Chapter 1
On the first day of filming for the new project, Alex Carter gave the female lead role to a college student he had just signed.
I, the originally cast lead actress, was reduced to being her stand-in.
The entire crew watched, waiting to see me make a scene, expecting tears and a breakdown.
But I quietly took the contract and signed it.
Over the years, I have had enough, and I am tired.
The man who once treated me like I was everything slowly disappeared into the crowd after he became famous.
After another fierce argument, his eyes red, he tried to pin me down with a contract, saying I should not even think about leaving him in this lifetime.
But Alex, you probably forgot.
Our contract expired three months ago.
*****
When I stepped out in costume, Alex was waiting and blocked the doorway.
He held an unlit cigarette between his fingers, a slight frown on his brow.
"Why aren't you making a fuss? You used to kick up a storm if I forgot to buy you a lipstick and needed three days to calm you down. Now the lead role's been taken from you, and you're this calm?"
I looked at him and almost laughed.
All those years of tears and tantrums felt like a one-woman show, and by the end, even I was tired of performing.
The first time I made a scene was when he forgot our third anniversary.
I booked the restaurant a month in advance, sent him the menu, reminded him seven times, and even took the day off.
I sat there until closing, and he never showed.
He didn't answer my calls or reply to my messages.
I waited by the roadside until two in the morning and finally saw his car drive out of the company garage.
The second female lead he had just signed was in the passenger seat, her skirt hiked up high as she wiped the corner of his mouth with a wet wipe.
I rushed over and pounded on the window like I'd lost my mind.
He rolled it down just a crack, his voice thick with alcohol. "Stop it. It's a work dinner."
Later, I found out it wasn't a work dinner at all. He had taken her to meet the platform executives himself, helping her secure a career-making supporting role.
I cried and asked him, "what about me?"
He rubbed his brow, sounding worn out.
"Can you be a little more understanding? Do you have any idea what position I'm in now? So many eyes are on me, and you have to put me in this situation?"
That was the first time I realized the Alex who once ran three blocks in the snow to buy me a hot dog was gone.
After that, things like this happened more and more often.
When I had appendicitis surgery, he promised to pick me up from the hospital.
A new trainee sprained her ankle, and he personally took her to a clinic and forgot all about me.
I waited in the rain for two hours, then took a cab home on my own.
The moment I opened the door, he bombarded me with questions.
"Why didn't you call to remind me? Didn't I say I'd come pick you up?"
*****
I couldn't hear the rest.
My heart kept sinking, like I was falling into a bottomless lake.
I looked at him and suddenly smiled, my voice calm in a way that surprised even me.
"I used to make a fuss because I knew you'd comfort me. I don't anymore because I know you won't."
Something in my words seemed to hit him. The air around him turned cold.
He stared at me hard, like he wanted to bore straight through me.
"Sophia, do you have to talk to me like that?"
"What else would you have me say?"
I met his gaze and asked evenly.
"Alex, what do you want to hear? Do you want me to cry and beg you to give me the lead back, or what?"
"Enough!"
He cut me off with a low shout, then slammed his fist against the wall beside my ear, his eyes bloodshot.
"If you really want to leave, the door's open. No one's stopping you. But as long as you're still under contract with Blue Horizon Studios, you will play your stand-in role properly and don't even think about leaving."
He shot me a long look, then turned and walked away.
I smiled faintly, my voice barely above a whisper.
"Alex, you probably forgot. Our artist contract expired three months ago."