I'd been prepared for James to pull the same old tricks again, to go after my parents or Anna just to force me to give in.
But instead, he made a high-profile public announcement.
He was throwing me a birthday banquet two days later.
The news exploded across every platform, impossible to ignore.
The largest LED screen in Aurelia played a loop of old photos of James and me, one after another.
Radio stations, subway platforms, shopping mall billboards, major news outlets, every corner of Aurelia was flooded with the announcement overnight.
A media outlet even revealed that James had spent a fortune on a custom pink diamond ring, a one-of-a-kind piece in the entire world.
Another rumor claimed he had purchased a private island in the Pacific and planned to hold our wedding there.
Anna
