Chapter 6

Every camera in the room swung toward the three of us.

Ethan and Michelle stood together, while I faced them alone. I was still clutching the bouquet I had brought for my proposal, and suddenly, I felt like a complete fool.

Michelle looked at me with wounded eyes. "Sara, I really didn't want to say anything, but this project is my baby. I can't just stand here and watch someone else take it away from me."

Then, where the cameras couldn't catch it, a smug look flashed across her face.

I turned to Ethan. He stood beside her, looking furious, and my first thought was that Michelle had fooled him too.

As angry as I was, I forced myself to stay calm and turned to face the crowd. "I didn't steal anything. I can prove it."

I always saved my early drafts with timestamps. As long as I could prove that my drafts predated the final project, her accusation would fall apart.

But Michelle seemed to know exactly what I was going to do.

She pulled out her phone and brought up a set of concept sketches. "Sara, my drafts are dated even earlier than yours."

Shocked murmurs rippled through the crowd.

The moment I saw Michelle's concept sketches, my mind went blank.

I had only ever shared those ideas with Ethan. I turned to him, but he immediately looked away, too guilty to meet my eyes.

That was all the confirmation I needed. All that talk about marriage had just been a ruse. He had planned all of this just to help Michelle.

The man standing in front of me suddenly felt like a stranger.

Then Ethan spoke, and for a moment, everything around me seemed to slow. "I can prove it. For a while now, Sara has been using her position as Michelle's supervisor to make things difficult for her."

This time, the entire room erupted.

I barely remembered how I made it out of there that day with everyone whispering about me and pointing fingers.

An investigation was launched almost immediately. Then, on the very first day, the story blew up online and quickly became one of the top trending topics.

People dug up the fact that Ethan was both my boyfriend and my supervisor, which only made his accusations seem more credible.

They also found out that I had consistently given Michelle poor evaluations, while Ethan had given her top marks every time.

Before long, people claiming to be Michelle's friends started speaking up for her online, saying she had always been a model student with excellent grades and a spotless reputation.

To the public, it only seemed to confirm that I had been deliberately holding her back.

Some of my coworkers had never liked me to begin with. They comforted me to my face, then hid behind burner accounts and trashed me online.

They claimed they worked with me and that I had been targeting Michelle out of jealousy because she and Ethan had gotten too close.

I could tell Michelle and Ethan were behind all of it, but I had no way to fight back.

Before the investigation was even finished, the backlash online became so intense that the company owner called me in for a meeting.

He framed it as taking some time off, but I knew exactly what it was. They were suspending me.

That was when I finally gave up. I handed in my resignation, fled the country, and didn't come back for eight years.

"Come on, Sara. Don't stay mad at Ethan. He was wrong, but disappearing without a word wasn't exactly fair either. Besides, he's clearly serious about making things right this time."

Michelle's voice pulled me back to the present.

I came back to my senses to find Ethan, usually so cold and aloof, down on one knee in front of me, smiling as he held out a ring.

"Sara, it's all in the past now. Let's start over. Marry me—"

Before he could finish, two young voices called out at once, "Mommy, why are there so many people here?"

A boy and a girl, clearly twins, came hurrying toward me hand in hand, practically skipping with excitement.