Chapter 244 - Tell The Truth

Even though Tom had asked him to just focus on Jade's case and leave the company and Lucy's issue to him, Harry couldn't help being restless. He was bothered by all that was going on, especially since he was already involved in all of it. 

Somehow even though he wasn't very close to Lucy, he had come to become fond of teasing her, so his worry wasn't just because of his duty to Tom. Lucy was someone Tom was in love with, and Tom was his best friend.

He stared blankly at the laptop screen in front of him, before picking up his phone. He went on social media to take a look at all that was happening, and he was slightly relieved to see that Lucy now had people who were defending and supporting her.

His relief was soon replaced with curiosity, and then anger as he read through the old news clips that were attached to the posts, and he suddenly understood Tom's reaction when he saw what Lucy had endured at such a young age, and was being forced to face again now because of someone stupid who had posted started this news without checking the facts.

He felt disappointed in himself for trying to stop Tom from getting 'too' involved because of the little pressure he had faced. The pressure he had faced was nothing compared to what Lucy was facing. Lucy needed all the love and support she could get, and he was sure that most of the shareholders had daughters too and would be able to understand Lucy and relate with her family once they saw all of this. 

He downloaded all the attached photos and connected his phone to his system so that he could copy the photos before logging into his Gmail account on his system. He copied all the shareholders he could, as he started to compose a text.

He raised his head when his bedroom door was suddenly pushed open a while later and Jade raised her hands in defense when he glared at her.

"Don't give me that look. I'm properly covered, and I knocked but you didn't respond so I had to come in," she said defensively as she approached him, dressed in a flowing dress.

"What do you want?" He asked impatiently.

"Are you busy?" 

"As you can see," Harry said, still looking at her as he waited for her to say what she wanted to say and leave so that he could return to what he was doing.

"With what?" Jade asked as she made to sit on his bed, but one look at the way he looked at her, she straightened up and sighed, "I thought we were past this now and was beginning to work well together. Besides, what are you busy doing? It's weekend, and Tom already asked you to focus on my case. Is that what you are working on?" Jade asked as she tried to take a peek at what he was doing.

Seeing how curious she was, and knowing that she wasn't going to leave until he answered her question, Harry handed his phone to her so that she would see the development on Lucy's case, "I'm sure you've been too busy with your case to follow up on this."

"Wow!" Jade murmured as she went to sit by his dressing table while she digested all she was reading, "That must have been tough for a girl at that age," she said with a deep frown when she finished, and returned his phone to him.

"I thought so too," He said as he turned his laptop to her so that she would see what he was trying to do, "I'm trying to compose an email. I want to send an email to the shareholders with these photos attached. They should at least see the other side of the story before making their judgments," Harry said, and Jade gave him a nod.

"Yeah. I thought as much. I didn't think you would abandon the company just because Tom asked you to. It's not like you," Jade said with a small smile.

"Good. So now that you know what I'm doing can you quietly state what you want and leave?" He asked in a pleading tone.

"I thought you changed your mind about me leaving. How can I help?" She asked, changing the subject from why she had come into the room.

She had actually come in wanting to know if he had heard from his men regarding Jero's current location or if Jero had tried to contact Brandy yet, but that could wait since nobody's life was in danger at the moment. Family came first.

"How about you help by excusing me so that I can focus on this?" Harry asked hopefully.

"But I really want to help," Jade insisted with a pout.

"I don't need your help. If you need to help your brothers, then give either of them a call and find out what is going on and how we can help them from here," Harry suggested instead.

"You're so mean and cold," Jade muttered as she walked out of the bedroom, and without sparing her a glance, Harry returned his attention to the text he was composing.

Once Jade got to her bedroom she slumped on her bed, and lay face up as she considered how she could help her brothers. Not necessarily her brothers but their girlfriends, since the scandals was revolving around both ladies. Wasn't that weird? Was it a coincidence that the two best friends who were dating her brothers were in a mess at the same time? Were they in a mess because they were best friends? Or was it because they were dating her brothers? Or was it because they were two best friends who were dating her brothers?

She sat up when her phone started ringing and she quickly received the call when she saw that it was Bryan, "Bryan?" She asked immediately it connected.

"It's Bryan unless of course, you were expecting someone else to be with my phone. I wonder why," Bryan said dryly, and Jade felt relieved to know that he was sounding like his usual sarcastic self.

"I was really worried about you. How are you? And why did you turn off your phone?" Jade asked with concern.

"Are you really asking me that because you don't know why?"

Jade sighed, "How are you now? And where are you?"

"I'm standing by a bridge. I felt I should say goodbye to you before I jump," Bryan said, and Jade's brows pulled together as she tried to figure out whether he was joking or pulling her legs.

