Total pages in book: 20
Estimated words: 18371 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 92(@200wpm)___ 73(@250wpm)___ 61(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 18371 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 92(@200wpm)___ 73(@250wpm)___ 61(@300wpm)
“What do you want, Ethan?” I ask, my voice choked and weak in my throat. “More lies to tell?”
“More lies to disprove,” he replies. “I guess you haven’t checked out social media today?”
I scoff and shake my head. “I haven’t checked anything.”
“Clearly. Not my calls, texts, voicemails,” he says. “Well, if you had…you would have seen this.”
He pulls out his phone and steps forward, but I just wave my hands and step back. “No, no thank you. I don’t need to see any more shit. Justin showed me enough, okay?”
“Right, Justin,” he growls. “Always trying his best to ruin my life. This time with fake photos of me in The Congo supervising the mines, is that right?”
I look up, surprised. How could he know about that?
“Yeah, that’s right,” he says, finally displaying something akin to a smile. “I told you you should have looked at social media today. Can you finally look at what I have to show you now?”
My stomach and chest are feeling some kind of way that I can’t explain. Something is pulling me toward him. Can it really hurt just to take a peek at whatever it is he wants to show me? I mean, how can what I’ve been going through get any worse?
“Fine,” I reply. “But only because I want to. Not because you’ve made a very good argument.”
“Fine.” Ethan smirks.
I walk closer, but not too close, and lean in to see a post from Ethan’s Twitter that once I read, causes me to gasp out loud.
“Oh my God, Ethan…”
“See?” he chuckles. “I told you.”
What I’m looking at are two photos side by side, proving that once again, Justin Hathaway was behind this. And I fell for his smearing of my boyfriend a second time.
On the right is the photo he showed me of Ethan, standing in the jungle, overlooking the mines like some kind of foreman, and on the left is the exact same photo with only one difference—the face on the man is Justin Hathaway’s face, not Ethan’s.
“I had my tech guys scrub the image after Justin sent this over to the company this morning demanding blueprints on our generator as blackmail for not releasing it to the press,” Ethan explains. “As it turns out, it’s a deep-fake, that technique they use where they digitally replace one person’s face with another’s. Even Hollywood is using it these days for actors in movies to digitally de-age their actors.”
“Oh my God, Ethan…” I whisper. “So…Justin owns those mines?”
“That’s right.” He nods. “He edited those photos of himself, slapped my face on them to make everyone think it was me, and was going to release them to the world in a last-ditch attempt to ruin me.”
I didn’t even realize how much weight I was carrying around with me until it releases from my body. The tears I was holding back flow from my eyes and begin to trickle down my cheeks.
“I’m so sorry, baby,” I cry. “I should have had more faith in you.”
Ethan shakes his head. “It’s okay. I understand. This is on Justin—not you.”
“You’ll take me back?” I sob as all the emotion pours out of me.
“Take you back?” Ethan asks, dropping to one knee. He pulls out a little black box, and my heart stops as he opens it and shows it to me.
The most beautiful diamond ring sparkles from within.
It can’t be…can it?
“I want to keep you, Whitney. Keep you like I’ve always wanted to keep you,” he says. “From the moment I saw you and fell in love with you, no one has ever made me feel more alive than you, my love. I want you to be my wife. I want you by my side for every single day. I want you forever. So let’s stop playing around and make it official.”
I’m in complete disbelief. These last twenty-four-hours could not be any crazier. Am I dreaming?
“So please, Whitney Fisher, will you light up my life for the rest of my life and marry me?”
“Yes!” I blurt out, throwing myself into his arms. Ethan laughs as he nearly topples over catching me. He stands up and spins me around as I giggle and shower him with kisses, finally finding his lips.
Our mouths lock, and we embrace for what feels like forever until he sets me down and slips the ring onto my finger. I look down at it, giggling and crying at the same time.
“It’s so beautiful!”
“Just like you,” Ethan replies, gently stroking his fingers through my hair. Somehow today just went from the worst day of my life to the best in the span of a few minutes. I look up at Ethan, who is smiling at me with all the love in the world, and know that I will never distrust him again.
I spin around and tear open the door to my parents’ house, waving my left hand in the air.