Happy Birthday!

Love, Aiden "How did he do it?" I ask Kym, quickly taking the dress off the hanger, holding it up to me, and twirling around.

"He told me about your dream. I called in a favor and this is what we came up with. Is it close?"

"It's like the dress of my dreams on steroids. This corset and these feathers. They're ridiculously beautiful. I can't believe he remembered."

As I spin around, I get tears in my eyes remembering how he went to all my rehearsals. How I trusted him enough to tell him my dreams. About my scripts. About wanting to act.

"Don't cry," Kym scolds. "We don't have time to redo your foundation."

While I quickly change to a strapless bra and slip into the dress, Kym sets out diamonds.

"This thirteen carat pink diamond is surrounded by cushion-cut diamonds, adding another eight carats. Price available on request," she reads off the card that arrived with them from Harry Winston. The diamonds have their own guard who will follow me tonight.

"All right," Kym quizzes, "Diamonds by?"

"Harry Winston," I reply.

"Shoes?"

"Louboutin."

"Bag?"

"Fendi."

"Favorite stylist?"

"Aiden," I reply, teasing her.

"You say my name?" Aiden asks from behind me.

He's dressed in a black Gucci tuxedo, a pair of Aviators perched on the top of his head. He looks like sex on a stick.

Seriously, no one is going to look at me.

Gracie and the girls are dressed up too. They're having their own pretend red carpet with their new nanny, Miss Praline, who, with a little time and some luck, may just end up Mrs. Garrett Smith.

Aiden looks me over. "I don't know, Kym. I'm not sure those are the right shoes for the dress."

Kym scoffs at him as he pulls a box out from behind his back.

It's a box I recognize.

My eyes fill with tears as he opens the lid.

I delicately lift them up. "You had the heel fixed?!"

"Yeah," he says, pulling me close. "Seems like the perfect night to wear the shoes that are the real you."

He takes my hand, leads me over to a chair, then bends down and puts the shoe on my foot like he's Prince Charming.

Actually, he is my Prince Charming.

Yesterday, on my actual birthday, he spoiled me rotten, giving me a gorgeous, not-for-a-rainy-day dress and taking me to a beautiful restaurant overlooking the ocean for dinner. I was shocked to find our families and closest friends waiting there to surprise me. It was a truly celebratory night.

Afterward, all dressed up, he took me to the Santa Monica pier for cotton candy and a ride on the Ferris wheel.

Listed below are links to the clothing and setting boards on my website so you can relive that aspect of the series.

Click here to see the clothing boards.

Click here to see the setting boards.

THE AUDIO BOOKS.

For those of you who aren't aware, the entire series is available in audio format. As you can imagine, finding the perfect voice for Keatyn was a challenge, and we listened to over three hundred auditions before finding Maren McGuire. If you haven't listened to the audio books, I'd encourage you to.

The books come to life, almost like a movie, when I hear them. She took my words and turned them into an amazing performance that Keatyn would be proud of.

Below are links to the audio books.

Audible Links Stalk Me Kiss Me Date Me Love Me Adore Me Hate Me Get Me AIDEN ARRINGTON.

I want to start this section off with the scene from Get Me where Keatyn finally tells Aiden the truth about who she is and why she lied. I think most readers were pretty shocked when he told Keatyn that he already knew.

He's quiet on the elevator, on the walk down the hall, and as we go into our room.

After the dirt, the No more lying, and all the You can tell me anythings, I understand why.

He has every right to be mad. I should've listened to my heart and told him. I had so many opportunities, going all the way back to that day in the chapel.

"Before you say anything, I need to tell you something," I blurt out.

He takes my hand and leads me over to the chaise, where we both sit down.

He lets go of my hand but I quickly grab it again, clinging to it like a life raft.

"I'm sorry I lied to you. There's a lot more to the story. I understand if you hate me. I deserve it. But you have to know that there were so many times I wanted to tell you. Remember the slutty video? When Dawson and I broke up? I was taking him to meet my parents that weekend. I was going to tell him the truth. That's why I was so upset. I was more upset at myself for trusting the wrong person again than I was about us not dating. And that's why, after what happened with Chelsea, I forgave you but wouldn't see you. I couldn't lie to you anymore. I was in deep with you, and I knew that eventually I'd have to tell you, and that you'd hate me for lying. But then you brought me dirt and told me our pasts didn't matter."

Tears stream down my face, feeling cold against my flushed cheeks. "You have no idea how deeply that touched me. And it's why I let you come to St. Croix. I wasn't planning to go back to school. I didn't get closure with B. Everything with him-especially how I had to leave-has been so up the air and I didn't want to do that to you. I was going to give you closure, then send you back to school. And that's why I've been so tired all the time. At night, I'm either learning how to defend myself, or I'm flying back to California to mess with him, or I'm having online business meetings in an attempt to take over his company. It's not my friend who was being stalked and almost got kidnapped. It was me." I stop and mutter, "Shit."