Bryan chuckled when Jade didn't say anything, "Relax. I was just pulling your legs. Why would your voice be the last I want to hear before jumping to my death? I'm at Tom's house," Bryan said, and Jade let out the breath she hadn't realized she was holding.

"Oh, that's such a relief! And you better stop making useless jokes. How is Tom? And what are you both doing? I saw the news about your engagement with Sonia. Don't you think you have something to tell me?" 

"Tom's okay. Just busy. We are busy. What do you want me to tell you?" Bryan asked, playing dumb.

"We both know that I suspected from the start that your engagement was fake even when you kept insisting that it was real. I have no doubt that feelings must have been developed between you two since then, but I want to hear the truth now."

"Does it matter?"

"It does. And I want to hear the truth right now."

Bryan sighed. He was going to have to tell his family the truth eventually anyway, "Fine."

Jade listened in disbelief as Bryan went on to tell her how he had approached Sonia at the lobby of the hotel and popped the question to her the first time he set eyes on her.

"Wait! What? Just like that? A random stranger? Are you crazy? What were you thinking? That you were shooting one of your romance movies? Or what?" Jade asked incredulously.

"I thought someone as pretty as she might be in a relationship and she would reject me," Bryan pointed out.

"Why would you think that? You are wealthy, good-looking, famous and any right-thinking gold-digging girl in a relationship wouldn't mind breaking up with her man just to be with you. I'm not saying Sonia is a golddigger, I'm just pointing out a fact that you obviously didn't consider. You could have been blackmailed!" 

"But I wasn't. All of that doesn't matter now. I'm in love with her, and she loves me too." 

Jade let out a sigh. He was right. "I guess she broke up with you because of her involvement with Lucy?" 

"Yes. But we have made up now. The only problem now is all the false accusations being hurled at her by my agency. This whole thing is my fault and Sonia only played along," Bryan said with a sigh.

"Have you figured out who could have exposed your false engagement to the press yet?" Jade asked curiously.

"I've been thinking about it. It couldn't have been mere speculation, right?" Bryan asked thoughtfully.

"No. What are the chances? Without documented evidence, such a piece of news would never have been brought to the press. So whoever exposed this probably has evidence."

Bryan said nothing as he thought about it. Evidence? What evidence could anyone possibly have? Maybe something he could have said at some point? Lucy was the only person Sonia had told about their fake engagement, and seeing how Tom didn't even know that his engagement to Sonia had been fake, it means Lucy didn't even tell him. That meant the leak was from his side. The only person who had been there that night was Mia, so she knew for a fact that it was fake. Jeff and the CEO only knew about it after asking Mia and confirming with him. 

He had worked with all three of them long enough to know that neither of them was going to just release such information that would harm his career like this, not unless something else was involved and someone had something to gain from this. Or was it the production crew? What evidence could they have?

"So? Have you figured it out yet?" Jade asked when he said nothing after some time.

"I'm not exactly sure. But what evidence could they possibly have? If it was illegally obtained I can sue them, right?" Bryan asked thoughtfully.

"Sure, you can. But that's not the most important thing right now. Have you come up with a plan to fix it yet?"

"Yeah. We figured that we all do a live video together to show them we are still together and debunk the rumors," 

"The video is a good idea, but rather than just featuring in the video to debunk the rumors, you and Sonia should also tell the truth about your relationship."

"I don't think it is anybody's business," Bryan said dismissively.

"We both know that you know your life is everybody's business. That's what being a celebrity means. Just tell the truth."

"You are saying we should expose ourselves? What if it backfires and things become even worse?" Bryan asked thoughtfully, weighing the pros and cons.

"It will only become worse if you don't tell the truth. I'm sure someone is waiting for you to deny the allegations so that they can strike with the evidence. The moment you tell the truth, whatever evidence anyone has against you is useless whether it was legally or illegally obtained. Go with the truth, It's better that way for you both."

"Besides, you seem not to realize that you DID NOT commit a crime by proposing to a random stranger, even though it was a stupid move. Your only crime was in making the public believe that you have each other for sometime before the proposal. And you're also forgetting something important. Everyone likes a beautiful romance story with a bit of crazy in it. What could be more romantic than proposing to a random stranger and then ending up falling in love with her? It has never been heard of, and you're the very first celebrity to have done something that crazy." 

"If you're able to tell the truth and clear Sonia's name, then Sonia can in turn clear Lucy's name. And then we can all focus on finding the people behind this mess."

"Did I ever tell you that I love you?" Bryan asked after giving it a thought.

"You can show me just how much you love me by buying me a..." She giggled when she heard the disconnect tone.. That damned brother of hers was always doing that.