Chapter Fourteen #3
Graham looked toward Owen.
Owen gave him the smallest nod.
Graham answered.
“My agency received fifty thousand dollars.”
The screens behind them changed.
The fake campaign proposal appeared in full.
Piper’s forged signature.
Emmett’s forged signature.
Graham’s real one.
The audience erupted.
The live vote climbed.
Owen and Piper: seventy-four percent.
Piper and Emmett: twenty-six.
The host turned toward Piper.
“Did you create the Wrong Guy Bet months before your public breakup?”
“No.”
“Did you pay Graham Pierce?”
“No.”
“Did you sign this agreement?”
“No.”
Owen leaned forward.
“Piper.”
The softness in his voice was practiced.
She looked at him.
“You do not have to keep lying.”
Emmett’s hands tightened against his knees.
Stay.
Do not interrupt.
Owen continued.
“I know you were afraid of how people would react if they learned you had feelings for Emmett while we were still together.”
Piper let the silence sit.
“I know you thought controlling the story would protect your business.”
Still nothing.
“You made mistakes. We both did.”
The audience became quiet.
Owen reached into his jacket.
Emmett saw the ring box.
Every instinct in his body screamed.
Piper’s hand moved from her lap and rested against the edge of Emmett’s chair.
Not holding him.
Close enough.
Owen stood.
The audience gasped.
He moved in front of Piper and lowered himself onto one knee.
Cameras rushed closer.
The screens showed Piper’s face from three angles.
Owen opened the box.
The diamond caught the studio lights.
“Piper Quinn, I forgive you.”
Emmett stopped breathing.
Piper looked down at the ring.
Owen continued.
“I forgive the lies. The campaign. Emmett. All of it.”
The audience made the sound Owen had designed.
Shock.
Sympathy.
Hope.
“Come home,” he said. “Let us stop hurting each other and begin again.”
The final vote opened.
Numbers moved across the screens.
Owen and Piper climbed to eighty-one percent.
The host looked toward Piper.
“Your answer?”
Piper turned toward Emmett.
For one dangerous second, he saw the fear she had hidden all night.
Then it disappeared.
She looked back at Owen.
“No.”
The room erupted.
Owen’s smile remained.
Too long.
As if he had expected resistance.
Piper stood.
“You do not forgive me.”
She took the microphone from the arm of her chair.
“You surveilled me for six months. You copied my files, read my messages, staged videos, forged contracts, paid people to manipulate a charity event, and planned this proposal before our relationship ended.”
The screens behind them went black.
Then Owen’s campaign cover appeared.
THE PERFECT brEAKUP
Owen’s smile vanished.
Piper continued.
“You did not come here to offer me a future.”
The next slide appeared.
PHASE FOUR: THE REBOUND
Emmett’s photograph filled the screen.
“You came here to finish a campaign.”
The audience went silent.
Owen stood.
“This is fabricated.”
Piper looked toward Graham.
The cue.
Graham remained seated.
He stared at the floor.
Emmett’s stomach dropped.
Piper waited.
Graham did not move.
Owen’s smile returned.
Slowly.
The host looked between them.
“Graham, can you verify these materials?”
Graham lifted his head.
His face had changed.
Not ashamed.
Terrified.
He looked beyond the cameras toward the producer.
Then at Owen.
“No,” he said.
Piper froze.
Graham continued.
“I cannot verify them.”
The audience erupted again.
Owen looked at Piper with quiet triumph.
The plan had changed.
Graham reached into his jacket and removed his phone.
“There is something Piper does not know.”
Emmett stood.
Piper caught his wrist.
Graham looked directly at her.
“Owen did not access your laptop after the breakup.”
Piper’s face lost color.
Graham continued.
“He had access because you gave it to him.”
“That is not true.”
“You signed a digital authorization six months ago.”
The screen changed.
A form appeared.
Piper’s signature.
A verified timestamp.
A video thumbnail showing Piper speaking into the camera.
Graham pressed play.
Piper’s recorded voice filled the studio.
“I authorize Owen Keller and Keller Media to access, edit, reproduce, and distribute all personal and business materials stored on my devices for the purpose of documenting our relationship.”
Piper stared at the screen.
Emmett looked at her.
She shook her head.
“I never recorded that.”
The video continued.
Her face.
Her voice.
Her exact mannerisms.
“This authorization remains valid during and after the relationship and may be used in connection with any media project.”
The clip ended.
Owen closed the ring box.
Then he smiled at the cameras.
“She knew about the series,” he said. “She helped create it.”
Piper looked toward Sasha’s remote screen.
It remained black.
Her connection had disappeared.
Daniel moved toward the producer.
The studio doors locked.
Every screen changed at once.
Not to Owen’s campaign.
To a live video feed.
Sasha sat inside an unfamiliar room with Dylan standing behind her.
Owen looked toward Piper.
“You wanted the truth,” he said.
Dylan placed one hand on Sasha’s shoulder.
“Now tell everyone what you agreed to.”