Secret Vows Unveiled

Chapter2

Daniel, why are we in this room?”

He didn’t answer immediately.

He closed the door behind him and walked to the chair opposite mine.

“Because i want you to answer my questions.”

“Not as your husband.”

These words stung than they should have .

“As the CEO whose company is being dragged into this.”

My stomach tightened.

“This wasn’t just about what people thought of me anymore. If clients and investors believed that the scandal is connected to the company, everything that I and Daniel had built will all vanish in a blink of an eye”.I whispered to myself

“What questions?”

“You know exactly what this is about, Ariana.”

His voice was calm.

“It’s all over the news.”

“Daniel, it’s not what it looks like”.

“Who is that man?”

“I don’t know”.

“Then why were you at the hotel with him?”

“I wasn’t with him.”

Daniel’s jaw tightened.

“I don’t know who the man is, I’m also seeing for the first time.”

“You appeared beside this man in pictures and videos,Ariana.”

“I'm telling you I don’t know him.”

“Not another word”.

I stared at him.

“You are looking at pictures online and treating them as evidence?”

His eyes hardened.

At this point, I wondered if Daniel believed them more than he believed me.

Then,

“Why were you at the hotel?”

“I had a meeting there with our new model”.

Daniel stood .

“A meeting? At the hotel?”.

“It wasn’t supposed to be at the hotel.”

“Then why were you there?”

“He called and said he had been held up in a business suite at the Golden Tulip hotel.”

Daniel moved towards me.

“He was presenting a proposal for our upcoming campaign and expansion” I explained.

“Who knew about this meeting?”Daniel’s eyes remained fixed on mine.

“Ethan”.

“Now,who is this man in the picture?”

“That’s what I don’t understand either,”

Daniel searched my face, looking for a hesitation, flicker of guilt that might expose a lie.

But he couldn’t find any, i had nothing to hide.

“There’s only one way to prove what you’re saying, the hotel’s CCTV footage”.Daniel said.

Daniel’s phone vibrated before he could unlock it.

He bent the phone to me to see.

Investors.

He silenced the call .

“Daniel”….I lowered my voice .This is not the time for us to stay in opposite sides, let’s work together and solve this before it costs our brand”.

I looked at him, thinking maybe we could face it together.

His eyes snapped to mine “We?”

That one word landed harder than it should have.

I stared at him.

He slipped his phone into his pockets and turned away , as if the conversation already ended.

I turned my face away from his, refusing to let him see how much that one word had hurt.

Daniel held his phone again and made a call.

“Ethan, we need to access the CCTV Footage from the Golden tulip hotel”.

“I have it already sir, but..”

Ethan voice flattered on the other end.

Daniel expressions hardened.

“But what?”

“I couldn’t find any footage with Madam Ariana in it”.

I turned toward Daniel.

“How?”

“That’s strange”, I whispered. “What about internal footage?,There must be something showing i was actually there”.

Ethan replied, “let me contact their IT department and request access”.

My phone vibrated.

I pulled it out from my bag, only to find out it’s flooded with notifications. My thumb hovered over the screen before i could open the social media.

“The demise of power couple”.

Daniel grabbed my phone before i could read the next comment from i********:.

I didn’t argue.

For once i was grateful he stopped me from reading more.

The knock sounded at the door.

Daniel went and opened to see who is here.

Ethan stood outside , his laptop bag hang over one shoulder.

“ I got it” . He said as he dropped his laptop bag from his back.

He pulled out his laptop and opened it.

Daniel moved closer.

I followed.

We all leaned towards the screen as Ethan opened the footage.

There I was .

Sitting across our new model , files spread across the table while discussing. My lips moved as i explained and he nodded along.

I leaned closer to the screen.

That’s me.

Finally, something that proved I wasn’t lying.

Daniel didn’t say a word.

His eyes remained fixed on the screen as Ethan switched to the exterior cameras at the hotel.

The screen went black.

Ethan tried another angle .

Nothing.

“The footage outside the hotel is gone!”I whispered.

Ethan leaned closer to the screen , his fingers flying across the keyboard.

“It wasn’t missing”. He said. “ someone deleted it”.

“Deleted?”

“Yes” Ethan nodded.

“If the footage showed i had been inside the hotel, why erase the one outside?”

My eyes shifted to Daniel.

His expression unreadable, still staring at the screen.

Ethan interrupted the silence.

“ My team and I are looking to identify the authenticity of the pictures.”

Daniel’s phone rang again.

He glanced at the screen before answering

“Hello”.

Daniel picked up the phone.

A tense voice came through the speaker.

“We have been waiting for answers but we got none, maybe it’s best if we invested our time and money in more serious brands “.

Daniel straightened.

“Wait”..

The call ended.

He lowered his phone and slide it in his pockets.

“One investor had already walked away, how many more will follow?”. I whispered to myself.

“My team discovered something strange from the circulating pictures”

Ethan’s voice pulled us back to the laptop.

Daniel turned to him immediately.

“What ?”

“The picture that has been circulating”.

He zoomed in.

“ The lightings do not match , the shadows as well”.

My eyes narrowed.

“And the fingers are distorted”.

Daniel leaned closer .

“What are you trying to say?”.

Ethan hesitated a moment before answering.

The original image was manipulated.

“It was AI generated “

I stared at the photograph again.

The man beside me suddenly looked less like a stranger but a shadow that someone deliberately placed into my life.

“The man..”

Ethan met my eyes.

“ Never existed”

But my relief didn’t last .

“If the picture was fake and the CCCTV footage was erased . This isn’t a coincidence .”

Neither of them answered.

I looked at one after the other.

“Who did this?”.

Ethan’s expression hardened.

“ That’s what we need to find out”.

Daniel cleared his throat.

“Exactly, who would go this far to destroy us?”

Before any of us could put the pieces together,my phone buzzed .

A message.

I read it out loud for all of them to hear.

“You might win this , but this is just the beginning,see you tomorrow at the gala”.

I stared at the screen until it went dark.

Daniel slammed his hand against the table.

“ Who is this playing with our minds?”