He Used Me for His True Love, So I Exposed Him Live

Three days after I was kidnapped, they drugged mesomething vicious, something that burned through every nerve. Clyde Gilbert, Sterling City's untouchable golden boy, showed up just in time.

He gave me his body as the cure, one hand gripping the back of my head, his voice wrecked:

Deidre, I'll take responsibility. Once we're out of here, I'm marrying you.

After that night, Clyde really did proposebig, public, impossible to miss.

And right behind it came a video, humiliating and explicit, shot straight to the top of the trending list.

The slut-shaming hit like a wall. Thousands of strangers tearing me apart online, and I couldn't breathe through any of it. I went looking for Clyde, half out of my mind,

and walked in on him pressing a slender girl against the garden wall, his lips at her ear.

Her eyes had gone red with hurt:

"Do you actually have feelings for Deidre Morton? The whole circle is saying you're marrying her. If your heart's changed, just tell meI'll let you go."

Clyde scoffed. "Don't be stupid. Victoria, the only person I've ever wanted to marry is you."

"Then what about the proposal? And those videos everywhere?"

He smiled, dismissive.

"ObviouslyI needed a slut like her to make you look good by comparison."

"Those videos? I set that up. I fed them to the media myself. All of it was to prop up your pure sweetheart persona."

"My parents won't let you through the door, right? But once they find out I'm about to marry trash like Deidre Morton, the comparison alone will make them accept you."

I stood frozen where I was, ice spreading through every limb.

So from the very beginning, I had only ever been the foil for his idealized first love.

But I'm Deidre Morton. Nobody made me to be stepped on.

I stayed behind the hedgerow in the garden,

chest slamming against my ribs, every gulp of air coming up short no matter how hard I tried.

Clyde's voice kept cutting into me like a blade.

"Victoria, you know why I picked her?"

"Deidre Mortonbig tits, no brain. Dangle anything shiny and she'll chase it. I barely had to try before she actually believed I was going to marry her. Moved to tears like a complete idiot."

He pulled out his phone, scrolled through something, and handed it to Victoria with a grin.

"Look at the comments under those videos. They're calling her the biggest slut in Sterling Cityno shame, throws herself at any man who'll have her."

"Now look at your comment section. Nothing but praise for how clean and pure you are, a lotus untouched by mud. Isn't that exactly what I wanted?"

Nausea churned up from the pit of my stomach.

I bowed my head, eyes falling to the delicate diamond bracelet on my wrist, and unclasped it without a second thought.

Two hours ago, Clyde had fastened it on me himself.

A proposal gift, he'd called it. He'd gone down on one knee to give it to me, his voice and his expression so reverent.

Anyone watching would have sworn he was desperately in love with me.

Funnywith skills like that, he was the one who deserved an award in the entertainment industry.

I forced the tears back, clenching the bracelet so tight the links bit into my palm.

From inside the garden, their voices drifted over again.

"So when are you going to tell her the truth?"

Victoria's voice was thick with grievance. "The backlash online is already at full boil. She's being torn apart. Are you really going to keep this up?"

"No rush."

Clyde ruffled Victoria's hair, indulgent.

"My mother hasn't completely softened up yet. Let Deidre keep playing her part a little longeronce my parents fully accept you, I'll toss her."

"By then her reputation will be in the gutter, and my parents will cut their losses for the sake of the family name. You marrying into the Gilbert family will just fall into place."

"But..."

Victoria bit her lip, voice dripping with tender concern. "Poor Deidre, though. She doesn't have the faintest idea what's really happening to her."

Clyde let out a cold scoff, then reached over and tapped the tip of Victoria's nose.

A single laugh, dripping with the kind of contempt that made your skin crawl.

"Our Victoria, always so kindhearted."

"Deidre Morton? She's nobody. Some random model from some backwater town who spent three years scratching around Sterling City's elite circle without a single thing to show for it."

"If I hadn't picked her, she'd still be in some back-alley booth pouring drinks and kissing up to people, trying to claw her way into the industry. I gave her resources. I gave her the title and the spotlight of being my girlfriend. She should be on her knees thanking me."

I stumbled back two steps, heart pounding, and a thorn sank into my fingerand just like that I was back in that dim basement three days ago, the drug already dragging me under.

I had bitten down on my lip until it split, even ripped off a fingernail, telling myself that if those animals came through the door, I'd take them down with me.

