All Chapters of He Said He Was Single, So I Made It True: Chapter 1 - Chapter 9

9 Chapters

Chapter 1

The next morning, I had barely stepped into the office when content director dropped a TikTok link into the company group chat.The caption read: WHEN YOUR CEO GIVES HIS ASSISTANT A PRIVATE GOLF LESSON.Overnight, it had racked up more than a million views.The marketing team had decided to capitalize on the attention. They approved a new social media series featuring Ethan and Chloe, called The Aster Edit.And I was assigned to edit it.A friend of Chloe’s sent me a folder of clips they’d recorded over the past six months. One showed Ethan taking off his scarf and wrapping it around Chloe’s neck. I checked the date. It was my birthday.I had cooked dinner and waited for him from seven until midnight, when he finally texted me.A client isn’t feeling well. I’m taking her home. Don’t wait up.I believed him.I even left the soup warming on the stove in case he came home hungry.So there had never been a sick client who needed his personal attention. There had only been Chloe.A coworke

Chapter 2

The next day, Ethan and Chloe filmed another episode of Aster Edit.The director had them answer a few rapid-fire questions about each other. Chloe knew Ethan’s coffee order, and Ethan remembered the lunch she ordered before every important meeting.Each correct answer made the crew cheer louder.When the cameras stopped, one of the stylists laughed.“You two look perfect together.”Ethan didn’t correct her.He simply leaned back in his chair and let his gaze drift toward me.I stood behind the monitor without looking at him, my head lowered as I noted the usable timecodes.During a break, Chloe went back to the office to get a file for Ethan. As she reached into her bag for her keys, a blue key card slipped out and fell to the floor.I bent down and picked it up.A small bear sticker was peeling away from the back.I had put that sticker on the spare key card to our apartment.Chloe took it from me and hurriedly thanked me. “Ethan’s always leaving files at home. He asked me to keep a

Chapter 3

Ethan and I drove to his mother’s birthday dinner on Thursday evening. I hadn’t expected to find Chloe already sitting beside Mrs. Carter when we arrived.When she saw me, she simply nodded and said, “Lena, you’re here,” as if she were greeting a familiar guest. Then she turned back to Chloe.“I heard you sang with an a cappella group at Yale,” she said, her face lighting up. “Ethan played violin with the MIT Symphony Orchestra. It would be wonderful if the two of you performed together at the foundation gala this winter.”Chloe smiled. “Only if Ethan agrees.” “Oh, I’m sure he will.” Ethan glanced at me, clearly waiting for the reaction I used to give him.“That sounds lovely,” I said.Something flickered in Ethan’s eyes.Mrs. Carter had known about our engagement from the beginning. She had simply never treated it as real. In her mind, Ethan deserved someone like Chloe—someone polished, accomplished, and easy to present to the world. I was the content editor she expected to remain b

Chapter 4

Ethan did not come after me that night. He still believed I had only taken this fight further than usual.I had left before.Once, after an argument, I stayed at a hotel for two nights. Another time, I ignored his calls until morning.But I had always come back.So after the livestream ended, Ethan drove home with the black velvet box on the passenger seat.He thought I needed time to calm down and I would answer his calls by Tomorrow. Once he explained and gave me the necklace, everything would return to normal.It was nearly midnight when he opened the apartment door.The living room was dark.“Lena?”No one answered.He switched on the lights.For a moment, the apartment looked the same.The couch cushions were straight. My mug was still in the drying rack. The blanket I usually kept over the armchair had disappeared, but he did not notice that yet.He set the velvet box on the kitchen island.“Lena?”The bedroom door was open.Ethan walked inside and stopped in front of the closet.

