I was in a stunned daze—no other way to describe it. Everything that had happened since Damien sent me home last night had been surreal, dreamlike.

But I’d been ready to chalk it up to the pressure catching up to Bryce. I knew that the strong, stoic act that he’d put on after the death of his father couldn’t hold up, and I was ready to cut him some slack for getting dead drunk and passing out.

When I went back down to the party, however, there was something strange in the air. Felicity and Hunter were there, and when I stopped by them to say hello they both regarded me with the same amused demeanor, as I was the butt of some joke.

I wanted to leave right away. I was ready to put the evening behind me and turn my attention to the more important subject the baby, of letting Bryce know that his life was about to change forever.

A text from Bess on the way home from the party changed all that. The text read, “Check the San Francisco Tattler, right fucking now.”

Confused as to what the hell she was talking about, I’d pulled up the website. And as soon as I saw what was on the front page I felt like my guts had been ripped out.

There were Bryce and Felicity, standing on the balcony and sharing a kiss, her hand on his hip.

I dropped the phone onto the floor of the limo, my hands shaking. I couldn’t believe what I’d seen.

The driver pulled up to the apartment, and my first inclination was to tell him to keep driving so I could leave all of that behind. Instead, however, I went back up to the apartment so I could sleep and deal with it in the cold light of day.

I thought it couldn’t get any worse. But the news I woke up to made it very clear that yes, it most definitely could.

Another text from Bess, another suggestion to check the local gossip rags.

There’d been another one of those mass phone-hackings that had been so common in the last few years. And the one on the front page of the Tattler was the hacking of none other than Bryce Carver’s phone.

When I’d read the headline and nothing else, I assumed that there’d be nothing. After all, I wasn’t exactly a sexting kind of girl, and as far as I knew every conversation between Bryce and I had been pretty tame—and we’d made sure to avoid sending texts that might’ve revealed our fake engagement plan.

But as I scrolled down the page, I realized that “tame“ didn’t begin to describe what had been found on Bryce’s phone. There was picture after picture of Felicity, each one a mirror selfie of her posing in lingerie, a sultry expression on her face.

The mystery of why Bryce had been so cagey about his phone over the last week was revealed.

That tore it. I wanted nothing to do with that man. I was carrying his child, sure, but there wasn’t a chance that I’d let a liar and cheat like him take any role in raising this child, my child.

I had no idea what I was going to do next. But I was certain what I needed to do at that moment, and it was to get away from Bryce.

So, I told Barbara what had happened. I was worried that her first instinct might be to take her son’s side, but she was with me all the way. I told her that I was going back to my old apartment to start the process of leaving this all behind.

Then I packed my things and left.

And now I was in my small, cramped apartment in the Mission, pacing back and forth and wondering what the hell I was going to do next.

I had to figure out what to do about my job. There was no way I could keep working with Bryce as closely as I had been. But the work that I’d been doing over the last month had been like nothing else I’d ever done.

Bryce hadn’t lied about that—it was the entrepreneurship opportunity I’d been hoping for all my life. It’d been challenging and difficult and stressful but so satisfying I couldn’t put it into words.

But I’d leave that behind, take my experience, and move onto new things. Maybe even start another company—who knows?

For now, I needed to recover. I sat curled up on the couch, my apartment dead silent aside from the low humming of the fridge. My hand, as it had done so many times since Monday, drifted down and settled on my belly.

There was something inside of me that was more important than my job or my relationship with Bryce or anything else. I had to be strong not just for me, but for the baby.

And right at that moment, my phone buzzed on the coffee table, the words “Bryce Carver” on the screen.

My first instinct was to reach over and hit “silent.” Once the call was silenced, I tried to get back to my thoughts.

But then the phone rang again. I put that call to silent too.

Then another call.

Another silent.

Then, moments later, text.

“I’m here, at your apartment. Please, talk to me.”

I sighed and shoved the phone across the table, the thing buzzing with another incoming text as soon as I did. I leaned over to look at it.

“If you want to get rid of me, that’s fine—I get it. But at least hear me out first.”

I shook my head, not wanting to hear his excuses.

But then the next text changed everything.

“I know about the baby.”

My heart stopped in my chest. I didn’t know how he’d found out, but he had—the proof was right there on the screen in front of me. Had Barbara told him? She’d clearly told him right where I was.

I hadn’t known what I was going to do with Bryce and the baby. I knew that I had to tell him at some point, but only after I’d had time to process the hell I’d just been through.

But I knew now that there was no putting it off. I had to talk to Bryce, and I had to do it now.

I picked up the phone and texted him.

“Buzzing you in now.”

“Thank you,” was the reply.

I hit the button to unlock the front door, tension forming in my gut as soon as I did. I had no idea what I was going to say to him. Part of me wanted to run at him with claws out as soon as I laid eyes on him. But the other part of me hoped that whatever he had to say would solve everything.

I loved him and hated him, all at the same time.

A knock sounded at the door. I took a deep, slow breath and opened it.

Bryce looked haggard, to put it kindly. His handsome faced was tired and worn. Clearly, the combined effects of the booze and the news were wearing on him.

“Hey,” he said.

“You look like hell,” I responded, my body tense.

“Can I come in?” he asked. “We need to talk.”

Letting him stand out in the hallway wasn’t an option, and I’d already gone so far as to let him into the building. I stepped aside and gave him space to enter.

He sat down in the recliner and I took a seat from him across from the couch.

