Chapter 4

I grabbed my bag and checked into a room at some out-of-the-way hotel.

The group chat wouldn't stop blowing up.

Kirsten: 【I'm so sorry. This is all my fault, it has nothing to do with Amos. If you hate me that much, I'll disappear from your lives.】

Amos: 【Cecilia, feeling proud of yourself? Are we still getting married or not?】

All voice messages, each one more frantic than the last.

Amos really had no patience left. For three years now it had been plain to see.

He'd spent all of it on Kirsten.

A cold smile tugged at my mouth, and I answered them one by one in the chat.

【Kirsten, drop the sweet-innocent act. Since you feel so sorry for me, keep your word. Disappear.】

【Keep an eye on me and Amos? What a joke. Who are you two to me? Why would I need you watching?】

【Fine, Amos. Nine o'clock tonight, I've got a surprise for you.】

Then I left the group.

My phone was ringing off the hook, call after call. I didn't pick up a single one.

After years as an investigative reporter, I'd long made a habit of saving every chat, every draft, every scrap of proof. I never gambled on people's hearts.

At nine that night, I set up my stand and went live.

I'd worked as a reporter long enough. I still had a few followers scattered around the internet.

I mussed up my hair, doing what I could to make myself look worn out, softer, more pitiful.

Since Kirsten had the nerve to hire someone to film me on the train so people could laugh at me and see just how sorry my situation was, I couldn't let all that effort of hers go to waste.

You want to play the public-opinion game? Who plays it better than me?

I turned on the camera and gave the lens a gentle, easy smile.

"Hi, everyone. I'm Cecilia."

"Yes, that's me in the video."

"How I met Mr. Henson was an accident..."

"I don't think my fiancé is a bad man. He just loves someone else a little more than he loves me. In love, no one's really right or wrong."

Sadly, I picked up my other phone and held the saved photo fully up to the lens.

It was the picture Kirsten had posted on her social media.

"He let another woman sit in the seat that should have been mine, but I'm not angry. I know that person is like a brother to him. How could I fight a brother over jealousy?"

As I spoke, I sniffled, hovering on the edge of tears.

The comments scrolled by fast, some cursing, some cheering, some just there for the drama.

【Brother, my foot. I hate these guys who play the "we're just friends" card. Who's he kidding? There's no such thing as pure friendship between a man and a woman.】

【Can't have it, so he ruins it. What kind of person does that?】

【There's a huge bombshell here. Spill it, quick.】

Coming to this point was purely Amos and Kirsten's doing. They forced my hand.

I knew she'd never disappear on her own. And since she wasn't willing to, I'd help her along.

"Amos and I picked out the ring together. He said my fingers were slender, that this style suited me best. Even after I put it on and realized it was a little big, I didn't say a word."

"Because I knew this was the style she liked."

The phone buzzed again and again. I could just imagine how furious Amos was right now.

But this was only the appetizer.

I muted the sound and, right in front of everyone, swiped to take the call.

Amos's angry voice came through. "Cecilia, do you really have to make this so ugly? So Kirsten sat in your wedding car. So she wore your ring."

"It's not like I'm actually marrying her. What are you so worked up about?"

A laugh slipped out of me before I could stop it. Suddenly he was a stranger.

He used to stand up for me. He used to go along with whatever I wanted, back whatever I did.

But later he stopped defending me. Especially when Kirsten was involved.

"Amos, you know perfectly well her feelings for you aren't ordinary, and you still won't keep your distance. A man like you, what right do you have to talk about love?"

He fumbled for an excuse. "You... we're just friends."

"You let her sit in my wedding car, wear my ring, pick out my dress, and you're telling me she's just a friend? I'm really busy. I need to get back to chatting with my followers."

He lost it. "Shut off the livestream right now. No more streaming. You'll ruin Kirsten like this. Kirsten is a singer!"

I burst out laughing. "A singer? Has she ever charted?"

"And I'm a reporter, Amos. This is nowhere near the end."