5 Rumors

As it was a Sunday, I woke up late. I dragged through my usual morning routine - shower, brush teeth, dressing up before packing up my backpack with my laptop, water bottle, and spare snacks I had lying around. I planned on spending the day at my favorite coffee shop.

A quick glance at my phone showed over 200 notifications from texts, calls, and being tagged on social media posts. Considering what had happened last night, I wasn't too surprised. One sister's broken engagement and another sister getting engaged to that ex-fiance was just the right type of drama news outlets liked.

I checked my messages first. At the top of the list was from my best friend Nayun. I called her immediately rather than reading through the long wall of text she sent me.

"Ca-na-ria! Why are you only just picking up my call? Have you seen the news? I'm so sorry I couldn't be there for you yesterday, but you know I had a show abroad. Besides, you held your own. I'm so proud of you!"

"Wait wait wait, why are you proud of me? There's nothing to be proud of. I got dumped in public high society yesterday. I'm just proud I didn't break down in public."

"Oh psh, I know you didn't like that boy anyway so why do you care? And that's not what I'm talking about anyway? Why haven't you checked the news? Sigh honestly what would you do without me? Fine fine, I'm sending you a link. Just open it and you'll see what I mean. I see you jumping ship to bigger and better things!"

As she continued chattering away with her woe is me sob-story, I opened the link and just saw a bunch of headlines on the Wechat search page with similar tones.

"Avery Rockefeller secret lover revealed?"

"Canary Blackwell and Avery Rockefeller Secret Love Connection?"

"Canary Blackwell Rise From the Ashes, From Broken Engagement to Billionaire lover?"

"Is Canary Blackwell Getting Revenge on Her Ex by Dating His Stepfather?"

"Is the Blackwell family aiming to eat both the chicken and the egg?"

"Canary Blackwell targeting ex- fiance's married stepfather. Is this revenge?"

"Illicit love in the Rockefeller, Blackwell, and Christian families. An unprecedented love polygon!"

Clicking on one of the links, the top image was a dark shot of me from last night. I was facing away from whoever took the photo. Standing not too far away was the man from yesterday. His face was mostly shadowed, but his gaze was turned towards me, a polite smile on his face.

"Nayun, listen, I didn't even know this was Avery Rockefeller. And I don't know who took this but nothing happened. We were just waiting to get into entirely separate vehicles. We didn't even speak at all!" I protested. Scrolling through the page, the headlines just got even more outlandish and none of them really mentioned my sister's engagement except for in relation to me.

"It doesn't matter! What matters is that that's what the public thinks! Good job! Way to get back at your shitty family! If my father tried something like this, I would never speak to him again!" I could almost see her sticking up her thumb cheerfully.

Feeling a headache coming. I quickly said my goodbyes.

What. A. Mess! What was up with those stupid headlines? Insinuating that I knew that man and planned to what, steal him? Get revenge with him?

Why couldn't the stupid media keep their noses out of my business? My family was now going to question if I pulled a stunt to upstage my sister's engagement, putting the family interests at risk.

Before I could gather my thoughts, there was a knock on my door, then the voice of one of the maids.

"Miss, the family head would like for you to meet him in his study."

"I'll be right there, thank you."

Sighing, I gathered my bag and headed out of my bedroom door. Time to face the music.