Then Clyde had burst through the door like a hero out of a story, larger than life, the man who would save me from anything.

His bodyguards pinned the kidnappers to the ground.

He slipped off his jacket and settled it over my shoulders, and when I swayed into him, barely conscious, he quietly sent everyone out and had the door closed behind them.

He held me. His voice was raw. "Deidre, I'll take responsibility for you. The moment we're out of here, I'm marrying you."

Back then, I had secretly thanked fate.

I'd even convinced myself that everythingthe kidnapping, the drugswas destiny forcing me into Clyde Gilbert's arms, and that made it all worth it.

Now I knew how ridiculous that sounded.

A few seconds of silence in the garden. Then Victoria rose on her toes and pressed her lips to Clyde's.

"But I'm really scared. I'm scared you'll play the part so long it stops being an act."

She pouted, eyes rimmed red, the picture of fragile helplessnessthe kind designed to make a man fold.

"Deidre really is pretty. Great figure, too. I keep seeing people online saying she's more beautiful than me."

Clyde laughed and pinched her cheek, his voice dropping into the indulgent tone you'd use to coax a child.

"Victoria, no one even comes close to you. Once I deal with my parents, I'm marrying you. Immediately."

"In this lifetime, I will never marry anyone but you."

"Then swear it." She wouldn't let it go.

He smiled, that same doting warmth.

"I swear: if I, Clyde Gilbert, ever marry Deidre Morton in this life, let heaven strike me dead."

Victoria was finally satisfied. She kissed his face, once, twice, three times.

A short while later, Clyde pulled out his phone and made a call.

"Hey, Director Lambert. It's me."

"Looked over the promo plan for Victoria's drama. Next three rounds of talking points are fine. But for Deidrepush another wave onto the trending list. Tomorrow morning."

"Already got the headline: 'Deidre Morton's Escort Scandal.' Yeah, those photos we took at the club. Pick the worst angles. The more damning she looks, the better."

He paused. Then laughed.

"She won't suspect a thing. Don't worry about it."

The voice on the other end said something.

Clyde laughed again, clearly in high spirits, then added one more thing.

"Ohthe kidnapping. That all cleaned up?"

"Keep those guys' mouths shut tight. Nobody finds out I arranged it. Not that a fool like Deidre could ever dig that deep, but better safe than sorry."

Everything went still.

The kidnapping. He arranged that too.

Part of me had already suspected it was Clyde's handiwork, but hearing him say it himselfcasually, like he was checking off a listsomething in my chest caved in, and I couldn't breathe.

They kept me in that pitch-black basement for three days and three nights. Pumped me full of some brutal aphrodisiac, left me screaming into nothing, and nobody came.

I'd told myself it was randomsome enemy who grabbed the wrong person, a case of mistaken identity.

But Clyde Gilbert had been pulling the strings from the very beginning.

To him, I was just the ugly backdrop that made his idealized first love look even more radiant. A foil.

A tool.

A piece of trash to be used up and thrown away.

I spun around to run,

but my knee buckled and I stumbled back a step without meaning to.

A dry branch snapped under my foot.

Both of them turned at the same time.

Victoria's face went bone-white. She shrank behind Clyde on instinct. "What do we do? She heard everything we just said..."

Clyde's head snapped up, his eyes locking onto me. "Deidre. Come out."

I straightened my spine and stepped out from behind the hedgerow.

Three people facing off under the moonlight. The air between us was eerily still.

"You heard all of that?"

A slight crease between his brows. His voice perfectly calm.

I looked at him and laughed.

It must have been an ugly laughI could feel the tears forcing their way up, burning behind my eyesbut I choked them back with everything I had.

"Every word."

Victoria glanced at my face, then at Clyde, biting her lip.

"Clyde... she's the one you're with. I'm the one who shouldn't be here. Maybe you should just let me go."

Clyde actually smiled. "You're everything I've ever wanted, Victoria. Why would I give you up for anyone else?"

"And? She heard. What's she going to do about it?"

He walked up to me and tilted my chin up with his fingers, looking down at me like I was something amusing.

"Right, Deidre?"

I slapped his hand away, forced my expression flat, and took one long breath.

"The kidnapping. That was you?"

"Yes."

"The drugs. Also you?"

"Yes."

"The videos, the trending list, the trolls ripping me apartall you?"

He blinked, then let out a short, contemptuous laugh.

"All me."

