I Fled My Wedding, Slept With a Stranger, and He's My New Boss novel · Chapter 23 of 24

Chapter 23: The Sponsor Drops Him

Maddie's POV

Hayes's voice filled the arena, and I watched the color leave his face.

"Just make sure the camera's on her when she does," said the recording. "If she says I do, we have a problem. She won't."

Eight thousand people went silent.

On the screen above him the contract came up next, with the morality clause highlighted in yellow.

Then the emails about the rider. Then the memo about the eight-million-dollar fee.

"That's fake," Hayes said, standing up, still holding the ring. "That's been edited. She's unwell, she's been manipulated..."

"Hayes."

"Turn it off!"

"My answer's no," I said into the microphone. "It was no at the altar, and I'd like it on the record that nobody had to pay me for it."

The crowd roared.

It wasn't a cheer. It was the noise of a stadium finding out it had been lied to.

Hayes took a step toward me and put his hand out.

"Give me that."

"Don't touch her," said a voice from the front row.

The Aldine chairman had risen to his feet.

He was a heavy man in his seventies with a snowy mustache, and he did not shout. He walked to the foot of the stage stairs with his wife behind him, took the microphone from the nearest technician, and looked up.

"Mr. MacIntyre," he said. "Is the recording genuine?"

"It's a setup, sir."

"I asked you a question."

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