophy, all to win their approval. And in my darkest hour, all they saw was their own tarnished reputation.

\"We have booked you a flight to London,\" my father's voice cut in, cold and final. \"You will go to your aunt's. You will stay there until this scandal dies down. Do not contact us. We cannot have this shame attached to us.\"

The line went dead.

I stood in the middle of campus, the world blurring around me. Betrayed by my love, used by his brother, discarded by my own family. I was utterly, completely alone.

A cold, hard numbness settled over me, extinguishing the fire of my grief.

They banished me.

But I would be the one who never looked back.

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Pawn In Their Twisted Love Game Pawn In Their Twisted Love Game Zitella Shepp Young Adult
“I was the scholarship girl with a 4.0 GPA, dating the untouchable Branson Ayers. My dream of winning the Rhodes Scholarship was just one interview away. Then, a deepfake video with my face on it destroyed my life overnight. The scholarship was gone, and suddenly, I was the girl from the video. I ran to Branson for help, only to overhear the horrifying truth from behind a hedge. He' d orchestrated the whole thing to give the scholarship to his childhood sweetheart, Kennedy. But the cruelest cut was the second secret. For two years, the passionate man who came to me in the dark wasn't my boyfriend at all. It was his identical twin brother, Hanson. I was just a pawn in their sick game-a body for Hanson to use while Branson kept himself "pure" for the woman they both loved. When I called my parents, they didn't ask if I was okay. They disowned me for shaming the family and booked me a one-way ticket to London. Betrayed, used, and discarded by everyone I trusted, I took the flight. But as the city lights disappeared below, I made a vow. One day, I would return. And they would regret ever thinking they could destroy me.”
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Chapter 1

29/09/2025

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Chapter 2

29/09/2025

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Chapter 3

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Chapter 4

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Chapter 5

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Chapter 6

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Chapter 7

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Chapter 8

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Chapter 9

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Chapter 10

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Chapter 11

29/09/2025

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Chapter 12

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Chapter 13

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Chapter 14

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Chapter 15

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Chapter 16

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Chapter 17

29/09/2025