Chapter 1

James Harrington, Kingpin of Harbor City, got dumped by the woman he could never have. Before she walked away, she left him with a love child. But in their class, having a kid out of wedlock was a massive scandal.

That was when I, a nobody, saw my chance and made my move. I crafted the perfect persona for him, schemed my way into his life, and managed to land James.

From then on, I was reborn, catapulted straight into high society. As Mrs. Harrington, I got my hands on money, power, and all the fame I could ever want.

In this marriage woven from lies and deceit, I stepped right into the web, playing the perfect wife, never expecting that I'd end up falling for him for real.

But it wasn't until everything was exposed that I realized. Turns out, he was pretending all along, too.

My background was nothing special. My parents died early, but I was drop-dead gorgeous. When I was still underage, a talent scout saw me working at a restaurant and turned me into a celebrity overnight.

That's where I first met James on set. During a break, he got into a heated argument with the leading actress, Maya Lane, who was at the peak of her fame.

"Can you take acting seriously and stop accepting random invitations? If I wasn't here backing you up, do you really think you'd still be standing here, filming? Do you think you'd be where you are now?" James said.

Maya was touching up her lipstick in the mirror. She rolled her eyes without even glancing at him.

"Why are you always in my business? You're so annoying. Who needs you to back me up anyway? Maybe I'd be better off without you. That wealthy Voss guy is into me too," she retorted.

That wasn't true at all. The entertainment industry in Harbor City was chaotic. Without someone to protect you, even the hottest stars couldn't keep their reputation or stay safe.

James said, "Wow, you really have no standards. He's got three kids and looks pretty rough.

"Do you really think you're irreplaceable? I bet I could point at anyone and they'd act better than you and be way more obedient." Then he turned and locked eyes with me.

He pointed right at me. "Yeah, you. What if I decided to make you famous?"

"Fine, if you want to make her famous, then let's break up," Maya shot back, giving me a fierce glare before storming off and abandoning the set. James stared at her retreating figure for a moment, then left too.

My agent looked at me with a sigh and clicked his tongue. "Too bad. If James took a liking to you, you'd skyrocket to the top overnight."

It was only from my agent that I found out James was the eldest grandson of the Harrington Family that basically ran a third of Harbor City's lifeblood, and he was the heir to the current head of the clan.

He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, and honestly, unless something wild happened, I'd probably never cross paths with him in this lifetime.

But because he said, out of spite, "I'll make you famous." that was all it took for me to start dreaming.

After that chance encounter and argument, they didn't split up right away. Instead, repeated breakup rumors kept landing them in Harbor City Press. The next time our paths crossed was when James finally had a major blow-up with Maya and completely broke things off.

To sum it up, Maya had it easy. She was with James even before she joined the industry, and he protected her like a pampered greenhouse flower, never letting her face any hardship or darkness.

Since she got everything handed to her, she took it all for granted. She openly trashed James in front of the press more than once. If anyone else had dared to pull that, they'd be wiped off the map in showbiz.

I waited for what felt like forever before they finally broke up, and Maya left Harbor City in a huff.

To set up this perfectly orchestrated encounter, I spent three whole years studying James. Like those A-listers who get mocked for being "pre-packaged" by finishing schools, James walked right into my trap.

Everything went exactly as I'd planned, maybe even better. What really caught me off guard was that, before Maya stormed off, she left him with a son as a parting gift. They hadn't even gotten married yet, and he already had a kid.

James had a blemish now, a scandal that stuck. Thanks to the story I made up about myself, I got close to him, first as his new girlfriend, then stepped right into the Harrington family as Mrs. Harrington.

I grabbed every chance that came my way, made all the right moves, and changed my fate.