Chapter 1

After years of hard work, Brice Moreno finally won the Best Actor award.

At the awards ceremony, the host asked him why he had worked so hard all these years.

He looked into the camera, his eyes unreadable. "I wanted the girl who grew up with me to see me shining on this stage—and remember to come home."

The comment section erupted in an instant.

Everyone was shipping Brice and his mysterious childhood sweetheart.

But backstage, I stood there, stunned, feeling the blood in my body slowly turning to ice.

I wasn't his childhood friend.

I never grew up with him, either.

But the irony was, in this epic public confession, I was actually his official girlfriend—the one who shared a basement with him just to save cash and even made do with just breadd.

Later, his childhood sweetheart made a high-profile return to the country, with Brice at her side.

Meanwhile, I was out there, arm in arm with a younger guy, breaking up with Brice like it was no big deal.

But Brice wasn't having it. Red-eyed, he just couldn't accept letting me go.

"Brice Confesses in Public".

"Brice and Ballet Princess Lexie Powell Visit Onaset Opera".

"This Is the Ultimate Childhood Sweethearts Romance".

"Adelina, Get Out of Showbiz".

"The Real Queen Is Here, Clout-chasing Adelina Won't Het Near Brice Ever Again".

As I watched these trending topics climb higher and higher, a dense, bitter ache kept bubbling up inside me.

So Brice and Lexie Powell were the fairytale couple—where did that leave me?

I was just the clout-chasing fake girl everyone online loved to drag, always associated with Brice but never truly his.

I was the clown in their whole love story.

Just thinking about it made my heart clench painfully.

For years, I swallowed all the hate just so Brice could keep up his dream guy persona.

I was his actual girlfriend, but online I was painted as a clout-chasing, fake nice girl who always hovered around him for attention.

Some of the insults people threw at me online were truly vicious—hard to even read.

I couldn't help but break down in tears, feeling so wronged.

But when Brice saw me crying my eyes out, he didn't even try to defend me—not a single word of comfort.

He never protected me, just kept telling me to be strong and left me totally alone to get torn apart by online hate.

And now, because of his high-profile confession, Lexie was suddenly everybody's "dream girl."

She wasn't just some girl—she was the perfect, unattainable lady, the one nobody could ever truly reach.

Everyone online treated her like she and Brice were made for each other, the ultimate couple.

As I stared at my screen, new comments popped up nonstop—"Adelina, get out of showbiz!" "Just let Brice and Lexie tie the knot right now!" The internet was practically trying to erase me from their story.

Unable to hold back, I called Brice.

I didn't even get a chance to speak before the line was cut.

He hung up on me.

In those brief seconds the call lasted, I caught the unmistakable swell of opera music—the grand Onaset Opera echoing on his end.

That was when I remembered someone had just posted about Brice and Lexie being spotted together at Onaset Opera.

So, the rumors were true—they really were together.

No wonder he ghosted me right after the awards ceremony last night.

Of course, he couldn't wait to go see her.

I suddenly realized my face was damp with tears.

At some point, I'd started crying without even noticing.

What was I even holding on to?

The truth was, I never really had a place in his heart.

I got hospitalized.

It was Brice and Lexie's rabid shippers who came at me so hard online, I literally got scared into the ER.

Ever since Brice went all out with his public confession, the cyberbullying against me hit a whole new level of crazy.

Those marketing accounts kept spamming side-by-side shots—me with Brice looking totally bare-faced and unfiltered, right next to Lexie's flawless, Photoshopped promo posters.

The comments were savage, calling me a delusional toad dreaming of snagging a swan.

Now that the "real swan" was here, everyone online just wanted me gone—telling me to crawl off screen so the true queen could take center stage.

And then, as if that wasn't crazy enough, some deranged stans actually mailed me a dead frog.

I was so freaked out that I straight up landed in the ER.

Five days went by in that hospital, and not a single message from Brice—not a text, not a call, nothing.

All I got was a bouquet of flowers he'd sent over.

They were my favorite—calla lilies.

The day I was finally discharged, I saw the headline—Brice was finally back in the country.

Staring at the bouquet of calla lilies on my bedside table, I decided to give him one last chance.

The phone rang for ages before he finally picked up.

I tried to sound nonchalant. "Brice, I'm getting discharged today. Can you come pick me up?"

He was quiet for a long time, then said, "Adelina, sorry, I've got my hands full. You'll have to sort yourself out."

I glanced at the message from his assistant on my phone.

I honestly couldn't think of anything he'd need to be doing right now.

He didn't have any work planned today at all.

I pulled off a petal from the calla lily, my tone cool as I asked, "Seriously, what are you so busy with right now?"

This time, the silence on his end dragged on even longer, almost awkward.

He must've been caught off guard at how blunt I was—I'd never pressed him like this before.

I'd always been the understanding one, the type who'd rather swallow my feelings than make things hard for him.

Never once had I wanted to put him on the spot just because of me.