“Well,” I said. “You’re here. Say what you need to say.”

He didn’t waste any time.

“It’s a lie—all of it.”

I couldn’t help but snort. “No shit,” I said. “The two of us have been living a lie for the last month and a half.”

“You know what I’m talking about,” he said. “What happened last night—it wasn’t what it looks like.”

I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at him hard.

“And what, exactly, is it? Because over the course of the last twelve hours I’ve seen pictures of you locking lips with Felicity and shots of her stolen from your phone. How exactly is that not what it looks like?”

“Because she’s been chomping at the bit to try to get back with me ever since she found out that I was with you. And last night I got drunk as hell—stupidly. She must’ve seen that I was out of my head and swooped in.”

I wasn’t convinced. “And how do I know you didn’t go along with it?”

He glanced away for a moment before turning his eyes back to mine. As he looked at me, I couldn’t help but notice the pain in his eyes. If he was lying, he was putting on an award-winning performance.

“That shot is the split second it took my booze-soaked brain to realize what was happening before I pushed her away from me.”

“And the pictures on your phone?”

“She’d been sending them for the last week or so,” he said. “I know I should’ve blocked her number but I didn‘t—I figured it’d cause more drama than it’d be worth.” Then he raised finger. “And then I got to thinking, don’t you think it’s strange that the very night that Felicity makes a move, a photo that someone catches at just the right moment, is also the same night my phone gets hacked?”

I hadn’t thought about it so directly before, but he was right—it was odd.

“And didn’t you say you’d seen Hunter and Becca and Walsh together more than a few times?”

“…Yeah, I had. What are you getting at?”

“This all seems like too much of a coincidence to me. Hunter’s furious about the social division, and your other founders are just as mad about you moving up in the company. And everyone knows that the company expanding is all contingent on securing investment. A scandal like this could take care of all those problems at once.”

It sounded plausible.

“And how do I know this isn’t just you lying again?”

“You don’t,” he said. “But this is the best I can do. All I can ask is that you trust me.”

I didn’t know what to say. Bryce stood up and took a seat next to me. I was surprised at how my first instinct was to feel relief that he was by my side.

“Chelsea, this all started as a stupid plan that I cooked up—get a woman to pretend to be my fiancée, secure the funding, and that’d be that. Sounded so good in my head, like it’d be the easiest thing in the world. But deep down, I think I knew it wasn’t going to be easy the moment I laid eyes on you.”

A small voice inside of me wanted to tell him to save his sweet words. Part of me still wanted to be mad.

But I said nothing, letting him go on.

“I knew there was something special about you from that first moment in the elevator. I told myself that you were nothing more than the perfect woman for the plan, but deep down I knew that there was something more to you, something special.” He pressed the heels of his palms against his eyes and took a deep breath, turned his eyes back to me. “And over the next few weeks I learned just how right I was. You’re beautiful as hell, sure. But you’re also strong and brilliant and kind and loving. Over time, I learned that you weren’t just the woman I wanted for a fake marriage, but the woman I wanted for real love.”

He took my hands into his.

“I love you, Chelsea,” he said. “I’ve known it for a long time, but I was just too scared to tell you. Too scared about what it all meant. But seeing you here in front of me, knowing that you’re carrying my child, there’s nothing I’ve been more certain about in my life. And I’d leave behind everything I had to convince you how I feel.”

I didn’t say a word—there was nothing I could say.

“What we have has all been built on a lie. But the love I feel for you is anything but that. And the baby inside of you is about as real as it gets. So, I want to make our love real to the world.”

I watched as he took his hand from mine and slipped it into his pants pocket. He took something out and I gasped when I saw what it was.

It was a gorgeous, antique diamond ring.

“I bought the ring you had thinking the bigger the better,” he said, the slightest hint of a smile tugging on one corner of his mouth. “My mom set me straight, though.”

He held the ring in front of me.

“I’m ready to be here for you,” he said. “I’m ready to be the husband you deserve, and the father to our baby. I’m ready to be your lover and your partner and everything else. No more lies, never again. And the rest is up to you, baby. What do you say? Will you marry me? For real?”

I didn’t want to be mad any longer. Listening to his words, I knew, just knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he was telling me the truth. I knew that he loved me, and I knew that he wanted me.

And I felt the same way.

I threw my arms around him, nearly knocking the ring out of his hand.

“Yes!” I shouted out, throwing my arms around Bryce and pulling him close.

I was ready to leave the lies behind. At that moment, all I wanted was Bryce.

He reached down and took the first ring, the one that had started this whole lie off, from my finger. Then he replaced it with the new one. It fit my finger perfectly.

Bryce placed his hand on my chin and brought me in for a close kiss, my heart soaring as he did.

“You have no idea how happy you’ve made me,” he said. “And I’m going to spend the rest of my life showing you how true my words are.”

I was overjoyed. But then, the matter of the lie that had nearly torn us apart returned to my thoughts.

“Before we start the wedding planning,” I said, “we’ve got some other matters to deal with.”

He nodded, a sly smile forming on his lips. “Something tells me you’ve got a plan,” he said.

“Sure do,” I said. “I’d bet you anything that if Hunter and the rest hacked your phone that they didn’t cover their tracks very well. And they didn’t count on having the best tech woman in the company coming after them.”

“You think you’ll be able to pull it off?” he asked.

“I think I can make something happen,” I said with a smile. “Just as long as you’re ready to do it together.”

He took my hands.

“Ready if you are.”