Chapter 1
On the live broadcast of the Golden Reel Awards, the moment Emily Harper gathered her gown and stepped onto the stage, the entire Eastland entertainment industry seemed to hold its breath.
The spotlight hit her face, the one countless magazines had called flawless from every angle. Right now, her cheeks were flushed with excitement.
She was rocking a gorgeous dress, and behind her, the big screen was showing her highlight scenes from Into the Abyss.
"The winner of the 36th Golden Reel Awards for Best Actress is... Emily Harper!" The presenter drew out the suspense.
The applause was thunderous.
Emily stood up and hugged the people around her.
The camera zoomed in on the front row VIP seats. Richard Evans sat there, expressionless. When Emily looked his way, he gave her a barely noticeable nod.
Nobody needed an introduction for him.
Richard was the CEO of Starlight Media Group. He practically owned a third of all cinema screenings in the country, and his influence stretched across every major streaming platform.
Emily had spent six years clawing her way up from a nameless extra at Silverlake Studios to tonight's spotlight. And for every step she took, it was Richard who paved the way.
Emily walked up to the stage and took the trophy from the presenter.
Her hands shook a little, her eyes red with emotion. She was clearly overwhelmed.
The crowd cheered her on with heartfelt applause.
"Thank you to the jury for this honor, to everyone on the Into the Abyss crew, and to all my fans who've always had my back," Emily said, pausing for a moment.
Normally, she'd follow up by thanking her management company, Starlight Media, and Richard.
For the past six years, she'd always done it that way.
Starlight Media's PR team had hammered those lines into her so hard, they were pure muscle memory.
But tonight, Emily went off-script.
Her gaze slid right past Richard in the front row and locked onto a seat tucked away in the back corner.
The cameras caught her shift in focus, and the director immediately switched to that corner.
In that corner sat a man with black-rimmed glasses, sticking out like a sore thumb among all the decked-out stars.
Emily took a deep breath and suddenly raised her voice. "But tonight, besides all that, there's something more important I want to do."
Richard's brow twitched.
Beside him, his assistant David immediately lowered his head, murmuring something into his earpiece.
"Six years ago, I was only a background extra at Silverlake Studios. Nobody believed in me, and nobody thought I could act. But there was one person who saw my soul," Emily said, her eyes red with emotion.
"He wasn't some big shot, not an investor or anything like that. He was just a struggling indie director, shooting underground films. But he understood me, saw my art, and knew what I was chasing after," she continued.
The celebrities in the audience started showing complicated expressions.
This kind of move they'd seen a hundred times before.
Public confessions at award shows weren't anything new, but they were always aimed at outsiders, or at least someone from the industry who was on equal footing.
Who was this broke director Emily was talking about? She was Starlight Media's leading lady, Richard's handpicked star.
Richard tapped his fingers lightly on the armrest.
A voice crackled in David's earpiece. His expression hardened, and he strode backstage.
"Mark!" Emily called out to the back corner. "Come up here."
The man with the black-rimmed glasses stood up, looking a little nervous as he walked to the stage, every eye in the room on him.
He stood next to Emily, a bit taller than her, but hunched over.
Emily grabbed Mark's hand and raised it high.
"Thank you, Mr. Evans, for everything you've done for me these past six years," she said, her eyes locking onto Richard with a defiant glint. "But tonight, I want to introduce the world to my soulmate, Mark!
"Mr. Evans, you've always kept me on such a tight leash. My friends have to get your approval. But I'm a real person, a living, breathing human, not a puppet on your string."
The whole place went dead silent. Everyone sat there, holding their breath.
Dozens of cameras zoomed in on Richard's face, waiting to see how this big shot would react.
This was a national live broadcast. BuzzNet's servers went down in flames at this moment.
The hashtag [Emily Announces Her Relationship] shot to the top of the trending topics in ten seconds.
Every influencer and promo account was reposting like crazy, screenshots flying everywhere.
The comments section was pure chaos. Fans were bawling, bystanders were grabbing popcorn, and haters were having the time of their lives.
But in the end, every single pair of eyes in the room was glued to Richard.
He sat there, his face completely unchanged.
It was like Emily wasn't publicly humiliating him at all, but reading some lines that had nothing to do with him.