Chapter 6: The Engagement Was Never Just Ours

I called the venue coordinator back.

"I need the complete media access request. Every name, every note, and the time it was submitted."

She hesitated.

"Ms. Vale, since the event has been canceled, I can send you the original request and the revision history."

"Please do."

Ten minutes later, the documents arrived in my inbox.

I opened the first attachment.

The request wasn't from Callum personally.

It had been submitted under Reid Creative Studio.

The project description read: "Authentic family engagement content for upcoming brand campaign."

My heart sank.

I opened the second page.

There was a production budget.

Cameras. Lighting. Editors. Travel. Social media placement.

And at the bottom was a line that made my hands go numb.

Featured Couple: Callum Reid and Maren Vale.

But beside it, someone had handwritten a note.

"Delaney Cross available as alternate subject if needed."

Alternate subject.

That was what I had become.

An option they could replace whenever I became inconvenient.

I took screenshots of everything.

Then I called Callum.

He answered on the fourth ring.

"Maren, I was just about to call you."

"Why was our engagement party listed as a promotional shoot?"

Silence.

Not surprise.

Not confusion.

Silence.

"Where did you get that information?"

"From the venue."

"You had no right to look through production documents."

I laughed quietly.

"You mean the documents for my engagement party?"

"It wasn't exactly what it sounds like."

"Then explain it."

He exhaled.

"The studio needs a new campaign. The engagement gives us authentic material. It was going to help the business."

"And you couldn't tell me?"

"Because you would have said no."

There it was.

The truth he'd been avoiding.

He didn't leave me out because he wanted to protect me.

He left me out because he already knew I wouldn't agree.

"So you planned to use our engagement as advertising without asking me."

"Our engagement wasn't going to be fake."

"You had another woman wearing my dress."

"That was rehearsal."

"You had her standing beside your parents."

"For blocking."

"You had her accept the family toast."

"For footage."

"And you listed her as your alternate fiancée."

Callum stopped talking.

I could hear traffic rushing behind him.

"Maren, you're twisting everything."

"No. I'm finally putting everything together."

I opened the budget spreadsheet again.

There was one more section I'd missed.

Projected Campaign Revenue.

The estimated amount was more than six figures.

My engagement wasn't just content.

It was valuable content.

And Callum had apparently decided that my life could become part of his business plan without my permission.

"How much were you expecting to make from this?"

He didn't answer.

"Callum."

"That's not the point."

"It is to me."

Another silence.

"The campaign could have brought in a major client."

"And what would I get?"

"You'd get exposure too."

I closed my eyes.

"I don't need exposure."

"I needed a fiancé who asked before turning our relationship into a product."

His voice hardened.

"You're making this sound worse than it is."

"Because you're embarrassed that I found out?"

"Because you're throwing away seven years over one bad decision."

"It wasn't one decision."

I looked at the screenshots spread across my tablet.

"It was the car."

"Then the fake fiancée."

"Then my mother's food."

"Then my dress."

"Then the engagement party."

"And now I know you were planning to monetize the whole thing."

Callum said nothing.

For once, he had no convenient explanation.

I ended the call.

Then I opened my laptop.

There was one person I needed to speak to.

Delaney Cross.

I found her number in the studio's production contact list.

I stared at it for nearly a minute before pressing call.

She answered quietly.

"Maren?"

"Yes."

Neither of us spoke for several seconds.

Then she said something I wasn't expecting.

"You deserve to know what happened before the trip."

My grip tightened around the phone.

"Tell me everything."