Sorry, Plot. I Don't Play by Your Rules

Jared Preston cannot cover his grandmother's medical bills. Lucia Joyner has money, and she uses it, buying her way into his life on terms he would never have accepted otherwise. Her plan is simply to wait, on the theory that enough time and enough care will thaw him out. Then she comes to and understands where she is. This is a novel, she is the villainess in it, and villainesses in these books get discarded by the male lead and die alone on the street once they have served their purpose. Knowing the ending changes what she does next. She starts pulling away from the script she was written into, backing off from Jared, and working out how to keep herself alive past the point where the plot intends to be finished with her.