Every answer came that easy, that barelike hiding it from me had never even crossed his mind. A knife shoved straight into my chest. He didn't even care enough to lie anymore.

I lifted my face. My eyes were shot through with red. "But why me?"

"Why did it have to be me?"

The day Clyde proposed, I'd already decided to give up the career I'd spent over a decade clawing my way through.

And now, just like that, he'd knocked me right back to where I startedback to nothing.

Ground every last illusion and scrap of happiness I had into dust.

"Deidre, you do what you're told. No connections, no family to back you up. You'd scrape and fight just for a walk-on role. Honestlyyou were the perfect pick."

He glanced down at Victoria as he said it,

the tenderness in his eyes completely unconcealed.

"Besides, my mother's never liked Victoria. But put someone worse in front of her, and suddenly Victoria doesn't seem so unacceptable. You understand?"

I couldn't tell anymore whether it was rage or humiliation. My chest was so tight I could barely breathe.

"Clyde, isn't this too cruel to Deidre? She didn't know a thing. Using her like this... I feel terrible about it..."

Victoria's voice floated out, soft and fragile as a kitten's.

Clyde pulled her against his shoulder, his tone dripping with indulgence.

"Don't worry. I'll handle her."

He turned to look at me.

"Deidre, since you've heard everything, I won't beat around the bush."

"I need you to play along until the curtain falls."

Actingfor professionals like us, it was as routine as breathing. But coming from the mouth of the man I loved, it was nothing short of laughable.

"Oh? And how would you like me to play it? What's the rate?"

Clyde ignored the mockery in my voice entirely. His expression was dead serious.

"I need you to keep being my fiance. Keep up the public displays of affection. Keep being Victoria's foil. It won't be long. Two months, tops."

"Once her new drama wraps and my parents have fully accepted her, I can drop you without it getting ugly."

I could barely believe what I was hearing.

"How shameless can you possibly be? You actually think I'd agree to this?"

"You will."

Clyde pulled a check from his pocket and held it out to me.

"That's two million. When it's done, I'll give you another three. Five million buys me two months of your cooperation."

"You should think about that. At the rate you make doing bit parts, you wouldn't see that kind of money in ten years."

I looked at the check, and something inside me just hollowed out.

So that was it. My dignity, my feelings, who I was as a personhe'd priced it all at five million.

"What if I say no?"

My face was bloodless as I looked at him. "You planned that kidnapping, Clyde. I can go to the police. I can put you behind bars."

He looked at me like I'd told a joke. Nothing but contempt in his eyes.

"Then go ahead."

"Look at what you've actually got. You're the one who filed that report. The police already ruled it a random crimenothing to do with anybody. And those videos, those photos? Every single one is real. No edits, no fakes. You've got nothing on me."

He studied me for a moment, then pressed his lips together.

"And you should know, with the kind of reach the Gilbert family has in Sterling City's elite circle, the second you say no, your parents back home get evidence that their daughter's been kept as some rich man's mistress. Your brother's school gets a tip that his sister is the industry's public entertainment. And your mother's little shop? It won't stay open."

Everything in me went cold. My head snapped up, and I locked every muscle to keep the trembling from showing.

"How do you know about my parents?"

Clyde shook his head with a small laugh.

"Deidre, you think I didn't run a background check before I picked you?"

"Where you're from, how many people in your family, what your parents do for a living, which school your brother attends, how much debt you owe. I know all of it."

My fists clenched so tight my nails bit into my palms, and the pain was the only thing keeping me conscious.

"So you're threatening me."

"Not a threat. A partnership."

Clyde corrected me. "You cooperate, I pay you, and your family stays safe."

"You don't cooperate, that's fine too. I'll just find someone else to be the foil. But Deidre, think carefully. If I replace you, those videos and photos aren't coming down."

"They'll stay up forever. People will keep digging into you, keep tearing you apart. Sooner or later your parents will see them. Your brother's classmates will see them. Is that what you want?"

My fists were clenched so hard my knuckles ached. In that moment, I wanted to kill him.

But I couldn't.

I stood there in the moonlight, my face white as paper.

Victoria lifted her gaze and gave me one slow, provocative lookthen, just as fast, softened into that sweet, concerned mask.

"Clyde, maybe we should just drop it. Deidre's been through enough We can find another way."

"No."

His voice was absolute.

"I've already come this far. I'm not stopping now. Besides"

He glanced at me.

"Deidre's a smart woman. She'll agree."

I looked at him, a tangle of emotions knotting inside me.

