Chapter 266 – Beginning with a Daring Encounter

“How about you help by excusing me so that I can focus on this?” Harry asked hopefully.

“But I really want to help,” Jade insisted with a pout.

“I don’t need your help. If you need to help your brothers, then give either of them a call and find out what is going on and how we can help them from here,” Harry suggested instead.

“You’re so mean and cold,” Jade muttered as she walked out of the bedroom, and without sparing her a glance, Harry returned his attention to the text he was composing.

Once Jade got to her bedroom she slumped on her bed, and lay face up as she considered how she could help her brothers. Not necessarily her brothers but their girlfriends, since the scandals was revolving around both ladies. Wasn’t that weird? Was it a coincidence that the two best friends who were dating her brothers were in a mess at the same time? Were they in a mess because they were best friends? Or was it because they were dating her brothers? Or was it because they were two best friends who were dating her brothers?

She sat up when her phone started ringing and she quickly received the call when she saw that it was Bryan, “Bryan?” She asked immediately it connected.

“It’s Bryan unless of course, you were expecting someone else to be with my phone. I wonder why,” Bryan said dryly, and Jade felt relieved to know that he was sounding like his usual sarcastic self.

“I was really worried about you. How are you? And why did you turn off your phone?” Jade asked with concern.

“Are you really asking me that because you don’t know why?”

Jade sighed, “How are you now? And where are you?”

“I’m standing by a bridge. I felt I should say goodbye to you before I jump,” Bryan said, and Jade’s brows pulled together as she tried to figure out whether he was joking or pulling her legs.

Bryan chuckled when Jade didn’t say anything, “Relax. I was just pulling your legs. Why would your voice be the last I want to hear before jumping to my death? I’m at Benne’s house,” Bryan said, and Jade let out the breath she hadn’t realized she was holding.

“Oh, that’s such a relief! And you better stop making useless jokes. How is Benne? And what are you both doing? I saw the news about your engagement with Sonia. Don’t you think you have something to tell me?”

“Benne’s okay. Just busy. We are busy. What do you want me to tell you?” Bryan asked, playing dumb.

“We both know that I suspected from the start that your engagement was fake even when you kept insisting that it was real. I have no doubt that feelings must have been developed between you two since then, but I want to hear the truth now.”

“Does it matter?”

“It does. And I want to hear the truth right now.”

Bryan sighed. He was going to have to tell his family the truth eventually anyway, “Fine.”

Jade listened in disbelief as Bryan went on to tell her how he had approached Sonia at the lobby of the hotel and popped the question to her the first time he set eyes on her.

“Wait! What? Just like that? A random stranger? Are you crazy? What were you thinking? That you were shooting one of your romance movies? Or what?” Jade asked incredulously.

“I thought someone as pretty as she might be in a relationship and she would reject me,” Bryan pointed out.

“Why would you think that? You are wealthy, good-looking, famous and any right-thinking gold-digging girl in a relationship wouldn’t mind breaking up with her man just to be with you. I’m not saying Sonia is a golddigger, I’m just pointing out a fact that you obviously didn’t consider. You could have been blackmailed!”

“But I wasn’t. All of that doesn’t matter now. I’m in love with her, and she loves me too.”

Jade let out a sigh. He was right. “I guess she broke up with you because of her involvement with Celsie?”

“Yes. But we have made up now. The only problem now is all the false accusations being hurled at her by my agency. This whole thing is my fault and Sonia only played along,” Bryan said with a sigh.

“Have you figured out who could have exposed your false engagement to the press yet?” Jade asked curiously.

“I’ve been thinking about it. It couldn’t have been mere speculation, right?” Bryan asked thoughtfully.

“No. What are the chances? Without documented evidence, such a piece of news would never have been brought to the press. So whoever exposed this probably has evidence.”

Bryan said nothing as he thought about it. Evidence? What evidence could anyone possibly have? Maybe something he could have said at some point? Celsie was the only person Sonia had told about their fake engagement, and seeing how Benne didn’t even know that his engagement to Sonia had been fake, it means Celsie didn’t even tell him. That meant the leak was from his side. The only person who had been there that night was Mia, so she knew for a fact that it was fake. Jeff and the CEO only knew about it after asking Mia and confirming with him.

He had worked with all three of them long enough to know that neither of them was going to just release such information that would harm his career like this, not unless something else was involved and someone had something to gain from this. Or was it the production crew? What evidence could they have?

“So? Have you figured it out yet?” Jade asked when he said nothing after some time.

“I’m not exactly sure. But what evidence could they possibly have? If it was illegally obtained I can sue them, right?” Bryan asked thoughtfully.

“Sure, you can. But that’s not the most important thing right now. Have you come up with a plan to fix it yet?”

“Yeah. We figured that we all do a live video together to show them we are still together and debunk the rumors,”

“The video is a good idea, but rather than just featuring in the video to debunk the rumors, you and Sonia should also tell the truth about your relationship.”

“I don’t think it is anybody’s business,” Bryan said dismissively.

“We both know that you know your life is everybody’s business. That’s what being a celebrity means. Just tell the truth.”

“You are saying we should expose ourselves? What if it backfires and things become even worse?” Bryan asked thoughtfully, weighing the pros and cons.

“It will only become worse if you don’t tell the truth. I’m sure someone is waiting for you to deny the allegations so that they can strike with the evidence. The moment you tell the truth, whatever evidence anyone has against you is useless whether it was legally or illegally obtained. Go with the truth, It’s better that way for you both.”

“Besides, you seem not to realize that you DID NOT commit a crime by proposing to a random stranger, even though it was a stupid move. Your only crime was in making the public believe that you have each other for sometime before the proposal. And you’re also forgetting something important. Everyone likes a beautiful romance story with a bit of crazy in it. What could be more romantic than proposing to a random stranger and then ending up falling in love with her? It has never been heard of, and you’re the very first celebrity to have done something that crazy.”

“If you’re able to tell the truth and clear Sonia’s name, then Sonia can in turn clear Celsie’s name. And then we can all focus on finding the people behind this mess.”

“Did I ever tell you that I love you?” Bryan asked after giving it a thought.

“You can show me just how much you love me by buying me a…” She giggled when she heard the disconnect tone.. That damned brother of hers was always doing that.

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