The Unpredicted Ascendance Of Ashton Pearce

A Devil's Hand

Ashton Pearce slumped back on the couch in his sparsely furnished apartment, his head spinned from the chaos that had only that evening just erupted in the past few hours. The room was dark, it was lit only by the flash of his phone, which on its own part buzzed incessantly on the coffee table. He glared at it, he was honestly tempted to throw it against the wall. His heart pounded in frustration, anger, and disbelief.

How could these allegations that were false by the way, be flying so quickly? He wondered.

The news was everywhere.

His engagement to Elizabeth Cooper, which by the way, should have been the happiest moment of his life, but now, now if had turned into a media frenzy, fueled by rumors he frankly didn't know what they were all about. He knew who was doing this though and it was infuriating. Now, his name was plastered on every gossip blog, every tabloid, and every social media platform.

And what was the story? That he was a liar, a manipulator, and worst of all—that he