Chapter 1
At the 67th Film Festival, Hazel was the center of attention as she took home the Best Actress award.
But instead of the expected heartfelt tribute video, what played on the big screen was a steamy, explicit clip.
The whole place went wild. Laughter and gossip filled the air as guests and reporters whipped out their phones, snapping photos of the screen.
"Who is that guy?" someone in the crowd called out, curiosity buzzing in the air.
Hazel froze, her mind wiped completely blank. Without thinking, she shouted out, trying desperately to get the backstage crew to shut off the screen.
She knew all too well who that was.
It was Aaron.
*****
Aaron was the man who'd been entangled with Hazel since she was sixteen.
She used to feel guilty toward him and also fear him deeply.
And there was a time when Hazel truly pitied Aaron. After his mom died, she wrote to him every single day, hoping to help him get through it.
She'd even dropped to her knees, begging him to let her go, but he pinned her to the bed and tormented her through the night.
"Your mom blew 20 million dollars of my family's money. Don't even think about denying it!" he spat.
Hazel knew Aaron was just throwing out a random number, but she held onto that lie as if it were her last lifeline, convincing herself there might still be a way out.
She even signed a desperate gamble contract, just to finally break free from him.
And now, it was over. Completely over.
She was utterly stunned, her strength drained away. Her heart felt as cold as ice layered over for years, yet her face burned like an erupting volcano.
The trophy she'd barely held for thirty seconds shattered like broken glass.
Her image went down in flames right along with it. Her moment of glory had turned into her darkest nightmare.
Hazel didn't care about anything else. She just wanted to bury her head in the ground like an ostrich.
She bolted off the stage, racing toward the backstage control room, only to run straight into a pack of reporters.
"Ms. Payne, why did you let that kind of video get shown in public?"
"Are you trying to flaunt your bedroom skills to hook a new big shot?"
"Ms. Payne, do you have no shame at all? Have you always been so hungry for it?"
Hazel just shook her head automatically. "I don't know! I don't know anything!"
She tried to make a run for it, but the reporters, all desperate for a headline, weren't about to let her escape.
They closed in on her, firing off sleazy, vicious questions, not letting up for a second.
In the chaos, her thin evening gown was torn apart, exposing her chest to the flashing cameras. The constant bursts of light blurred her vision, and she could only move forward, relying on memory.
She had no idea how many times she stumbled or how many hands grabbed at her, but by some miracle, she finally reached the parking lot, jumped in her car, and sped home to her apartment.
She hadn't even had a second to catch her breath before her boss called, practically losing his mind.
He exploded, "Hazel, are you a fucking idiot? The whole award ceremony was live-streamed everywhere! Do you have any idea how much trouble this is going to cause with all those underage viewers?"
"I've gotten eighty calls from different departments in just half an hour! If this keeps up, I might have to shut the whole company down! You're going to pay for this!"
The VCR was always the winner's responsibility. There was no way Hazel could wriggle out of this mess. She had to take the fall.
Hazel gave a helpless, bitter laugh, grabbed her phone, and tried calling Aaron. All she got was the cold, mechanical beep of a dead line.
Meanwhile, Aaron was at his villa, holding Juniper close and trying to calm her down.
He said, "She's just like her mom, always throwing themselves at men, nothing but trash. It won't happen again, okay? Please, just forgive me."
Juniper sat up straight on the couch, paused for a second, then gave a peaceful smile and nodded.
"Alright, let's go ahead with the wedding as planned," she said.
Aaron gave her a doting smile and gently kissed her on the forehead.
But in those deep, dark eyes of his, a haze of confusion lingered.
'Am I really at peace because I'm finally marrying Juniper just like I always wanted, or is it because Hazel still can't break free from me?' Aaron thought to himself.
He couldn't even tell himself anymore.
The internet exploded, and Hazel's home address was leaked everywhere.
She had debuted with the image of a pure, innocent girl. Her agent had instructed her to act shy and inexperienced, crafting a background for her about attending an all-girls school and never interacting with men.
Even for kissing scenes, she had to put a layer of plastic over her lips.
With her gorgeous looks, graceful body, and squeaky-clean reputation, Hazel gained a million fans in just half a year.
This was all Aaron's handiwork.
To turn the girl who had seduced him before she was eighteen into an untouchable goddess, that feeling had become an addiction for him.
Some of Hazel's male fans, who'd gotten way too obsessed, went off the deep end. They acted like jilted lovers who'd just been dumped by their first crush, crowding outside her apartment and yelling into bullhorns.
"You bitch!"
"Stop pretending to be innocent! You're just a slut!"
"You, huh? Why don't you come party with us!"