Three years ago, when I first came to Sterling City, I was renting a partitioned room in Brookside District.

In winter there was no heatingI'd pile on three quilts and still lie there shaking.

I told myself back then:

Deidre, remember this. In this city, nobody is going to save you. You can only save yourself.

Three years of clawing my way to where I stood now. How much I'd suffered, how many humiliations I'd swallowedonly I knew.

I thought Clyde was my reward for all of it. Proof that the worst was behind me.

It wasn't.

He was just another lesson.

A crueler one.

I took a deep breath, lifted my head, and looked him straight in the eyes.

"Fine."

"I'll do it," I said, cold and level. "But when it's done, on top of the five million, you pay me half again as much."

Clyde raised an eyebrow. "Deal."

The moment I turned to leave, every trace of warmth dropped from my face. So from the very beginning, he'd treated this as a transaction and a performance.

Fine. I was a professional actress. I could give him the show of his life.

The next day. A brand event.

I wore a dress Clyde had picked out in advance.

Black. Deep V. Thigh-high slit. Sexy to the point of gaudy.

Normally I would have refused anything this revealing, but today I didn't.

Because I knew exactly what this dress wasClyde's handpicked foil costume. Beside me, Victoria wore a little white cocktail dress, pristine and untouched, like some fairy descended from the heavens.

Black and white. Gaudy and pure. Tramp and sweetheart.

Every camera angle built the same story without a single word:

One cheap. One refined.

The venue was packed, camera flashes firing from every direction.

Clyde had one arm around my waist and a champagne flute in the other, all doting smiles for the cameras like I was the love of his life.

I leaned against his shoulder, smiling too. Stiff.

Victoria watched us. A flicker of jealousy crossed her eyes, but her composure held perfectlyeven when the reporters came.

She smiled gently, voice like honey.

"I'm so happy Young Mr. Gilbert found someone he really likes. I wish them nothing but the best."

The murmuring started immediately:

"Victoria's so gracious. Everyone used to say she and Young Mr. Gilbert were a couple, and now that Deidre swooped in, she can still be this classy about it."

"Right? Deidre can't hold a candle to Victoria. No family background, no mannersand that dress she's wearing, honestly"

Right on cue, Clyde dipped his head and murmured against my ear.

"Victoria's bracelet shifted. Go fix it for her."

I froze. "What?"

"Go fix her bracelet."

His voice was low enough that only I could hear, but the smile on his face was tender enough to look like a whispered endearment.

"Victoria's assistant didn't make it inside. She can't adjust it herself. Go. Make it look natural."

When I didn't move, his voice came again from above me, threaded with warning.

"Think about your brother. Think about your family. You'd better cooperate."

I took a breath and was about to step forward.

But Victoria was already walking toward me, champagne in hand.

"Deidre! I heard you and Clyde got engaged. Congratulations!"

Every camera in the room locked on us at once.

I had no choice.

I put on a perfect fake smile, walked over, and reached for Victoria's bracelet.

But the moment I leaned in, her hand tippedand a full flute of champagne landed squarely on my dress.

Victoria clapped a hand over her mouth, tears flooding her eyes instantly.

"I'm so sorry, Deidre! My hand slipped. I didn't mean to!"

She was crying prettily, trembling all over, the picture of someone deeply wronged.

The whispers around us shifted direction immediately.

"What is wrong with that woman? Victoria was being gracious, and she goes and throws a drink on her?"

"Didn't you see? Victoria splashed her fir"

"Victoria would never do that on purpose. Look at her crying like that, and Deidre's just standing there stone-faced. She's clearly the one making a scene!"

Everyone had seen exactly what happened.

Not one person spoke up for me.

I stood there in my soaked dress, dripping under every light in the room.

Clyde barely spared me a glance before hurrying over to console the teary-eyed Victoria, leaving me stranded alone in full public view.

"Oh wow, Deidre really went there! A wet-dress seduction at a public eventshe must be desperate to move up."

"Get the camera on that. From this angle, she'll be front-page news by morning!"

"That figure, that cleavage. Unreal."

Gasps rippled through the crowd, punctuated by the relentless clicking of shutters.

I fled to the restroom. Clyde followed.

"Deidre, Victoria didn't do that on purpose. But honestly, the result worked out even better, didn't it?"

He held out a check as he spoke.

"I know tonight was rough on you. Consider this extra compensation."

