Chapter Ten #3
Tyler had been allowed back inside under strict instructions not to post, stream, photograph, narrate, brand, or improve anything.
He appeared wounded by the final restriction.
Piper’s phone vibrated before the first planning document opened.
Everyone stopped.
She checked the screen.
A notification from the cloud dashboard.
The trap file had been downloaded.
“Good,” Griffin said.
Piper did not look relieved.
Her second phone began ringing.
The Quinn Events business line.
She answered.
“Quinn Events, this is Piper.”
Emmett watched her expression.
“Yes, Mrs. Delaney.”
A pause.
“No, that is not accurate.”
Another pause.
Piper closed her eyes.
“Please do not open the attachment.”
Everyone at the table went motionless.
“No, I did not send it.”
Emmett stood.
Piper lifted one hand.
“I understand. Forward the message to Daniel Rourke and delete it from your system. I will send the contact information now.”
She listened.
“I am sorry.”
The words came quietly.
“I know. Thank you for calling.”
She ended the call.
“What happened?” Maren asked.
Piper looked at Emmett.
“He emailed another client from my account.”
“What was attached?”
“A document claiming Emmett and I planned the fake relationship in May.”
“That is before your breakup,” Ava said.
“Yes.”
“Is the document real?” Griffin asked.
“No.”
Piper opened her business email.
The sent folder was empty.
Daniel had warned them that copies could be erased from the visible account.
She opened the security log.
The old MacBook had accessed the trap file nine minutes earlier.
Then it accessed the Quinn Events client list.
“He took the transfer information,” Emmett said.
Piper shook her head.
“Not only that.”
Her phone vibrated with the forwarded email from Mrs. Delaney.
She opened the attachment.
The document looked like an event proposal.
Quinn Events logo.
Professional formatting.
Dated May twenty fourth.
The title read:
COOPER VALE REPUTATION CAMPAIGN
Beneath it was a complete fake-dating strategy.
Public introduction.
Six dates.
Social media schedule.
Charity component.
Expected professional benefit.
The same arrangement Tyler created by accident in July.
Except this version claimed Piper and Emmett had planned it two months earlier.
Maren read over her shoulder.
“He created this from the leaked contract.”
“And my business templates,” Piper said.
Emmett looked at the final page.
Two signature lines appeared.
Piper Quinn.
Emmett Novak.
Both signatures had been copied perfectly.
Piper scrolled lower.
A budget estimate listed her fee.
$150,000 plus ten percent of resulting endorsement or contract value.
She stared at the number.
“He is making it look like I was paid.”
Emmett’s phone vibrated.
A news alert appeared.
The anonymous hockey account had published the document.
brEAKING: LEAKED PROPOSAL SUGGESTS PIPER QUINN AND COOPER VALE PLANNED THEIR RELATIONSHIP MONTHS BEFORE HER PUBLIC brEAKUP.
The post included another accusation.
Sources claim Piper received a six-figure payment to rehabilitate Emmett’s image.
Emmett looked at Piper.
Her face had emptied of emotion.
The phone continued vibrating in her hand.
Client cancellations.
Interview requests.
Messages.
Then another notification appeared.
The live interview platform had updated its promotional graphic.
NEW EVIDENCE REVEALED. WAS THE WRONG GUY BET PLANNED ALL ALONG?
Piper slowly placed the phone on the table.
The room waited.
Emmett moved beside her.
He did not touch her.
“What do you need?”
She looked up.
For one second, every wall disappeared.
“I need you to believe me.”
The request broke something open inside him.
Emmett crouched beside her chair until they were eye level.
“I do.”
“You have not even asked whether the proposal is real.”
“I know it is not.”
“How?”
“Because if you were being paid one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, Tyler would have negotiated lunch.”
Tyler looked up. “I would have.”
Piper laughed.
It was one sound.
Small and fractured.
Still a laugh.
Then her eyes filled.
Emmett held out his hand.
She took it.
“I believe you,” he said again. “Before the evidence. Before the explanation. Before you prove anything.”
A tear slipped down her cheek.
Piper did not wipe it away.
Her phone rang on the table.
Owen.
Everyone looked at the screen.
The call ended.
A voicemail appeared.
Piper pressed play.
Owen’s voice filled the room.
“Tomorrow’s interview does not have to happen. End the relationship with Emmett, withdraw the accusations, and tell everyone the campaign was your idea.”
Emmett’s hand tightened around hers.
The message continued.
“If you do, I stop releasing files.”
A pause.
Then Owen laughed softly.
“If you don’t, the next one ends Quinn Events permanently.”
The voicemail ended.
Piper stared at the phone.
Emmett felt her hand become colder inside his.
Then an email arrived from the trap folder.
Not from Owen.
From an address neither of them recognized.
The subject line contained four words.
HE IS NOT WORKING ALONE.
Piper opened it.
There was no message.
Only a photograph.
Owen sat at a restaurant table with Emmett’s agent, Graham Pierce.
The timestamp was from the night before the Wrong Guy Bet began.