Chapter 5

By afternoon, everyone at Aster knew that the campaign had been canceled.The videos featuring Ethan and Chloe were removed from the company’s content calendar. Their scheduled livestream was reassigned. PR was told that no future campaign should suggest a romantic relationship between them.No explanation was given.Chloe walked into Ethan’s office shortly after three, carrying the presentation deck for their next product launch.She closed the door behind her. “This is because of Lena, isn’t it?”Ethan did not look up from his laptop.“The campaign is over.”“And what happens to me?”“You go back to the job you were hired to do.”Chloe stood still.“So I manage your calendar, arrange your meetings, and pretend none of this happened?”“That was always your job.”She gave a short laugh, but there was no amusement in it.“When people first started calling me the future Mrs. Carter, you were in that Slack channel.”Ethan’s fingers stopped above the keyboard.“You reacted to the message,”

Chapter 6

I chose a café across town, in a neighborhood I hadn’t have chance to explore.Ethan was already there when I arrived. He stood when he saw me. His eyes moved first to my left hand.The ring was gone. He already knew that. He had found it on the nightstand, resting on top of my apartment key.Still, he looked.“Twenty minutes,” I said as I sat down across from him. “Let’s not waste them.”He sat down slowly.“I stopped the campaign,” he said. “The videos are coming down. Chloe won’t appear in any more of them.”“You told me that.”“I know.” He laced his fingers together on the table. “I should have stopped it sooner.”He paused before adding, “I’m sorry.”I had imagined hearing those words for so long that I once thought they would change everything. Now they settled between us, small and late.“I can tell people the truth,” he said. “I can say we were engaged. I can correct what I said on the livestream.”“No.”He looked down at the table. “You wanted me to acknowledge you.”I wanted

Chapter 7

He went ahead and told the world we’d been engaged. A week after our conversation at the café, Maya from IT at my new company came to my desk in the morning, phone in her hand. “Lena, is this you?”On the screen was a post from an entertainment news account. The headline read:ASTER CEO REVEALS SECRET ENGAGEMENT AFTER LIVESTREAM “SINGLE” ANSWERBeneath it, the outlet had reposted a statement from Ethan’s account:The day Lena agreed to marry me was one of the happiest days of my life. I said I was single during a livestream. That was wrong. I’m sorry to everyone I hurt. I love you, Lena. Forever and always.I read it twice. He had told the truth, but only part of it. He’d left out that I’d returned the ring and ended our engagement. Now he’d turned our private history into a public spectacle.“I’m sorry,” Maya said. “I didn’t mean to put you on the spot.”“You didn’t.”I looked at the post again. Thousands of people had already shared it. The comments were filling with questions.Wai

Chapter 8

By next morning, several outlets had updated their stories. Aster’s official account also released a short statement confirming that my work and campaign assignments had been based on my role and performance. The company regretted that private information had been disclosed without my consent and asked the public to respect my privacy.It didn’t make the story disappear, but at least Aster made clear that my work there had been my own.During the project meeting that day, the colleague who had made the remark about Ethan stayed quiet.The department head listened through my proposal, then slid two pages back across the table.“Redo these sections. The data doesn’t support your recommendation.”I wrote down her comments. To my surprise, I felt myself start to relax.I didn’t have to wait up for Ethan after another late night at the office with Chloe, or watch him bring her to company events while I stayed a secret. I could also stop worrying that people would dismiss my work as a favor

Chapter 9

For several days after the conversation in the parking garage, I kept thinking about the box, not because I wanted to go back, but because it changed the shape of the past. He had imagined a life with me. He had made plans. And each time, he had decided there was something more urgent than keeping them.Work went on. There were new briefs, revisions, and meetings where no one cared who I had once been engaged to. I made mistakes and corrected them. I learned which ideas held up with an audience and which needed another pass. Slowly, my colleagues began coming to me with questions about the work.Life went on, too. At first, the empty apartment sometimes felt painfully quiet. There were weekends when I wanted someone to share dinner with or simply sit together on the couch. But gradually, I began discovering a life of my own. Maya took me hiking in Griffith Park, and a few coworkers invited me to a Sunday farmers’ market. I tried new restaurants on a whim and made weekend plans withou

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