I looked at the man in front of me, standing under the lights like some upstanding gentleman.

Too bad I knew exactly how disgusting he was underneath.

"Then thanks, I'll take it."

I didn't bother with politeness. I took the check.

The humiliation had already been paid for. Might as well make sure the money was, too.

I turned and walked into the restroom.

I took out my phone and sent a message to Noel Henson.

"Attorney Henson, I need you to draft an agreement for me."

The day before Victoria's new drama premierednine a.m. sharp"Deidre Morton Escort Scandal" shot to number one on the trending list.

The attached photos were from a private club gathering I'd attended three months ago.

In them I wore a red dress, held a glass of wine, and was smiling while talking to a middle-aged man.

The angle was deliberately misleading, making it look intimate.

Comments poured in.

"Wow, spicy. She just got engaged and now escort photos surface? What kind of woman is she?"

"Run, Young Mr. Gilbert. Marry a woman like that and you're bringing home a ticking time bomb."

I closed the page and opened my own social media.

The comment section was already a wasteland.

"A slut like her finally gets what's coming? Hilarious. Thought you'd latched onto money, and now the whole internet's digging up your dirt."

"You think you're good enough to marry into the Gilbert family? Take a good look in the mirror."

"Sterling City's biggest slut. The title fits. Young Mr. Gilbert sure has interesting taste, hahaha."

"Heard she once knocked on a director's door just to land a magazine cover. Who knows if it's true, but with that face? I'd bet on it."

The comments were all abuse, wall to wall.

Once in a while someone tried to speak up for me and got buried instantly.

Then Clyde's phone rang. His mother.

Nora Henson's voice came through like a slap.

"Break off the engagement with Deidre Morton. Now."

"A woman with that kind of personal life is never marrying into the Gilbert family."

Clyde raised an eyebrow. "Fine. But my condition is that I marry Victoria."

Teeth-grinding rage came through the line. "As long as you cut ties with that woman immediately, I don't care who you marry."

Standing off to the side, I let out a breath. "Clyde, you got what you wanted. Can you let me go now?"

"Not so fast."

He smiled and stroked my cheek. "There's one last show left, and it hasn't started yet."

"Deidre, I just need to lock down my marriage to Victoria. No loose ends."

"Get through this one last thing, and you walk away with five million. Easiest money you'll ever see."

Three days later, Clyde arranged a livestream.

I sat in front of the camera, the teleprompter scrolling the public confession statement Clyde had written himselfline after line after line of it.

"Regarding the videos circulating online, I owe everyone an apology. Those were the result of my own reckless behavior when I was young. My personal life was a mess, and I deeply regret the negative impact it has had on society"

"I'm not worthy of Clyde Gilbert. I'm willing to voluntarily call off the engagement with Young Mr. Gilbert and leave the entertainment industry for good"

The men in those videos? I didn't know a single one of them.

Those escort scandal photos? Every last one had been maliciously cropped and spliced.

But I was supposed to sit in front of two million people and tell them it was all trueall me.

And then grovel. Promise to crawl out of the industry and never come back. Burn my own career to the ground on camera.

I took a deep breath, eyes already stinging, and looked at Clyde.

"You're really going to make me do this."

"Aren't you afraid I'll go off-script on camera?"

He smiled and pinched my cheek.

"Your brother goes to school right here in Sterling City. Your parents are coming next monthI already bought their plane tickets for them. So tell me, Deidre. What kind of daughter do you want them to find when they get here?"

I swallowed every word I had left.

The livestream began.

Ten minutes in, two million viewers had poured into the room.

The comments flew so fast they blurred, and eighty percent of them were tearing me apart.

"Deidre Mortonget OUT of Sterling City!"

"Shameless tramp! If she hadn't crawled into his bed herself, Young Mr. Gilbert would never have looked twice at a nobody like her!"

"Victoria is the one who actually matches him. Too bad this scheming woman got there first. Hope Clyde kicks her to the curb!"

I ignored all of it and gave the camera a composed smile.

"Hi, everyone. I'm Deidre Morton."

"I'm here today to publicly address some of the recent rumors circulating about me online."

First line of the script: admit the videos were real, say I was young and didn't know better.

I looked at that line on the teleprompter. Held on it for half a beat.

Then I lifted my head, slow and deliberate, and looked straight at Clyde.

"Every single story you've heard about me recently is a lie."

"Clyde Gilbert planned all of it. And right now, I'm going to show you the proof."