Then I stand up and grab my clutch off the bed.

"What are you doing?" Aiden asks.

I pull out a piece of paper and hold it up in front of him. "This is the script I've been working on. In it, instead of truth-vomiting, I eloquently explain everything to you. I couldn't have sex with you until you knew."

I drop the piece of paper on the chaise, wondering why I'm even bothering.

He's not going to forgive me.

I might as well just grab my bags and go.

But he starts reading my script aloud.

"THE SETTING: HOTEL SUITE AFTER WINTER FORMAL.

AIDEN.

(Opening a bottle of champagne) KEATYN.

(Lighting all the votive candles he thoughtfully brought) (They kiss) (But then she looks nervous) I need to tell you something.

AIDEN.

(Sits on the edge of the bed) What?

KEATYN.

(Stands in front of him) I've been lying to you. Actually, I've been lying to everyone about something. And I need you to know.

AIDEN.

(Looks concerned) Okay.

KEATYN.

I came to Eastbrooke because I was being stalked. My last name isn't Monroe. I'm Keatyn Douglas. And my mom doesn't work in oil and gas. But she is in France. And her name is Abby Johnston.

AIDEN.

(Stands up in shock)"

Aiden stares at the script for a few moments then slowly sets it down. I can tell he's thinking; probably trying to figure out the nicest way to tell me to fuck off.

Instead, he stands up, takes two big steps toward me, and brushes a tear off my cheek. "Life hasn't been following your scripts. You told me that once."

"No, it hasn't."

"If it had worked out the way you planned-if you'd followed your script-right now is the point where life would have deviated from it."

"You wouldn't have stood up in shock?"

"No," he says, caressing my face. "I would have said, Baby, I already knew."

"You what?! What do you mean?!"

"I mean I've known for quite a while who you really are."

"How?!"

"That day at the chapel, when you told me about your friend. I don't know. I just felt like you were talking about yourself. So I started googling stuff. The name Keatyn, California, stalker, famous parents. Somehow, eventually, I put in the right mix of words. About ten pages into an image search, I came across a photo of you and your mom. It was from a kids' awards show when you were probably twelve or thirteen."

"You've known this whole time and you let me lie to you?"

"Yeah, Boots, I did."

"Why?"

"Because I wanted to be the kind of guy you could trust. It's why I backed off. Why I told Riley about Dawson. I didn't want to see you hurt anymore. It's why I've told you so many times that you can tell me anything. That you could trust me. What I didn't realize before was that I needed to earn that trust. We had to build a strong foundation. I'm really glad you were planning to tell me tonight."

A lot of readers wondered when Aiden figured out the truth and why he didn't confront her about it. I think looking back, it's easy to tell where he figured it out. If you recall, he'd been pursuing Keatyn since she got to Eastbrooke, but suddenly he stopped and told her that he wanted them to be friends. I think a lot of readers thought this was sort of a ploy on his part. A way to spend time with her (and torture her with his godly smile) while she was dating Dawson. Or that he had given up. Or that he simply backed off because she was dating Dawson.

So, I'm going to let Aiden tell you how it all happened.

These scenes take place way back in book two, Kiss Me. Meaning Aiden had known the truth from the early morning hours of Sunday, September 25th until Saturday, December 17th when she finally told him. I think knowing this, you can now better understand his frustration with Keatyn, why he did the cute sex survey to learn about her past relationships, why he wanted to build a strong foundation together, why when he gave her the dirt he told her he didn't care if they had been lying to each other, and why he was making her wait.

To get you back into the story, we'll start with Keatyn's point of view from Kiss Me, which is in italics.

Friday, September 23rd I wish we didn't fight.

12:55pm Keatyn Garrett calls me as I'm leaving lunch. I tell Dawson that I have to take a quick call and send him off to his next class. I'm freaking out a bit because Garrett never calls me. He always texts me and has me call him back.

"What's wrong?"

"Did you tell Vanessa where you are?"

"No."

"Keatyn, it's important that you tell me the truth. I won't yell at you if you did. I know this has been hard on you, but if you did, it's imperative that I know."

"I swear to you on my sisters' lives that I'm telling you the truth. What's going on?"

"Vanessa may be missing."

"Missing how?"

"She apparently posted something on Facebook about how she talked to you. That you wanted everyone to know you were getting better."

"She just wants to act like she knows what's going on."

"Well, that may be, but she went to a club last night and RiAnne says no one has seen her since." He swallows loudly. "Vincent was at the same club."

"And you think something's happened to her? But you told me if I kept my friends in the dark they'd be safe. Did you lie to me? Do you think he's done something to her?"

"We don't know. We aren't running surveillance on him twenty-four-seven anymore."