Drowning In His Lies

Chapter 7: I Say Yes, But...

I look at Jaden on his knees. I look at the 200 million contract. My hands are shaking.

All my life, I wanted two things: to be loved, and to be powerful. One year ago, he took both from me. Today, he is offering both back.

"Get up, Jaden," I whisper.

He stands up, but he still holds my hand.

"If I forgive you," I say, my voice breaking, "it doesn't mean what you did didn't happen. It means I am tired of carrying the pain."

"I know," he says.

"If I say yes... we do it on my terms."

"Anything."

"First," I say, pulling my hand away and sitting down like the CEO I am, "you will go outside and tell everyone that Clause 9b is removed. We will sign the original 200 million partnership, 50/50 profit, no share transfer. Because I, M.C. Jones, did not build Starlight Media by stealing from men. I built it myself."

He smiles. A real smile this time. "Okay."

"Second, you will make a public apology. Not to me. To every girl you and your friends have ever hurt with those stupid videos. You will post it on your i********: with 1 million followers. And you will donate 20 million to a foundation for girls."

"I will do it today."

"Third..." I pause. Tears finally fall. "You will never, ever leave me alone in a hotel room again."

He wipes my tears with his thumb. The same thumb that once wiped my tears when we were in love.

"I promise," he says. "I will never leave you. Not in a hotel, not in life."

He brings the small black box again. He opens it.

The cheap silver ring is still there, shining.

"Mimi Jones," he says, kneeling one more time, "will you marry me? Not because I owe you. But because I never stopped loving the girl in the red dress at the pool club."

The boardroom door is still locked. Outside, 10 people are waiting. Tola is probably calling my mother.

I look at the ring. I look at him.

One year ago, I drowned in his lies.

Today, I have a choice to swim with him, or to drown him.

I take a deep breath.

"Yes," I say. "But not because you are Jaden Cole, the billionaire. Because you are Jaden, the boy who saved me at St. Jude's hospital when I didn't even know."

He slips the ring onto my finger. It still fits.

Perfectly.

Outside, someone knocks. "Madam? Everything okay?"

Jaden and I look at each other and laugh. Real laugh, after one year.

"Everything is more than okay," Jaden shouts.

I open the door. Everyone rushes in.

Tola's eyes go straight to the ring on my finger. Her mouth opens.

"Madam... is that..."

"Yes," I say loudly so everyone can hear. "Starlight Media and Cole Energy are now partners. And... I and Mr. Cole are now... more than partners."

The whole boardroom screams.

Jaden holds my waist.

And for the first time in one year, I don't feel like a girl who drowned.

I feel like a woman who learned how to walk on water.

But my story is not over.

Because tomorrow, his fiancee from London is landing in Port Harcourt.

And she has no idea her fiance just proposed to another woman.