Winter Rodriguez lives a life of luxury.
She and her twin brother, Wyatt, are in the award winning rock band, Armor For Fire, with Chris and Viktor. The band has just finished going on tour, and Winter is ready to settle down with her fiancé, Shane...
I felt my heart speed up when I read the text from Shane. Shane Tegan was my fiancé. He's the drummer in his band called Hyper Drive with his bandmates Merrick and Jensen. I met him in mid 2019 while spending the Summer in Australia. I had to get away from South Carolina after the accident happened, and after Liam inexplicably ghosted me. Soon after, my band, Armor For Fire, signed a record deal and our fame took off. We were performing at awards shows like the VMAs and Billboards. We were creating and selling albums. We were posing in front of cameras with fans and signing photos of ourselves. I saw Liam again a few more times after the accident, but our interactions were brief. I never asked why he left me. Why bother? It wouldn't change anything. But besides that, life was good.
Last year, I moved to Australia to be closer to Shane. The band and family was originally against this. But this was something I wanted so bad. I couldn't stand being in America after everything that has happened. I needed kind of a fresh start, but in no way did that mean I was leaving the band. When everyone saw just how happy Shane made me, they finally accepted my decision. They were just glad that I was finally happy again. Shane had my things shipped to an expensive apartment all the way across the world. I had a few weeks to say goodbye to Wyatt and the rest of the band, as well as the rest of my family. While people assumed that this meant the end for the band, we were still going strong despite me being far away. We were determined to make it work, and it was.
In fact, we had just finished going on tour with Sixx AM. I came home the night before and didn't get a chance to see Shane. I woke up and scrolled through my Instagram feed. I smiled to myself at the pictures taken during our engagement just a couple weeks before. Sixx AM was performing "Smile" when I was brought out onto the stage. Obviously, I was confused. That was until Shane surprised me on the stage. We hugged and kissed and listened to the song. And then he got down on one knee and opened the small box he had in his pocket. The ring was breathtaking. Every now and then I found myself staring at it.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
The fans lost it and Shane and I were tagged in numerous photos that fans took. There were articles written about us and we trended on Twitter. But before the engagement, I felt deep down that there was something wrong. Shane took a vacation and somebody took a picture of him in his boxers and in the hotel bathtub. And he posted them to his Instagram. In the background of one of the pictures was a mirror and I could faintly see the arm and shoulder of a female taking the photo.
"Who took the pictures? Winter is on tour." One of the comments on his post said.
"A ghost! Hahaha!" Shane responded.
He wasn't texting or calling me as much. The whole situation put a bad taste in my mouth. And then he proposed and almost all doubts were pushed out of my mind. Why would he propose if there was someone else? But who took the pictures of him in the hotel room? I concluded that it was his sister, Regan. I zoomed in on the photo and saw that the shirt sleeve of the camera person matched a shirt that his sister owned. I never made my concerns known to him. I didn't want to push him away. I was just looking forward to seeing him later.
