Chapter 321

What Barbara Morgan didn’t know was, James Bennett had been dead set against joining the show—until he found out Maria Lewis was going. Then, boom, he said yes and hit up Amelia White right after. Ever since that whole scandal about Amelia poisoning James’s parents came to light, she’d been too scared to reach out to him. She was just waiting for him to cool down. So when he suddenly called her, she almost jumped out of her chair. As soon as he said they'd join the show as a couple, she didn’t even hesitate—just said yes. The cast of three guys and three girls wouldn’t meet until filming day. When Maria walked into the house the crew had set up, she was still kind of dazed but forced herself to play it cool. She greeted everyone politely, then it turned into one big round of awkward, fake small talk. Everyone there had some level of fame, so it didn’t take long for them to slip into character. That initial awkwardness faded pretty fast. The three guys were Drake Lawson, the rich kid Ol